Is the IIoT a new dot-Com bubble?

There are many good things when talking about the IIoT. New ways to save power, increase productivity and safety in factories around the world. I have no doubt about that.

The IOT is predicted to have an Impact of 11 percent of the world economy by 2025. Having 26 billion connected devices 2020. This is an enormous impact. But. Aren’t there similar signs now as it was back in the late 90’s, Is this realistic?

Many of us remember the dot-Com bubble 1997 to 2001, where all spoke about the new world. People invested enormous amount of money in the new technology. No one did think about the cost it was only one path forward. To be able to meet the market request, student was pulled out of school and got high paid jobs to create homepages. Companies was told they must follow the trend or die. But the predictions got out of range and the bubble burst. All spoke about home pages and e commerce but few know how it should be implemented and used. It was new for many people but something exciting that all spoke about. It was at the time pushed beyond realistic proportions. The world was not ready but it got ready and today internet is obvious and essential for all of us.

The question to ask, Are we ready for IoT and IIoT now?

I can see similarities in what happened in 1997 in what is happening now, following all discussions of IoT and IIoT. Suppliers pushing for the new IIoT solutions building up the expectations, showing how sensors, and control system can be connected to cloud systems, this is good. But not very many people talk or have the knowledge about how it should be implemented nor used. IIoT is not only pushing out data in a cloud. IIoT is to be able to analyze data and make intelligent decisions from many sources.

The thing is not the items connected to the internet the whole thing is the software needed to help us to make the right decisions. To be able to get the benefits and the promised value. Also, not forget the interaction part. How to present this data in an understandable way. This when the already big data is getting bigger. Today many companies struggling to get answer from already big data, what will happen when this data gets 10 times bigger. Are we and the infrastructure/software ready for this overvaluing data flow?

If we don’t make a stop now and Really think about how to take benefit of this, and just jump into the carousel by connect all things, we might end up in a new cloudy bubble. To avoid the new bubble, it is important to keep our eyes on costs and really think before do.

Remember: To be able to connect things is not meaning that you must connect things.

Mattias Lindh,

https://lindhautomation.com/