Technology experts state that Internet of Things or IoT will bloom into reality and would be the revolution of this era.
IoT deployments have already made their presence felt in several verticals, mainly in automotive and industrial control industries.
To reap the best crop, IT vendors are sketching their strategies with new services, products, preparatory deals and all what they can do.
Recent notable announcements
Recently, the US-based IoT vendor Telit announced the formation of the IoT Factory Solutions business unit, centered on the company’s scalable platform.
Pre-configured for Cloud connectivity and integration via Telit’s IoT Portal, the platform provides a quick path to the Industrial IoT.
Telit said the latest move is an integral part of its vision of connected factories, connected machines, and connected consumers and ties directly into its core IoT business.
Indian IT services provider Wipro has connected over 10,000 construction equipment and machines at JCB India – as part of Internet of Things (IoT) deployment.
JCB India’s construction equipment and machines include backhoe loaders, excavators and compact wheel loaders. The company deployed Livelink IoT solution on Wipro’s cloud-based Industrial asset platform. Wipro’s After Markets solution team, a part of the Manufacturing and Hi-tech SBU brought together a consortium of specialist partners to provide the turnkey solution.
The Livelink system allows JCB to monitor the real-time health and performance of JCB assets in the field. The predictive capability of the platform helps to collaborate in ensuring operational availability of the asset to maximize value. The geo-fencing feature prevents misuse and theft of assets, while allowing asset owners to enforce contract compliance, said Wipro.
IoT Deals
Cisco announced its decision to acquire small rival Jasper Technologies for $1.4 billion in cash to enhance its Internet of Things (IoT) business.
The privately held Jasper Technologies — based in Santa Clara — offers cloud-based IoT service platform to help enterprises and service providers launch, manage and monetize IoT services.
Jasper is the leading IoT service platform in terms of number of enterprises and service providers, according to Cisco. More than 2,000 companies in over 20 industry verticals selected Jasper for IoT services. Jasper partners with 26 mobile operator groups, representing more than 100 mobile operator networks.
The acquisition will allow the US-based Cisco to offer a complete IoT solution that is interoperable across devices and works with IoT service providers, application developers and an ecosystem of partners.
NIIT Technologies launched intelligent automation to drive greater business benefits for its clients globally and partnered with UiPath for this initiative.
UiPath is a software company specialized in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions. Under this partnership, NIIT Technologies will leverage UiPath’s advanced automation software to deliver operational efficiency for its clients.
Outlook
MarketsandMarkets said the IoT in smart city markets has considerably grown over the past few years and the emergence of disruptive technologies such as IoT and connected devices has further augmented the opportunity areas for IoT in smart cities.
It estimates IoT in smart city market to grow from $51.96 billion in 2015 to $ 147.51 billion by 2020, at an estimated CAGR of 23.2 percent.
The technology research agency noted that the advancement in IoT technologies, cloud-based platforms, and services are marked with increasing IoT application and has led to significant investment in smart cities.
Moreover, the development of smart devices such as smart meters, home gateways, smart appliances, and smart plugs would also act as an opportunity for the IoT in smart cities market.
Government policies, privacy and security issues, inadequate financial incentives for utilities and interoperability and standard interface are the major restraints of the overall growth of this market.
Strategy Analytics says IoT will be the defining trend of the next decade and it will impact virtually every vertical industry and permeate the vast majority of business processes.
Services, security, Big Data Analytics and connectivity, particularly Low Power telecoms, will all play prominent roles as IoT mainstream deployments and usage increases over the next 12 months.
Merger and acquisition activity, followed by inevitable consolidation will continue brisk throughout 2016 as large, established vendors strengthen their core capabilities and expand their IoT presence.
The think tank expects IoT M&A activity could potentially reach the $20 billion mark in 2016.
Challenges
Sunil Sharma, VP, Sales and Operations at Sophos, said while IoT poses a promising opportunity with Internet-enabled things, bringing tremendous benefits to both businesses and individuals alike, security concerns associated with IoT may offset all the benefits that come with this new technology.
As IoT progress advances, billions of devices will connect to the Internet, and we are not talking merely smartphones and tablets here; among plethora of IoT devices will include connected cars, home appliances, surveillance devices, smart grids, smart meters and more.
These can be easily targeted as new potential attack vectors. A lot of security standardization is still pending for IoT.
Arya MM
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