I remember watching a Howie Mandel stand-up bit once upon a time where he decided to counter-heckle a guy in the front row. When asked what he did, the guy said he managed a fleet of trucks at a trucking company. Howie: “Just trucks, no people?” M2M and cloud computing feel the same to me, there are both machines and people involved.

Yesterday’s announcement of Sierra Wireless’ AirVantage Smart Automation service has more going on than meets the eye at first glance. I spoke with Brian Anderson for a few minutes on the concept behind the AirVantage system, and it opened me up to how they’ve thought through an end-to-end solution that goes beyond M2M.

Sierra Wireless does offer a whole range of 3G-enabled communication modules and gateways that can connect a given device into a wireless network. However, to be fully embedded in today’s M2M network means much more than that. Anderson said they’ve been working hard on integrating with the operator networks so that devices can be configured, managed, and timed/located, and their AirVantage portal offers cloud support with secure services to manage assets. He said that Sierra has two complete data centers supporting cloud operations. Sierra has also been working on both HTML5-based web apps and Android[]-based mobile apps to complete the connection between the devices and the people working with them.

A good example of what Sierra Wireless is doing here is their work with Schneider Electric and their line of electric vehicle charging stations (pictured left). There’s more to the activity than just charging – there are details of billing and operation/maintenance of the stations, but there are also creative new services that can be offered when the holistic view of M2M is applied.

For instance, using the AirVantage services, Schneider can create a map in real-time showing not only where charging stations are but how available they are. Cars don’t charge in 5 minutes, and determining before you drive there if a station is actually open or is occupied and even has a waiting line could be critical in your choice of a charging location. Anderson also said operators might get really creative – say a shopping mall wants to offer free charging for a special event going on, again real-time information that can be delivered via a mobile app. The range of services charging station operators can offer EV vehicle users armed with mobile devices (and something like Foursquare, hmmm, social networking) raises some new possibilities when everything is tied together end-to-end.

Sierra’s AirVantage system does a lot more as you can see from the press release, and it does support other third-party M2M hardware with Linux[]-based agents. I thought the overall idea behind it – holistic M2M where devices are tied out to mobile apps via the cloud – is an exciting vision for where M2M can go given the right thinking.