IoT a revolution ahead
One of the most hyped and and most familiar technology expression to come out in recent times is IoT. So, what is exactly IoT, and is all the hype surrounding this new technology justified? For starters, IoT is basically a name for an environment where different electronic devices are able to communicate with each other, using unique identifiers that have the ability to transfer data over a network. This type of communication is automated, which means it does not require human to human or a human to computer interaction.
Understanding the hype
The hype surrounding the Internet of Things is, in many ways, justified, especially if you go by the stats. According to Gartner, the internet will see around 25 billion connected devices and things by 2020. Economically, IoT is estimated to bring about $2 trillion in benefit, which will have a great impact on the economy. IoT is expected to transform many enterprises into digital businesses which will, in turn, facilitate new business models and create new streams of revenue.
Verticals using maximum IoT applications
As of current standing, the three verticals using IoT extensively are manufacturing, utilities and transportation. In fact, Gartner estimates that industries such as manufacturing, utilities and transportation alone will have 736 million connected things by the end of 2015. This makes sense as control systems that use sensors are an integral part of manufacturing and automation processes. Also, smart meter deployments by utilities leads to a lot of energy efficiency improvements by automating operations like billing, energy management and monitoring. Another vertical that is growing very fast is retail, with innovative and cashless payment approaches being used in conjunction with smartphones.
Challenges with IoT
One of the biggest challenges that IoT faces is that enterprises are not very sure of how to utilise IoT and what direction to take with this new environment. A survey by Gartner on this particular question yielded very unsatisfactory results with most organisations still not using IoT. Many organisations are reluctant to get into IoT because they are not able to see the larger picture and the benefit of IoT to their organization. Gradually, this is changing as industries are getting more exposure to the benefits and implementations of IoT. Enterprises that want to consider or have started considering IoT on a more serious note have to train their employees with the necessary skills and answer some important questions concerning IoT before they can move forward with any IoT implementation.
The future
The good news is that capital implementation costs are fading away as prices continue to fall for the IoT stack. Organisations now have more options as companies are able to source IoT platforms via cloud-based providers. Also, most sensors requiring the device to work together to be qualified as IoT is have seen drastic price reductions, thus making IoT even more accessible.
As a technology, IoT holds the potential to revolutionise how we see enablement of services and our daily activities in life. IoT will make the technology invisible yet pervasive, in literal terms. It will have a profound implication on organisations’ and consumers’ everyday lives. The benefits will be great, like increased efficiency and reduced wastage. Intelligent and connected machines is the future that IoT will bring to the table, a future that will be rewarding for everyone involved.
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