Internet of Things brings new opportunities in cloud, big data, mobility and networking

Internet of Things (IoT), as the name suggests, has extended the use of Internet from IT systems to almost every “thing” that a human being uses – be it vehicles, home appliances, machines and things like that. Devices equipped with smart sensors, meters, and advanced M2M devices are pushing the IoT market forward.

According to Frost & Sullivan, the biggest revenue opportunity for IoT is within the transportation and logistics sectors. Other major areas of opportunity include smart cities, connected cars, connected health and manufacturing.

internet of thingsFrom a technology perspective, the deployment requires a huge amount of storage and application functionality, as well as data analysis.  According to Frost & Sullivan, the explosion of IoT activity over the next few years will be driven by the nexus of low cost sensors, cloud computing, advanced data analytics and mobility.

IoT and Big Data

Big data has been inseparable from IoT. This is because the enormous quantity of data produced by the IoT applications is creating additional burden on the IT to separate, analyze and utilize the data. Data analytics thus becomes a key challenge in the successful implementation of IoT infrastructure.

With machines interacting with each other and human beings constantly, there is more data generated in a M2M communication than a usual human-to-human interaction. The need for collecting, managing, analyzing and storing this data has brought new market opportunities for big data providers.

IoT for Cloud

Cloud can address the storage requirements produced by M2M evolution. Many organizations in mature economies are turning to cloud for storage. The data generated by low-cost sensors will be stored and analyzed in cloud. Applications which drive the functionality of sensors and other mobile devices will be hosted and developed in the cloud, says Frost & Sullivan.

IoT and Mobility

IoT initiatives will also drive the market for mobility. With smartphone penetration surpassing 50 percent of the population in many countries, applications that support IoT and M2M will witness tremendous growth and so are the platforms that support the development of these applications. Apps that support the common needs such as banking, travel, retail or dining will see great deal of opportunity from IoT.

Networking and IoT

As M2M becomes mature, enterprises need to provide the network infrastructure to facilitate effective communications between the devices. This will drive the market for high-speed communications networks like 4G and beyond.

IoT Challenges

Considering the impact and transformation IoT can bring to IT infrastructure, organizations need to be prepared to deal with the key challenges IoT bring to them. The most important among them is to ensure speed and connectivity and implement powerful data analysis tools.

Companies should deploy enterprise grade cloud computing infrastructure that can deliver reliable storage and application delivery without compromising the security of the enterprise infrastructure.

A major challenge preventing IoT adoption is the lack of standards. Experts say that implementation of common standards that enables communication between millions of connected devices is important to stop the ‘Internet of Silos’ where data is created, but not shared amongst service providers.

IoT Gaining Traction

A recent report from the Economist Intelligence Unit revealed that European businesses are ahead of their global counterparts on the leader-board, in the research and planning phases of implementing IoT.

According to the report, 30 percent of business leaders feel that IoT will unlock new revenue opportunities.

Among the major sectors adopting IoT, manufacturing is leading the way driven by the need for real time information to optimize productivity. One in four manufacturing companies already has a live IoT system in place, the report said. This sector is followed closely by construction and real estate

Rajani Baburajan

[email protected]

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