ENEA Aptilo IoT CCS Powers Swisscom

Using the Enea Aptilo IoT CCS, Swisscom will not only be able to offer customers scalable and secure IoT connectivity that is easy and fast to set up, It will also be much easier to make changes.

Swisscom is launching a solution based on the Enea Aptilo Connectivity Control Service (IoT CCS), which will make it affordable for enterprises with smaller numbers of devices to connect through a reliable Virtual Private Network (VPN) connection. The solution will also allow selected traffic to pass directly to the Internet, protected by FortiGate, the next-generation Firewall from Fortinet.

Enterprises turn to mobile connectivity for their Internet of Things (IoT) applications since mobile systems are standardized and secure. However, most IoT applications are either quite basic, requiring only SIM management and connectivity control, or highly advanced and customized for individual customers. Stuck in the middle is the long tail of customers that need value-adding security features, such as firewalling and getting traffic through dedicated VPN connections, at a reasonable cost.

The multitenancy private access point name (APN) functionality of the Enea Aptilo IoT CCS will allow Swisscom to use a single APN for all its enterprise customers while delivering the traffic in one or many VPNs to each customer. As a result, IoT customers can also set up VPNs to send traffic to their partners, like an SD-WAN rather than a private APN.

Using the Enea Aptilo IoT CCS, Swisscom will not only be able to offer customers scalable and secure IoT connectivity that is easy and fast to set up. It will also be much easier to make changes. With traditional private APNs, customers face complexity when updating each device with a new APN name to change the enterprise VPN destination. Through the Swisscom service, enabled by Enea Aptilo IoT CCS, enterprise customers gain efficiency and control by making such changes centrally in the cloud instead of in each device.

“Delivering a private APN with an enterprise VPN is normally a tedious process for both the service provider and their enterprise customers, which can take weeks to complete. With Enea Aptilo IoT CCS, we can automate the delivery of VPNs for private APNs through a customer self-service portal.,” said Philipp Rimli, Product Manager, Swisscom.

“Many IoT projects start small, and the Enea Aptilo IoT CCS can be viewed as the glue that supports enterprise IoT deployments all the way from early trials to large-scale deployments. We are happy to partner with Swisscom and bring more advanced and secure cellular IoT connectivity services cost-effectively to more enterprise customers,” said Roland Steiner, SVP and Head of Telecom at Enea.