A machine-to-machine communication platform provides a flexible system for device control and solution hosting. In particular, the communication platform hosts and manages third party vertical solutions that interact with external devices. A third party gateway provides the third parties with access to the communication platform so that the third parties may define, configure, and monitor custom vertical solutions that are locally hosted in the communication platform. The communication platform provides a communication manager that implements a device independent communication facility for communicating with the external devices. As a result, the communication platform connects to, communicates with, and controls virtually any external device.