Future Unplugged | Internet of Things

On one Friday every month, Excubator brings together a dozen senior enterprise leaders and three start-up founders to brainstorm around challenges in a specific technology.

Thus, on the 19th of January 2018, Excubator's Future Unplugged | AI and Machine Learning session saw global enterprises (VMWare, Ericsson, Schneider Electric, Target, Boeing, Applied Materials etc) interacting with three start-ups who showed how AI/ML technologies are being used to solve critical business issues by predicting and reducing customer churn, predicting job "fit" from a resume, and even creating disruptive cancer diagnosis algorithms.

This month, on the 16th of February, we turn our lens on IoT.

The "Internet of Things" is now officially here to stay, with even traditional global companies jumping in with gusto. Smart locks from Schlage. Wi-fi lighting from Philips and Osram. Refrigerators from Samsung. The list goes on, and on and on.

But would you really need a smart "herb garden" when a common garden planter would do? And isn't a temperature-controlled grill that boasts of "heat sensing algorithms used by space satellites" just a bit of an over-kill?

What, really, are great uses of IoT as a technology?

Even more important - Are we unleashing all the demons of hell when an estimated 8.4 Billion devices will be connected to, and trying to talk with, each other?

Yes, we are.

Security : or insecurity?

Remember when a "smart refrigerator" was identified as the culprit sending out hundreds of thousands of spam emails? Or the time when a car wash was hacked, with life-threatening possibilities?

Securing IoT implementations is now becoming more critical than ever. At the base level, IoT dramatically increases the number of internet-connected devices that need to be managed. A single one inside a network .. corporate, or home .. could lead to a security breach. What would you do if (and this is a real possibility) your baby monitor was used to steal your banking information?

Connectivity: Can they talk?

Connectivity (and compatibility) is another issue. Power, costs and bandwidth become incredibly important when devices talk to each other through a cellular network. In distributed factory installations, often spread across miles, ensuring that data streams consistently from one machine to another can spell the difference between efficiency and total breakdown. And with 10+ communication protocols all fighting for acceptance (WiFi, BlueTooth, Zigbee, 3G/4G Cellular, 6LowPAN, Thread, Z-Wave .. ), we are still a way off from seeing a smart TV telling a smart bulb to dim itself. In fact, it looks like the only common device almost every IoT device speaks to is a smart phone.

Data intelligence: Can we make sense of it all?

And what about all the data that IoT devices will generate? CISCO estimates that in 2018, IoT devices will generate and send 400 Zettabytes of data through the 'net. That's 400,000 billion, billion bytes. Or 400 trillion Gigabytes. 4 followed by 23 zeros.

To put that into perspective, just five years ago, in 2013, the total volume of data transferred on the internet was estimated to be 2 Zettabytes. Two.

Big Data just got a whole lot bigger.

IoT will create new challenges just by the sheer data volume. To make intelligent sense out of this will .. well, need some intelligence.

About Future | Unplugged

Every month, Excubator hosts its invitation-only, start-up led thought leadership sessions - Future | Unplugged. Covering the challenges and opportunities in a specific technology theme, Future | Unplugged brings together start-up and enterprise thought-leaders for two hours to discuss and brainstorm around a specific topic. On February 16, 2018, we cover IoT and its opportunities and challenges. If you are interested in getting an invite for these sessions, (please note that these invitations are limited to about 15 companies in each session), please write to [email protected]. Please do mention why you would find such a session useful for you and your organization.

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About: Excubator is a start-up incubator and a corporate venturing advisory that works with global enterprises and Governments (India, Switzerland, Netherlands etc) to help them leverage start-up innovation. Our Excube360 environment scan engine analyzes and spots technologies and startups that promise faster and leaner innovation cycles for industry, as well as exponential returns on investments. 

In the December '17 free Capital Roundup 2017 report, we used our excube360 environment scan engine to analyze over 2500 deals that mopped up roughly $44.5 Billion from global investors. These deals spanned 13 "red-hot" technologies (IoT, AI/ML, AR/VR, Big data and Analytics and so on) spread across 15 industry applications (Retail; Career and Jobs; Education and Training; Finance etc).