Samsung Launches Cloud Service Just For The 'Internet Of Things'

Samsung is well known for its manufacturing might, but the company still hasn't figured out software. That's not stopping the South Korean electronics giant from trying to push into one of the most strategic areas emerging in software: cloud services.

On Wednesday at the Samsung Developer Conference, the company announced Artik Cloud, a cloud service specifically made for connecting "Internet of Things" devices.

Built on top of Amazon Web Services, the Artik Cloud will be Samsung's first foray into providing a cloud service to third-party customers. Samsung has worked on its own backend software for its own devices and services, but never for outside customers.

The largest cloud service players Amazon and Microsoft currently also have their own Internet of Things cloud service offerings. But Samsung said the Artik Cloud has been created with a specific focus on making it easy for developers to connect various devices together. The Artik Cloud has open APIs -- or application program interfaces -- to sync up these devices.

“On [Amazon Web Services], there’s no notion on how to get two devices to work together," said Curtis Sasaki, vice president of ecosystems and IoT general manager at Samsung's Strategy and Innovation Center, in an interview. "If I had a friend that I wanted to connect a device with, I’d have to build the infrastructure to get the two devices talking to each other. It’s possible but it takes a lot of work. In our case, connecting those devices is inherent from day one."

Samsung launched the Artik brand last year with the announcement of three Samsung-made chips for small, low-power devices. When the announcement was made, Samsung-owned SmartThings launched SmartThings Open Cloud for hooking up smart home devices in the cloud, but Samsung said the vision for Artik Cloud is much bigger than just the smart home. The company wants to be involved in the future of connected home, cars, cities, manufacturing and more.

With this announcement, Samsung's Internet of Things business under the Artik name becomes more "end-to-end." It can provide the hardware -- everything from processors and wireless radios -- to now the backend software infrastructure for building connected devices.

“Our vision for the Artik platform is an end-to-end experience that reduces the obstacles, challenges and time-to-market for IoT solutions,” said Young Sohn, president and chief strategy officer at Samsung Electronics , in a statement.

The company said it has been working on this cloud service for three years.