What does “Let your devices speak for themselves” mean?

I have received so many compliments on our Cirrusmio tag line, “Let your devices speak for themselves” that I wish I had thought of it myself! Fortunately, a former employee came up with the idea while developing an IoT (Internet of Things) project.

But what does that really mean? Devices speaking for themselves sounds like we have repressed the rights of devices (of course devices don’t have rights….yet).

Devices in this context can mean anything from sensors that measure heat, vibration or fluid levels in a tank or it can also mean more complex machines such as a turbine jet engine or battleship. Speaking of ships, I still don’t understand how a navy ship can collide with a tanker with all the sophisticated proximity sensors, radar and other measures in place, but I digress.

When devices speak for themselves, they can tell us a lot of info. What happens to that info and how we react to it is the secret sauce.

Take for example monitoring the health of your electric motors for critical applications. By attaching a temperature sensor, vibration sensor and current sensors, we can predict when a motor could fail. Plus, receive phone, email, text alerts when one or more measurements are out of spec. This way critical functions in your process are not interrupted.

According to statistical reports from IDG, IDC and American Society for Quality, IoT is reshaping business practices in five major ways:

• Increasing operational efficiency
• Redefining market winners and losers
• Transforming business strategies
• Reinventing product cycle
• Enabling real-time decision support from big data and data analytics

When a device says, "Hey There, It's Me" we also need to understand the Importance of IoT Device Identity

Do you remember the movie E.T, where E.T is essentially stranded on Earth until he assembles a makeshift communication device which sends a message to his spaceship to return to earth to retrieve him?

How fortunate was it that his alien counterparts assumed the message was from him? I mean, who else on earth could have sent a message, right? What if the message was sent from evil scientists “pretending” to be E.T.? Instead of a happy ending where E.T. goes home, the humans could have trapped and captured the aliens when they land. Now the evil scientists have hostage aliens along with a sweet spaceship!

In the IoT world, a more realistic scenario would be a “connected” thermostat which sends data to a server. As we consider the security around the communication between the devices, we should ask ourselves:

• Should the server trust the thermostat just because it can communicate with it?
• Should the thermostat trust the server that it is communicating with?
• How can we be sure that the thermostat and the server are what they claim to be?

There are many things to consider when you let your devices speak for themselves. The IoT environment is new and ever changing. The challenge is having a partner that can help navigate this environment.

There are literally millions of potential IoT applications. But not every application makes sense for IoT.  Give us a call and we can help you decide if IoT is right for your organization.

859.472.4248 / [email protected]

Let your devices speak for themselves". Cirrusmio is an IoT Technology firm leading the way for the Internet of Things revolution and the intersection of people, machines and the environment