How do you know a remote device is operating, connected, and working properly? Whether it's a laptop or PC, a smart phone or tablet, a digital sign or kiosk, once devices are deployed — "in the wild" — you need a means to monitor those devices.

One way to monitor devices is through something like a heartbeat. As a machine operates, it automatically generates data — like heartbeats. And if you have a way to track and interpret that data, the heartbeat can act like a message, saying, “Hey I’m online, I’m alive.”

Why measure remote device status?

Monitoring remote device status through heartbeats makes it possible to analyze the overall health of a fleet of computers — as well as fleets of connected products like retail kiosks, vending machines, or other self-service technology. Measuring device status for this latter category of remote device is especially important because these products are often unattended. Connected products are also often the responsibility of technical support and product teams that aren't near the devices.

By monitoring heartbeats, connected product and technical support teams notice when a machine is down or slow. They can then prioritize fixes, avoiding lost sales and a degraded customer experience.

How do you measure remote device "heartbeats"?

Installing software at the endpoint — e.g. on a self-service kiosk, you can generate signals that are sent at regular intervals. Heartbeats. These signals, usually measured in seconds, can tell an operator whether a machine is online or offline. They can also be set to alert teams if the connected product needs technical support.

Endpoint software serves as the remote monitor for the remote device, recording and sending along status updates. These status updates become signals for technical support teams to monitor and track. Using these signals, teams are able to understand the health of the remote device.

Monitor remote device status by deeply connecting to the device

Let's take an example. Canopy provides remote monitoring and management software for connected products like self-checkout kiosks, security systems, smart lockers, and point-of-sale (POS) systems. Canopy's remote device management capabilities make it possible to see and solve problems — often automatically.

Canopy makes use of an endpoint software agent called Leaf. The Leaf agent is deployed onto a host controller device in the target environment. Leaf can be installed anywhere by design, allowing connected product teams to install Leaf on any operating system environment out-of-the-box. In addition to being OS agnostic, Leaf has Linux, Windows, and MacOS integration capabilities. Leaf is designed to use minimal resources while in operation and carries a minimal footprint, allowing it to be deployed on very small devices. Leaf can connect to every facet of the remote device, from hardware to software to peripherals, power sources, and more. By being able to connect and collect data from every face of the connected product, Leaf can act as a traffic cop or a single-point-of-contact for these machines.

Leaf can enhance the ability to monitor heartbeats from remote devices. Because a remote device heartbeat simply indicates that the machine is "alive" — a minimal signal — Leaf can omit the heartbeat when the Leaf agent has recently sent other messages to the server. Those other messages serve as proxies to technical support teams that the connected product is functioning properly.

Less noisy remote monitoring and management

In other words, Leaf is able to listen and learn the remote device's behavior, which allows it to reduce redundancy and operate more efficiently. This efficiency becomes critical at scale, as when technical support teams and connected product operators manage large networks of devices.

Beyond simply measuring whether the remote device is "alive," Leaf gathers additional health metrics — e.g. CPU, memory, and disk usage. Leaf can also monitor various operating system processes. This refined view is helpful in knowing whether the connected product will perform as expected.

For example, through these additional health metrics, Leaf — and Canopy — can see the difference between a kiosk being alive enough to send heartbeats but too sluggish to operate properly because it's run out of memory. Monitoring a broader range of metrics can help anticipate problems before they become visible to the customer.

Why does measuring machine heartbeats matter?

More and more businesses are using connected products — for example, deploying self-service kiosks to automate functions, eliminate inefficiency in the workforce, and even improve customer experience.

Consider one segment of the connected product market: global self-checkout kiosks.

According to RBR Data Services, 217,000 self-checkout installments alone were shipped last year, with self-checkout kiosk installments to reach 2 million globally in the next five years (Datos). Looking at the growth from 2022 to 2023, we see the minimal year over year growth is 5% with growth in EMEA as high as 29%.

When a self-checkout kiosk is a little sluggish, or worse yet, goes down, it’s a big problem.

By example, think about what happens when a coffee shop barista or airport ticketing agent comes to work ill or takes the day off. This strains other employees and systems. Customers notice.

The same is even more true for connected products that must operate "in the wild," without direct oversight by technical support. Unlike an employee being sick, unless a connected product "phones in" that something is wrong, the business will remain unaware of the problem.

As more and more connected products are adopted by organizations and businesses, it will be more important to keep a pulse on those products. So whether it's a fleet of smart vending machine serving freshly brewed coffee or a ticketing kiosk allowing customers to get passes to a game or event, consider how you will satisfy the need for monitoring your remote devices.

For more on monitoring, see the five key functions of remote device management in The Remote Device Management Guide.