Rackspace Technology and AutoPets Reimagine Pet Care with IoT Solution
November 05 2020 - 11:05AM
Rackspace Technology™ (NASDAQ: RXT), a leading
end-to-end multicloud technology solutions company, today
announced the results of its Internet of Things (IoT)
centered cloud infrastructure and cloud native application
development collaboration with automated pet care company
AutoPets.
Working closely with Onica, an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Premier
Consulting Partner and a Rackspace Technology Company, and AWS,
AutoPets reimaged pet care in an IoT world. The project goal
centered on AutoPets leveraging the AWS infrastructure to bring the
speed and scale needed to support the launch of AutoPets updated
iOS application and upcoming Android app.
“The biggest challenge facing the AutoPets team was
harnessing the power of next generation systems,” said
Tolga Tarhan, CTO, Rackspace Technology. “It’s incredible to
see the efficacy that AWS provides, even when it comes to improving
peoples’ and pets’ lives. AWS solutions can limit disruptions and
lower costs while simultaneously enabling next generation
technologies to become more tangible in everyday life.”
Rackspace Technology partnered with the AutoPets team to focus
on stabilizing the existing AWS infrastructure and
optimizing the AWS IoT service, updating the IoT firmware in just
45 days, and re-releasing both the Android and iOS apps. By
changing its infrastructure dramatically, AutoPets has greatly
improved their reliability.
While the initial project with AutoPets focused on goals related
to the Litter-Robot project, through this process
AutoPets learned more about AWS serverless and IoT
technologies, enabling them to add to Feeder Robot to their product
portfolio.
With so many Litter-Robots sending messages every few seconds,
the previous infrastructure was unable to handle the rate of
messaging. Using Amazon Kinesis for buffering allowed AutoPets to
run messages in batches rather than processing them individually,
eliminating previous infrastructure overload. The native use of AWS
IoT services has greatly decreased server costs, while allowing for
greater scalability as new Litter-Robot and Feeder-Robot units are
released.
In order to support AutoPet’s new mobile application, the
organization needed to modernize their IoT backend. Rackspace
focused on supporting the existing AWS infrastructure and
optimizing the AWS IoT service, updating the IoT firmware in just
45 days, and re-releasing both the Android and iOS apps.
Rackspace Technology worked with AutoPets to update
their application in preparation of the launch of the Feeder-Robot.
The team designed and provisioned the onboarding process,
implemented the communications firmware, built the cloud
infrastructure for native use, and updated the applications to
ensure that communication with the new device was an intuitive
process.
Ultimately, these application improvements have given pet
parents the peace of mind they need with access to features such as
being able to choose when they update the firmware, anti-jamming
technology and reliability backed by AWS.
Through the partnership with Rackspace, AutoPets now
utilizes AWS IoT Core, Amazon API Gateway, AWS Lambda, and Amazon
Kinesis, solving all of these problems and adding new
features.
This Rackspace Technology solution has
improved AutoPets’ infrastructure, providing greater
reliability and scalability while also lowering the costs to power
their Litter-Robot and Feeder-Robot devices through one streamlined
application.
“When faced with the initial challenge of improving the user
experience, we realized we needed to change our core
infrastructure. This felt like changing the wheel of a car while
driving at 60 miles per hour,” said Jacob Zuppke, Chief
Operations Officer and EVP, AutoPets. “From the start, we
viewed Rackspace Technology as our partner to help us overcome
these challenges. Now that Rackspace solved this problem together
with us, their focus is developing our software technology and
mobile products that are used by people all over the world and we
continue to be increasingly
satisfied.” About Rackspace
Technology Rackspace Technology is a leading
end-to-end multicloud technology services company. We can
design, build and operate our customers’ cloud environments across
all major technology platforms, irrespective of technology stack or
deployment model. We partner with our customers at every stage of
their cloud journey, enabling them to modernize applications, build
new products and adopt innovative
technologies. About AutoPets AutoPets,
the inventor, manufacturer, and retailer of the Litter-Robot, is an
international leader in developing highly functional pet products
that make pet care easier and more enjoyable. Launched in 2000 by
founder and President Brad Baxter, the Litter-Robot is the
highest-rated automatic, self-cleaning litter box on the
market. AutoPets is a 2017/2018/2019/2020 Inc. 5000
company based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, with 130+ passionate
employees who are dedicated to improving the future of pet
care. Media Contact Natalie
Silva Rackspace Corporate
Communications publicrelations@rackspace.com
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