Our IoT Heroes: Justin Frints - VP Operating Systems

What were your main reasons and motivations to join us?

As an embedded software engineer and manager who spent over 20 years working on major innovations like blue ray and imaging in blue chip companies, I was open to a change in my career. Always keen on groundbreaking innovations, I took the chance to bring my experience to the development of an OS for security cameras, which until now has only existed for smartphones. For this exciting challenge, I brought a complete team of IoT heroes with me.

What are the central values in your working environment?

Basically, I like the flexibility and dynamics of start-ups compared to the big companies I worked for before I joined Azena. What makes this company a great place to work is the joy we share in working on a truly innovative product and in celebrating our success together along the way. Even though the company has grown a lot and is spread across different countries today, there is still a sense of unity that motivates me every day.

“At Azena, you find the passion and unity it takes to trigger a paradigm shift in the security industry.”

What superhero power can you draw on when you need it?

I just do what I like to do. That's how I get the motivation and energy I need to do my job to the best of my ability. My ability (and task as a manager) is to motivate not only myself, but also my team, partners and customers. I'm very good at convincing people of the great ideas I believe in. This helps me to empower my team as well as in personal conversations with potential customers like users and camera integrators.

What are the most interesting topics you will work on here and what will be the hardest tasks to solve?

We are currently enabling security cameras not only to communicate with the cloud, but also to communicate with each other, regardless of which manufacturer the cameras are from. This kind of peer-to-peer communication has not existed for cameras before. Our OS lays the foundation for a new type of cross-system networks. The challenge is to convince manufacturers and integrators and to get them to think beyond their own systems.

“IoT will only realize its full potential if we succeed in removing boundaries between systems and let devices communicate with each other like humans do.”

What do you see as the main trends in IoT in a business context and from your perspective as a VP Operating Systems?

IoT will become more and more decentralized. More power and tasks will move from the cloud to edge devices and to be able to communicate with each other, regardless of the type of device or manufacturer they are from. Equipped with AI, security cameras in retail, for example, will communicate with cash registers and information systems, helping to improve operations and customer experiences. The future has already begun in many businesses and smart cities.

Justin, thank you very much for the chat.