“The Internet of Things has the potential to change the world, just as the Internet did. Maybe even more so.” -Kevin Ashton
Imagine a technology which allows you to walk into the doctors office with your health data records in hand and easily share them with your Physician. Records that include your daily activity, which consist of standing, moving, and exercising. This technology is known as the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is a revolutionizing industry ranging from retail, banking & finance, residential, healthcare, agriculture and many others. In this article, we will highlight the etymology of the term “Internet of Things,” and how our customers are incorporating it into their daily business activities to help them improve their overall return on investment (ROI).
The invention of IoT started in 1999 by a British technology pioneer, Kevin Ashton. The term was initially used to describe a system of connected, ubiquitous devices communicating data over the Internet. Clovity defines IoT as “a group of devices embedded with sensors that store and transmit sensory data to provide valuable insight into their environment.” The purpose of deploying IoT solutions is to provide smarter products and services, an improved customer experience, and give businesses a competitive edge.
From 2008–2009, while the world suffered a global recession; technology was re- shaping the concept of the IoT. Around this time, many Internet-enabled smart devices bloomed, mainly in the realms of consumer electronics. By 2011–2012, enterprise-grade IoT solutions and frameworks entered the market as well.
Over the last few years, the IoT market has reached various other industries including: automobiles, watches, refrigerators, washing machines and medical monitoring devices. While we are still grappling with the rapid changes and technological advancements these innovations have brought, there are already devices which were not originally designed for Internet connectivity, beginning to appear online and growing rapidly.
The key challenges many IoT vendors and consumers are facing today relate to privacy and security, as well as, quantifying the ROI generated by these solutions. It is predicted that by the year 2020, IoT will consist of close to 50 billion devices, generating at least an exabyte of data per year- which is equivalent to one billion bytes of data every year.
As the IoT industry evolves, it must develop new ways to tackle pressing issues of privacy, security, data volume, all while providing new insights by combining data from multiple sources. In addition to the developing technology, they are also threatened with the added difficulty of developing solutions that fit business needs. IoT, as a concept, crosses the boundaries between enterprises and consumers, which further complicates the technical and business requirements of solutions.
In future articles, we will be focusing on providing insights into market trends and technological innovation that will help consumers and vendors address these critical challenges.
Let us know what your view on the revolution of IoT is and tell us if you’d like us to talk about a specific IoT topic in our future articles.
