The "Internet of Things" and the consequences for ICT and the ICT infrastructures.

Everything, well almost everything, uses the Internet today to gather information or seek communication. Everyday objects are also increasingly using the Internet to connect to various forms of Cloud capabilities and thus creating an Internet of Things (IoT). It is estimated that there are already about 2 billion devices connected to the IoT.

Nowadays, we humans are quickly in the minority when it comes to Internet connectivity. Various manufacturing and research sectors make extensive use of M2M (Machine-to-Machine) communication. This allows them to keep up to date with technical functionalities, produce error reports and issue maintenance notifications. At the heart of IoT are many different sensors that collect data from individual wearables, smart devices, solutions, analytical tools and everything in between.

The beginning.

In a broad sense, automation was the start of this IoT development. The desire to have machines take over tasks and functionalities from humans, with thorough control of course, has been the model for the start of these developments. The power and speed with which these machines could communicate with each other brought an ocean of possibilities. At the time, we could divide these computerised machines into two or three broad groups. We know PCs and desktop environments mostly used in office settings. Within larger environments, we often speak of Enterprise Solutions, a family name for complex ICT infrastructures. Here we think of a refined combination of computerised brainpower and data transport (network). Our IoT environments make use of both aforementioned infrastructures and add a third technique: sensors. These sensors sense, measure and switch various functionalities within our IoT infrastructures.

Business and ICT:

?Let's realise that without ICT there would be no IoT and that the desire and demand from the business to automate processes and have them performed in a more controlled way were at the basis of the opportunities we have today. All these automated processes deliver the new gold of our time. Data.

You have a wealth of data, but it is probably so extensive that you have no idea what valuable information it contains. Modern infrastructures and cognitive intelligence connect all available data and then combine it with all the expertise you have. Can you imagine that? 100% of your knowledge connected by your data.

Data is growing exponentially and many organisations are looking for ways to use this data appropriately. Everyone knows that data can be used to generate new insights and optimise business processes. And the better ICT understands your business, the better these processes can be optimised.

Example from Healthcare:

A great example is a regional hospital that has designed a new patient monitoring system together with an IT vendor. A lying patient who is not in an OR or other high-care department is normally consulted by the nursing staff at regular intervals, with the most basic things being checked 2 or 3 times a day.

or three times a day the most elementary things are checked. Data relating to blood pressure and temperature is taken and processed in the EPDs. By using smart-sensing, these measurements can be checked much more frequently and 24/7.

Since these sensors continuously monitor patients and vital functions such as heart rate, blood pressure and breathing, the monitoring of a patient is much more comprehensive. Additional sensors mounted under each hospital bed track patients' sleeping patterns and all other vital signs, even at night. This readily available information avoids frequent manual checks, which means more time for "real" patient care.

The ability to receive greater insight into vital sign trends also means that medical teams can intervene more quickly if a patient's condition worsens.

This is just one example, as self-driving cars and other forms of transport which are packed with IoT sensors are on the way. Domotics, which is an amalgamation of the Latin word for house, Domus, and the Greek term “Automática”, which literally means "a function that works independently". Another common term for home automation is "home automation" and is a growing application of IoT systems. The retention times of surveillance video and data storage are also expanding. Longer retention times, application of "rich meta data" and smart video applications require a different form of storage.

A world without IoT and smart sensing is no longer conceivable. And so our sense of volume as in big data takes on a whole new meaning. At the moment, we produce as much data every 1.5 days as we did in the whole of 2013. How will we store and manage this data? Normal primary storage environments do not seem an option, as they are not designed for this and are ultimately far too expensive.

We are able to make better business decisions based on sensor data.

Sensor data helps you increase productivity and sustainability, and cut costs. The more you know about behaviour in and from your environment, and therefore control it, the better you can identify opportunities and risks. You get concrete added value from predictions.

Our data analysis models describe four stages: descriptive analytics (what happened?), diagnostic analytics (why did these things happen?), predictive analytics (what will happen?) and prescriptive analytics (what actions can we take in response?).

As you can see, the IoT offers the business a lot of opportunities and as long as the ICT sector helps you to keep your environment safe and manageable, and helps to develop ever smarter applications, ICT and Business will go hand in hand towards a wonderful automated future. Remember you IT infrastructure is your Time machine!

Data is growing and it is used in a very different way than say 10 years ago. Of course, this means that we also need to look at our data storage environments differently. The infrastructure we used back then is no longer adequate. Would you like to take a look at how we deal with this data today?

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