Internet Of Things (IOT) Is Here, From Misery To Reality

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items which are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data. The Internet of Things allows objects to be sensed and controlled remotely across existing network infrastructure, creating opportunities for more direct integration of the physical world into computer-based systems, and resulting in improved efficiency, accuracy and economic benefit; when IoT is augmented with sensors and actuators, the technology becomes an instance of the more general class of cyber-physical systems, which also encompasses technologies such as smart grids, smart homes, intelligent transportation and smart cities. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to inter-operate within the existing Internet infrastructure. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion objects by 2020.

It appears the sky is the limit when it comes to development of the Internet of Things, as there truly are no bounds to what people can think of that needs to become ‘smart,’ or network connected. Whether it’s smart dinnerware–including a fork that lets you monitor your eating and food intake habits, or a plate that instantly identifies, weighs, and journals everything you eat–or even cookware like a smart frying pan that will turn even the most novice of cooking buffoons into an instant culinary master, everything in our lives will soon be connected and in constant communication with everything else around us.

In this burgeoning new world order it seems that no doodad or whatchamacallit is too small or too insignificant to be part of the Internet of Things, with the digital world operating under the assumption that everything will instantly be better when its given network connectivity and branded ‘smart.

The BIG questions are; Do we really need every minutia of our existence connected to some all-encompassing network? Not only that, but what happens when that network fails and we suddenly find ourselves without the requisite knowledge or skill to operate or perform the simplest of things? Will ‘smart’ tech make us dumb?

Simply put, when everything is smart, nothing is smart, and the human race will be worse off when our collective dependency on technology becomes increasingly absolute.

It is only a matter of time before all new cars are will be connected to the internet and depending on which analyst report or expert opinion you listen to, the number of Things that will be connected to the Internet in the next five years will be anywhere from 1 billion to 100 billion. The second big area of conjecture is how they will connect to the internet – will it be 4G, LTE, Wi-FI, 5G or any one of a number of low-power networks over unlicensed spectrum?

The third concern is that after these billions of devices are let loose on us who will be responsible for managing them or, more importantly, keeping control of them. Every Thing has to be connected to some other Thing be it a home management system, a smartphone, a network controller or a central cloud-based server.

The impact of IoT is going to be nothing short of transformational, dwarfing the impact of even the mobile and smartphone revolutions. Like an exploding supernova, it will lead to the birth of completely new industries and the disruption or extinction of existing ones.

There has been major investment and campaigns from top companies in research and technologies to make this concept a reality.

Huawei, is leveraging its global market power to establish itself as the default choice for providing a unified IoT ecosystem, but in a surprising twist, not by focusing on hardware, but by transitioning into the software side of things.

Since the advent of the IoT industry companies have been vying to be the default platform that runs our growing connected everything existence, and it’s here that Huawei is hoping to dominate the market. Last week the company unveiled its LiteOS, an operating system designed specifically to run on products not traditionally designed to connect to the Internet, but in this push to get everything connected, soon will.

According to the Chinese telecom manufacturer, the OS will be exceedingly small in size, a meager 10KB—by comparison, most current operating systems are several gigabytes in size—and will require no configuration at the user end.

Verizon has announced a new offering for businesses and government users that will allow them to prioritize different enterprise and IoT (Internet of Things) applications.

The solution, dubbed as Private Network Traffic Management, is the first of its kind in the US, and will be a subscription-based service available only to Verizon Private Network customers. It can be added to select Verizon Private Network LTE devices for a monthly, per-user fee, depending on the service-level option selected. The service levels feature a “mission critical” traffic management class, which Verizon says is ideal for applications such as video and VoIP.

Cisco is leveraging its familiarity with networking to evolve into a new role in today’s technological world, providing the backbone for the growing IoT market, and with that, the company announced earlier this week that it is purchasing Jasper Technologies Inc, a tech start-up that provides arguably one of the best connectivity platforms for disparate connected devices, for a cool $1.4 billion.

Not only is Jasper a leading IoT platform for connecting multiple devices, such a cars, wearables or e-readers, but Jasper also allows devices to connect and manage content delivery over multiple networks, meaning Cisco now stands as probably the first one-stop shop for the world’s IoT needs.

Just last week AT&T released an statement regarding its own IoT efforts, revealing some surprising numbers regarding the exponential growth of the connected everything industry.

AT&T is connecting more people, processes and machines with the Internet of Things (IoT). Since January 2015, AT&T has struck IoT agreements with more than 136 companies across numerous industries… The AT&T network had nearly 22 million IoT connected devices worldwide as of March 31, 2015. More than 945,000 smart devices connected during the first quarter of this year. That’s 70 percent more than the same quarter a year ago. Of those devices, 684,000 were connected cars. AT&T is leading the industry, working with eight of the top automakers.

As AT&T’s CEO of Mobile and Business Solutions Ralph de la Vega went on to say, the company is seeing interest from companies in almost every industry. “They want to connect their machines, fleets, factories, shipping containers – even pallets – to our network,” de la Vega said. “We’re helping businesses solve real problems by building custom solutions that automate operations, reduce costs, and save time. With our highly secure and reliable network, there’s no limit to what can be connected.”