Texture Device Cloud: Built for OEMs, Ready for the Grid

It’s been a busy summer at Texture. Over the next week we’ll be sharing a series of major launches—the biggest step forward for our platform yet. This is the first.

Today we’re announcing Texture Device Cloud: a managed, energy-native backend that makes fleets grid-ready from day one—not just cloud-connected. It brings together the capabilities Texture has already been powering across energy customers, now packaged specifically for OEMs.

From the start, I was struck by the gap between expectations and reality. Energy companies were impatient with OEM software—reverse-engineering, complaining about gaps, demanding features overnight. Meanwhile, OEMs were doing something extraordinary: shipping world-changing hardware at breakneck speed while trying to stretch IoT backends into systems that could interoperate with the grid. The fact they kept pace at all was remarkable.

For most device manufacturers (OEMs), revenue comes from shipping hardware—not building backends. Yet every connected device still needs one. Identity, telemetry, control APIs, and monitoring are essential, but they don’t move the next unit. And here’s the paradox: backend work doesn’t sell the next piece of hardware—but without it you’ll never scale.

• Utilities won’t enroll devices they can’t trust
• Financiers won’t back assets without verifiable performance
• Partners won’t coordinate without shared visibility and compliance

Our goal at Texture has always been simple: have OEMs’ backs. Give them the infrastructure to ship hardware faster and deliver the customer experiences that set them apart.

#Why “Just Build It” Fails

Many OEMs try to build their own backend. It feels necessary—and it is. But the pattern is predictable:

• Step 1: OAuth, telemetry storage, control APIs
• Step 2: Dashboards, a consumer app, alerts, device identity
• Step 3: Firmware hooks, developer docs, and API access controls

And then… progress slows.

Even with strong engineering teams, backend work loses momentum. It doesn’t sell the next unit, so focus shifts back to devices. The backend stays basic. Monitoring and alerting limited. Developer experience thin. Utility integrations, program logic, compliance—pushed down the roadmap.

Not because teams can’t build it, but because grid-ready infrastructure is a massive undertaking that competes with the business of shipping hardware. That’s why even large OEMs end up with backends that work for pilots but crack under fleet scale.

The bind is clear: backend work never feels like the top priority. It won’t sell the next unit off the line. But without grid awareness, context, and compliance, growth hits a ceiling. The very features hardest to justify are the ones the market demands.

#What Texture Device Cloud Delivers

Core cloud infrastructure (out of the box):

• Hosted OAuth2, secure device identity, key provisioning
• Real-time telemetry ingest and control APIs
• Fleet monitoring, alerting, and health checks
• Optional firmware tracking and rollout hooks
• Optional hosted developer documentation

Energy-native capabilities (baked in):

• Grid and market context: prices, emissions, weather, constraints
• Program logic: eligibility, consent, dispatch readiness, verification
• Cross-party integration: utilities, VPPs, CCAs, financiers
• Enterprise governance: role-based access, audit trails, external sharing

Security and compliance: enterprise-grade permissions, audit logs, and privacy controls to protect data and meet regulatory standards

APIs to power your product experience:
We don’t build your app—that’s your product. But Device Cloud gives you the data and context that make it stronger:

• Real-time device status and usage
• Signals that explain why devices behave the way they do
• Enrollment and incentive visibility
• Event-driven notifications you control

Grid-ready workflows:
Device Cloud isn’t just storage and APIs—it powers the workflows OEMs need at scale:

• Customer & enrollment: eligibility, consent, participation
• Asset & telemetry: state monitoring, fault detection, anomaly alerts
• Program & dispatch: event targeting, secure control, real-time verification
• Compliance: audit trails, reporting, cross-party coordination, privacy-preserving data sharing

#Why Not DIY or a Dev Shop?

Most OEMs don’t fully choose between building in-house or outsourcing—they end up doing both. Some pieces get built internally. Others get handed off to contractors. The result is a patchwork backend: custom code tied together with one-off systems that never quite line up.

• Monitoring and alerting remain basic.
• Compliance and security slip through the cracks.
• Integrations are brittle, expensive, and slow to extend.
• Every new requirement means another sprint—or another contract.

It works well enough to get devices into market, but it fails when fleets need to operate at scale or prove performance to partners.

This is exactly where Texture Device Cloud changes the equation. Instead of piecing together DIY and contractors, OEMs can rely on a fully managed, energy-native backend that grows with their fleet.

#DIY vs. Texture Device Cloud

Texture Device Cloud is the third path: fully managed, energy-native infrastructure that grows with your fleet.

#The Economics (and the Risk of Delay)

Device Cloud isn’t just cheaper—it’s faster, safer, and more credible.

• Skip 6–12 months of backend engineering that delays launches
• Avoid $500k+ sunk into infrastructure your customers never see
• Protect margins and accelerate sales by keeping your team focused on hardware
• Launch with grid readiness on day one, so partners see your devices as credible, scalable, compliant

Device Cloud takes on the essential-but-invisible work that won’t sell the next piece of hardware, but will determine whether you can scale to thousands.

The real risk isn’t overspending—it’s showing up to market with a backend that works for a demo but breaks when the grid calls. Or worse, one that can’t meet the security, compliance, and privacy standards partners now demand.

#Available Now

Texture Device Cloud is available today.

We built it side by side with OEMs across EVSE, batteries, inverters, meters, and more—studying where their backends stall and where their programs break down. That’s why Device Cloud is opinionated where it matters and flexible where it should be.

It bakes in grid awareness, compliance, and coordination from day one, while leaving room for OEMs to deliver the product innovation and customer experience that set them apart.

Energy devices aren’t grid-ready on their own. With Device Cloud, they are.