Not every IoT deployment starts at the same point. Some teams have an existing application and just need a managed way to get device data into it. Others have connectivity infrastructure but no application layer. Most want the full stack — device management, data processing, dashboards, alerts, and APIs — without building any of it in-house.
The answer to “which tier of VX-Olympus do you need?” depends entirely on what you already have and what you are trying to build.
VX-Olympus is available in three deployment tiers, each designed for a different point on the IoT infrastructure spectrum:
- Gateway as a Service (GaaS) — managed gateway connectivity and data forwarding
- Backend as a Service (BaaS) — managed cloud backend with data APIs and device management
- Platform as a Service (PaaS) — full application enablement: connectivity, processing, dashboards, rules, and multi-tenancy
This article explains what each tier includes, who it is designed for, and how teams typically move between tiers as their deployments mature.
Tier 1: Gateway as a Service (GaaS)
What It Is
GaaS provides managed gateway infrastructure. Your physical gateways — LoRaWAN concentrators, cellular routers, edge computing nodes — are enrolled in VX-Olympus’s managed gateway layer. The platform handles:
- Gateway provisioning and registration — each gateway gets a persistent identity
- Remote configuration — firmware settings, network parameters pushed remotely
- Health monitoring — online/offline status, uplink/downlink packet counts, connection quality
- OTA firmware updates — patches pushed remotely without truck rolls
- Packet forwarding — uplink data from connected devices forwarded to your configured endpoint
GaaS does not include dashboards, rule chains, or application-layer device management. It is the connectivity layer: your devices talk to your gateways, your gateways are managed by VX-Olympus, and data flows to wherever you point it.
Who It Fits
GaaS fits teams who already have an application backend and need managed gateway infrastructure they do not have to operate themselves. System integrators deploying customer-premise gateways on behalf of clients are a common use case — the gateway fleet is centrally managed while data flows to the client’s existing application.
It also fits the first stage of a LoRaWAN deployment. Before you have decided what the application layer looks like, GaaS gets devices talking and data flowing. The application decision can happen in parallel without blocking connectivity.
What a GaaS Deployment Looks Like
Tier 2: Backend as a Service (BaaS)
What It Is
BaaS adds the managed cloud backend to the GaaS foundation. Where GaaS ends at data forwarding, BaaS provides:
- Device registry — every device has a persistent identity, metadata, and telemetry history
- Protocol handling — MQTT, HTTP, CoAP, LoRaWAN, Modbus, OPC-UA ingestion
- Data storage and time-series — historical telemetry stored and queryable
- REST API — your application queries device state and history via standard API
- Webhooks and push — real-time data pushed to your application endpoints
- User and API key management — application-level access control
- Basic alerting — threshold-based notifications without full rule chain capability
BaaS is the back-end infrastructure for an IoT application that your team is building. You are responsible for the frontend, the user experience, and the business logic. VX-Olympus provides the managed data layer underneath.
Who It Fits
BaaS fits software teams building IoT applications on top of managed infrastructure. You want to focus engineering effort on your product — the interface, the analytics, the workflow — not on managing time-series databases, device registries, and protocol connectors.
OEM hardware manufacturers building connected product experiences are a strong fit here. The manufacturer embeds the connectivity hardware. VX-Olympus BaaS provides the cloud backend. The manufacturer’s own application provides the customer-facing experience.
The BaaS Data Flow
Tier 3: Platform as a Service (PaaS)
What It Is
PaaS is the full VX-Olympus stack — every capability of GaaS and BaaS, plus:
- Node-RED rule chains — visual business logic, threshold alerts, conditional routing
- Drag-and-drop dashboards — 100+ pre-built widgets binding directly to live device data
- Multi-tenancy with data isolation — hierarchical tenant structures with RBAC
- White-label theming — custom logos, domains, and color schemes per tenant
- Advanced alerting — multi-condition rules, escalation paths, notification routing
- Audit logs and compliance tooling — full activity history at the user and device level
- AWS / Azure / on-premises deployment — run the platform in your preferred infrastructure environment
PaaS is the complete solution for teams who want an IoT application enablement platform rather than a back-end service. You build applications on it. You deploy solutions through it. You manage multiple customers or sites within it.
Who It Fits
PaaS fits three profiles:
Enterprise operations teams running IoT across multiple sites who need the full stack — device management, alerts, dashboards, multi-site visibility — without managing infrastructure.
Systems integrators building managed IoT services for multiple customers. White-labeling, multi-tenancy, and cross-tenant admin views are designed specifically for this use case.
ISVs and SaaS builders who want to deliver an IoT-powered application to their customers without building the platform layer from scratch. Build your product; let VX-Olympus be the engine underneath it.
How Teams Move Between Tiers
The tier structure is not a one-time selection. Most deployments evolve:
GaaS → BaaS: You started with GaaS to get connectivity running. Now your application needs historical data and a device registry. Adding BaaS gives you the data layer without changing the gateway infrastructure.
BaaS → PaaS: You built the first version of your application on BaaS. Now you need multi-tenancy for a second customer, or dashboards for field operators who are not developers. PaaS adds those capabilities without migrating data.
Directly to PaaS: Your use case requires multi-tenancy, dashboards, and rules from day one. Skip the lower tiers. Start with the full stack.
Tier upgrades are additive. Moving from GaaS to BaaS does not require re-deploying gateway infrastructure. Moving from BaaS to PaaS does not require migrating your device data. The tiers are layers, not separate products.
Deployment Environments
PaaS and BaaS are available in three deployment environments:
AWS-hosted — VX-Olympus runs in Viaanix’s AWS infrastructure. No infrastructure management on your end. Updates, patches, and scaling are handled by Viaanix. The right choice for teams who want the platform available without any ops burden.
Azure-hosted — Same model on Microsoft Azure infrastructure. Relevant for organizations with existing Azure commitments or data residency requirements in Azure regions.
On-premises — VX-Olympus deploys behind your firewall on your hardware or in your private cloud. You manage the infrastructure; Viaanix provides the software and support. Required for deployments in classified environments, air-gapped networks, or organizations with strict data sovereignty requirements.
The feature set is identical across all three environments. An on-premises PaaS deployment has every capability of the cloud-hosted version. The choice of environment is an infrastructure and compliance decision, not a capability decision.
Choosing the Right Tier
Three questions narrow the choice:
1. Do you need dashboards and rule chains, or just data? If your team is building a custom application that will handle the presentation and logic layer, BaaS gives you what you need without overpaying for capabilities you will not use. If you need the full application layer out of the box, PaaS.
2. Do you need to support multiple customers or business units? Multi-tenancy is a PaaS capability. If the answer is yes — or if you expect to add additional customers in the next 12 months — start with PaaS. Adding multi-tenancy to a BaaS deployment later requires a tier migration; it is not a configuration change.
3. How many gateways do you manage, and how distributed are they? If managed gateway infrastructure is the primary pain point — you have gateways across 50 sites and no central way to monitor them — GaaS may be sufficient for the immediate problem while you build out the broader application strategy.
The Outcome
IoT platform selection should not force you to buy the full stack before you know what you need — or force you into a minimal tier that stalls you the moment you need to scale.
VX-Olympus was built to grow with you.
If you are mapping your current use case to a deployment tier, talk to our team. We have scoped hundreds of deployments across all three tiers and can tell you within one conversation which model fits your situation.