IOT Platforms - The case for not using IOT data (yet)

Machines, devices and also humans increasingly produce data. Few people question the importance of the Internet Of Things (IOT).

The good think is that IOT generated data is often the starting point of a broader strategic thought process on big data. The reasoning being: now that I have all this IOT data flowing in, I need to do more than just storing the collected information in a transactional database.

Enter the so-called IOT platform that helps you to extract data from different IOT sources. These platforms are often Cloud-based which is a natural because the data is already on the internet most of the time.

With such a platform you can analyse IOT data with probably some specific expertise on time-series and display the data in a good looking way, and preferably real-time dashboards.

But then problems arise, which are mainly of two sorts:

• IOT data volumes tend to be rather small and don't have the historical depth of a few years that makes the use of predictive analytics valuable.   
• Business use cases require IOT data to be aligned with additional internal and external data sources. And this raises all kinds of practical issues including but not limited to fights with the IT department.

This brings me to the following recommendation: when building a use case around IOT don't start with IOT Data. Start instead with existing data sources that IOT will eventually help to enrich.

So why bother having IOT platform? Good question. Because all you need is a data platform. IOT data will probably end up as just another source of data: a data extraction category like an ERP, Machine data or Social media. 

But there is a point: IOT works great for marketing purposes.  

Note : If you feel I missed something important, don’t hesitate to reach out.