Embrace the Proof of Concept with the Presto Kit

Today, Rigado launched Presto, the first plug-and-play IoT solution kit designed specifically for building applications running on Microsoft Azure.

Presto is the culmination of all of the technology Rigado has developed, packaged specifically for the Enterprise market proof-of-concept. I wanted to share what we think makes this a game changing product for Enterprise IoT.

Accelerating to Pilot

The idea behind Presto was a simple one: could we design a completely self-driven Proof of Concept experience for IoT builders? Not just evaluation boards, but a complete product representative of what could be deployed to thousands of customer sites? We’ve often observed that the PoC creates many early stumbling blocks for solution providers. Piecing together sensors, gateways, and cloud tools is time consuming and requires custom development in many cases, or relies on a completely vertical “stovepipe” solution that results in vendor lock-in. We knew that if we could shorten the path to a real production-level pilot while maintaining application flexibility, solution providers would have more energy to apply to real market opportunities.

While we were thinking about this, our partners at Microsoft were innovating on their Azure IoT Central platform, which became generally available with new features and tie-ins to Azure IoT Hub, Dynamics365, and other popular services. We began to see the possibility of combining that cloud application platform to our data collection and edge processing technology to create something big. Enter Presto…

Show Me, Don’t Tell Me

With Presto, we wanted something that within minutes of opening the box would deliver a fully-realized application experience with live data consumed in a dashboard, text or email alert, occupancy report, even live maps.

Creating live dashboards has never been easier

We made some important decisions designing Presto that served this purpose. Including 2 of each type of sensor and 90 days of LTE service means no wiring or complicated IT configuration are needed to get Presto online. A purely web-driven setup experience means within minutes of receiving your kit, you can be up and running that important occupancy or store operations demo for your customer.

To bring is all together we developed, tested, and published use case examples to demonstrate real-world scenarios. In the end, we built a consumer-like setup experience for commercial-grade technology.

A New World for IoT Builders


“Accelerate to Pilot,” doesn’t mean skip the proof-of-concept altogether. In the new world of smart buildings and safe workplaces, connected logistics and smart retail, customers want to get early feedback on how a solution connects, performs, and scales. We’ve designed Presto to help solution builders embrace the PoC as a more repeatable, reliable step towards a production deployment.

Like Raspberry Pi opened the door for all kinds of innovation in the edge computing and IoT world, Presto is our first step towards something similar for Enterprise IoT solution builders. While it starts with a Rigado Cascade-500W gateway and a variety of pre-selected sensors, we’ve developed a foundation that will expand to more options to use Presto as a system beyond the PoC. We’re excited to see how partners take advantage and would love to get your feedback on the Presto Kit!