The stakes are growing higher in the race to address the fragmentation of the connected universe. Up-and-comer Greenwave Systems Inc. announced the completion of a hefty $60 million investment this morning that will go toward boosting the adoption of its platform-as-a-service offering, which aims to simplify the collection of data from the numerous disparate devices that are scattered throughout the corporate network.

One of the main challenges preventing organizations from taking full advantage of the machine-generated information at their disposal today is the fact that the format in which the transmissions are delivered tends to vary among hardware manufacturers. As a result, each data source has to be handled individually, an expensive and time-consuming chore that is often economically unviable for large enterprises with a lot of different device types to manage. Greenwave’s platform, dubbed AXON, tackles the challenge by installing a client in every end-point that automates the aggregation process.

The software collects whatever information the operator is interested in gathering, whether it’s sensory measurements or usage logs, and transmits the output to the startup’s public cloud for curation. Organizations can pull the results into their internal services through a programming interface that centralizes data access and thereby eliminates the hassle of manually reconciling different file formats and communications protocols.

It’s more or less the same approach ARM Holdings and General Electric Co. have taken with their competing offerings for analyzing machine-generated data. And as if the field wasn’t already crowded enough, Hitachi Ltd is currently working to develop a similar solution using the technology gained through its half-a-billion dollar acquisition of Pentaho last year. Greenwave hopes to set its platform apart through a combination of professional services and diagnostics functionality that promises to minimize the need for human intervention in the event of technical problems, a pitch that has apparently struck a chord with investors.

The startup’s new $60 million round includes contributions from two of Singapore’s state-owned technology investment funds and a number of existing backers including The Westly Group, which was founded by one-time California gubernatorial candidate Steve Westly. The financing brings Greevewave’s total raised to an impressive $76 million.  

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