What Is The Internet of Things?
The Internet of Things (IoT) is an ecosystem of billions of connected devices across the globe. These physical devices are connected to the Internet by attaching a sensor or other transmission devices, which transmit data.
The easy availability of cheap processors and the proliferation of wireless networks makes it possible for IoT companies to include just about any physical device or object into the IoT ecosystem.
Why Is IoT Growing?
The main advantage of IoT is the ability to turn "dumb" objects into "smart" objects, or objects with intelligence. IoT sensors can transmit information about the state of the object, and also issue instructions to the object from a remote handler. The devices could communicate with each other as well, without the intervention of humans.
Though the concept of IoT has been in vogue for long, two recent technological breakthroughs resulted in the proliferation of IoT devices and the widespread adoption of the technology. The easy availability of low-cost RFID tags, or low-power chips which can communicate wireless, coupled with the emergence of IPv6, which solved the bottleneck of not having enough IP addresses to go around, has made IoT easily scalable.
Research major Gartner estimates about 8.4 billion IoT devices were already in use in 2017, which represented a 31 percent increase from the 2016 level. The estimate of tyotal IoT devices in existence, by 2020, is about 20.4 billion devices. The total spending on IoT endpoints and services was about $2 trillion in 2017. Two-third of all IoT devices operational now are in China, North America, and Western Europe, showcasing the IoT hot-spots of the globe.
Application Of IoT
The potential with IoT is endless, limited only by imagination. At the simple level, IoT facilitates a light bulb or a thermostat to turn on and off automatically, based on daylight or motion. IoT powers many of the common household devices such as smart TVs and smart speakers. At a complex level, IoT powers driver-less trucks, smart power grids, and more.
IoT is already powering smart cities, which feature driverless cars, interconnected traffic lights, centralised smart energy management, real-time monitoring of health and safety, and much more.
IoT is widely applied in business and manufacturing, for rolling out smart devices, facilitating machine-to-machine communications, improving efficiency, and more.
Manufacturers add sensors to their product components. These sensors transmit data on how the device performs, facilitating pre-emptive maintenance and service. Such data also finds use to make supply chains more efficient, remove bottlenecks or pain-points, and overall improve efficiency. The application of IoT sensors in fleet monitoring and fleet management improves efficiency manifold, reduce waste, and results in huge savings.
Three industries where IoT tech is already well-entrenched in 2019 include manufacturing, transportation, and utilities.
Key IoT Challenges
However, for all the potential, serious challenges also remain. The loss of privacy, the ever-pressing threats of security breaches, and bugs or flaws in software that can send the system crashing, and create a Domino effect, are major threats. The sustained growth of IoT companies will depend largely on how they rise up to the occasion and overcome such threats and challenges.
I hope you enjoyed this blog post about how the Internet of Things is changing the world of technology, business and society.
Interested in more articles about IoT technology?
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