IoT #1 Prediction. It is here but it's already changed
In December top 10 predictions for 2017 top-10-predictions-2017-paul-brook I called out that your Internet of Things project will start and/or succeed. Stop delaying and jump in. Talk to your vendors and partners, talk to your suppliers and customers. This is real and this is happening now. This expands on the reality of “it is here” and highlights a couple of things that the early adopters learnt the hard way so you don’t have to get the same burns as they did.
Loads of examples come pouring out of the IoT forums and Marketing/PR groups across the world. As you expect, I am going to add to this in a little while, but for now - the sheer quantity of IoT examples, illustrations and case studies should suggest one major thing to you. IoT IS ALREADY HERE. So am I claiming that before we hit end of Q1 Calendar year 2017 my prediction is complete. Well, yes and no.
A dell EMC case study (Dell EMC_Arrow IoT ) describes a great IoT example, calls out great saving in cash from energy monitoring and reduction. Not to criticize our in-house Marketing crew but you need to get to the final page and the sub-heading (a clear sub heading – this hides nothing) “Taking the Pilot to the customer” to see that this case study (Published 2016) is describing a pilot. In 2016 Dell published a superb case study with Innodep about the Vurix IP-Matrix product. Dell EMC-Innodep Vurix IP-Matrix case study IoT 16 This is a fantastic Oil and Gas case study – an Industry often “called out” as being ripe for the many benefits IoT brings. Again – careful reading discloses this to be a case study of a pilot. Field Pilot for sure. But nevertheless a pilot.
Now – this is not a negative. Successful pilots are good and these examples showcase IoT benefits. These two pilots are one of so many that though 2015/2016 moved from concept to reality. Which is why I claimed the #1 prediction for 2017 as being “already happening.” I have seen it =- it is true. IoT is here.
Leading the way with IoT is the Industrial sector followed by the Utilities, Healthcare and Manufacturing. This is probably obvious to you. Look at the Dell IoT innovation winners 2016 (Full article < Dell IoT announces winners of IoT Innovation Contest you see platinum winners V5 Systems, providing portable, solar-powered security and Industrial IoT solutions; deployed without being tied to power or data cables for applications from law enforcement to agriculture to other outdoor uses. The portable units contain analytics, multiple sensors (including video, acoustic and chemical detection), power, computing, Wi-Fi and cellular communications for use at the edge of networks expanding Industrial IoT applications.
Other winners in our IoT award 2016 include: Eigen Innovations (video analytics solution that leverages thermal imaging cameras and PLC/sensor data for real-time process and quality control); n.io; who turn a manually-dependent, subjective farming operation into a highly-instrumented and autonomous example of precision agriculture, we had smart streetlamp solutions, smart retail spaces. We recognised Software AG, who built a predictive maintenance solution that includes in memory edge analytics for acting on collected machine data in real-time.
All developing systems and solutions for a variety of industries. All demonstrating that IoT is not just “new crazy stuff – it is here and it is working.
Bear with: Two more points and some homework. #1 What is stopping you or your organisation for getting into IoT project/pilots?
The answer seems to be actually quite a lot of things. Whilst I like the first excuse above (Lack of integrated team to make use of the data” I do also understand that integrating data should not be new and impossible. Tools exist. Get onto this one. Hiding behind “it is too hard” is not acceptable today in the IT world.
Point #2. Without fear of contradiction, I advise you to get started with IoT if you have not already. But here is a little secret. Like Big Data – start by doing something your organisations is already great at doing. I just cannot tell you how important this is. You learn more from doing something in a new way that you already understand really well than from failing to learn how to do something in a new way because you didn’t understand how to do it “the old way” – common sense. If you say so. But don’t make the mistake of piloting something that your organisation is actually really bad at doing. Why would that work? Ever.
Now the killer. I want 15-ish more minutes of your time – but not spent with me. I want this time from you because the Edge keeps coming up. And it is not going away. I believe that this is what has changed. The edge matters. Indeed, this is the bit where so many had originally got it wrong. The old message: Sensor – Network-Cloud-Analytics is WRONG. Want to understand why this is WRONG. – Check out the video Return to the Edge and the End of Cloud Computing by Peter Levine: The End of Cloud Computing Peter Levine – The title “the end of cloud computing” might be a cheeky bit of clickbait for techies but the message is on the money.