»Only if I make things differently, I will be successful«

Open Source and Tips for founders

HiveMQ just moved on to implement Open Source Software. What motivated you to do this step?

Obermaier: Open Source is so important for the following reason: The whole Internet is based on standards. Many companies wanted to push proprietary standards, but TCP/IP has become widely accepted. Not because it is the best technology, but because it was open. An open standard has many advantages; everyone can use it and develop with it. The source code is available and can be used as a basis, as with Linux – anyone can use it and develop with it. From my point of view, the success of the Internet is due to open standards.

In IoT, everything is built on open standards, especially on the device side. With open source software it is possible to build MQTT systems in all common languages. With BMW, for example, we have developed an open source library for vehicles, servers and devices that every company and every developer can use free of charge.    

So how do you generate your turnover?

Obermaier: First with the Professional or Enterprise version of our broker – we offer high scaling, high data throughput, security functions as well as high availability and the flexibility to connect other systems. Our customers also pay for round-the-clock support and a control center where the broker and the devices networked with it can be monitored. HiveMQ is now also available as a fully managed cloud version, which allows us to relieve our customers of the complexity of deploying and managing an MQTT broker.

Let's move on to Cloud Computing – what are you doing in relation to the trend?

Obermaier: With our basic software it is important that companies operate their servers themselves – nobody wants to give up their data. When networking in IoT, the question arises whether I as a company really want to give my data to American companies, for example. I think that if we in Germany want to continue to be considered an innovation leader, we should not do so.

We do not see ourselves as a typical IoT platform, we want to give back control of the data to the customers with MQTT. With our cloud version we want to increase flexibility and visibility for the customer. Our cloud can distribute the data to AWS or Azure for example, but the data remains on our server. So I regain the data control and can decide where to move the data to and can adjust this at any time.

You have started as a start-up. Do you have tips for other founders?

Obermaier: In my opinion, the most important thing for start-ups is to learn and adapt faster than the competition. I would recommend every founder to look at agile principles. Today, companies have the whole world as competition. The only way to be better than the rest is to learn faster than others. Building a company is very hard, but rewarding. A founder has to do the things that others don't do and try things that others don't try – even if you are smiled at first. Only if I do things differently, I will be successful.

1. »Only if I make things differently, I will be successful«
2. How has MQTT evolved?
3. Open Source and Tips for founders