Buyer’s Guide: Drone Solution Providers

Executive Summary

The commoditization of drone hardware has opened up myriad opportunities to use drones for commercial, industrial and civil government purposes. At the same time, the expansion of drone providers has been hit by volatile market conditions such as regulatory changes, technology limitations and negative publicity. A range of niche and broad service providers have managed to mature their offerings even under these volatile conditions. This report provides managers with responsibilities in areas such as operations, maintenance, safety and security with an overview of the capabilities offered by drone solution providers. The study provides a high-level assessment of 20 drone solution providers and the solutions they offer across eight usage scenarios. Customers can purchase drone solutions for core usage scenarios like mapping and surveying from a wide range of providers. But for confined space inspections, site security monitoring, maritime safety and internet building audits there are very few service providers with any significant scale.