Prodea Systems

Prodea Systems, founded in 2006, operates as a technology and services management company focused on the Internet of Things (IoT) sector. The company was established by the Ansari family: Anousheh Ansari, who serves as Chairman and CEO; her husband Hamid Ansari, the President; and her brother-in-law Amir Ansari, the Chief Technology Officer. This venture followed their successful exit from Telecom Technologies, Inc. (TTI), a company they co-founded in 1993 that pioneered Voice over IP (VoIP) softswitch technology and was acquired by Sonus Networks in 2000 for a significant sum.

The founders' journey is deeply rooted in telecommunications and technology. Anousheh and Amir Ansari both hold degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from George Mason University. Anousheh also holds a master's degree from George Washington University and gained international recognition as the first female private space explorer. Amir holds over 60 patents in areas like multimedia distribution and edge computing. This technical background and entrepreneurial experience from TTI directly informed the creation of Prodea Systems, aiming to tackle the complexity of the connected device landscape.

Prodea's core offering is an IoT cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS). This platform, sometimes referred to as the Residential Operating System (ROS®), is designed for mass-market consumer product manufacturers and other service providers, such as telecommunications firms and cable operators. The business model is centered on enabling these clients to transform their traditional products into connected devices. Prodea provides the backend infrastructure that allows for real-time performance monitoring, data intelligence, device management, and predictive analytics. Essentially, it allows other companies to quickly launch and manage their own IoT offerings without building the entire backend system from scratch.

The platform serves as a managed service delivery system that allows diverse devices and data to interact seamlessly. A key milestone for the company was the acquisition of Arrayent, Inc. in 2017, a cloud services platform for consumer IoT. This acquisition enhanced Prodea's capabilities by integrating Arrayent's expertise in device-to-cloud connectivity and management for consumer brands, creating a more comprehensive end-to-end solution. Prodea's platform supports a wide range of applications, from smart home solutions and remote patient monitoring to other services across various vertical markets. The combined entity aims to provide a unified platform for the IoT, facilitating interoperability between different products and ecosystems.

Keywords: Internet of Things, IoT platform, PaaS, connected devices, smart home, service delivery platform, data intelligence, device management, Anousheh Ansari, consumer electronics