“We are seeing some of it already, for instance in the energy sector with smart grids. It is showing elsewhere in manufacturing, supply chain and retailing, healthcare, transportation and other sectors. Connectivity and visibility are already bringing huge improvements in efficiency in many sectors through automation and better data to know and understand what is happening,” Ian Foddering says. “It is not the things or indeed the connectivity in itself that generates the value. It is in the data and the consequent increase in our understanding and therefore control or change for the better in delivering products or services.”
He points out that the price points for sensors and other such devices are coming down to a level that helps accelerate their deployment. “Other important factors include extended battery life and technology advances such as increased miniaturisation. This is happening in devices just as we are beginning to master big data and the analytics to make better sense of events and phenomena. Now as we collect more and more data, and make useful sense and gain value from more insights, there is an exponential process beginning that is very exciting.”
Computing has gone from mainframes to PCs to today’s mobile devices and we are now developing wearables. The internet that bears all the data is already so pervasive that mostly we do not notice it’s there. Yet if it was taken away from us, say the ability to search the Web anywhere, any time, it would be like losing an arm or a leg, Elaine Cook, Intel EMEA
Monetary value
Some of that excitement for the ICT sector comes from the optimistic projections for trade and economic value that are emerging from the many forecast factories watching technology. Cisco’s forecast at the end of 2013 was of $14.4 trillion in ‘value at stake’ in the private sector, a combination of increased revenues and lower costs over the next decade. “We suggest that the public sector value would be of the order of $5 trillion or more,” Foddering says. “The precise figures are not the important element. The clear message is that organisations of all kinds, private and public, should start examining right now what benefits the Internet of Everything could deliver for them and in their sectors.”
Intel has a long history in what used to be called embedded systems, now morphing into the IoT. “In the past those little computers were not particularly smart and not connected to anything, like the 8-bit controllers in washing machines and other appliances,” says Elaine Cook, Intel EMEA strategic marketing lead for IoT. “That has evolved into more intelligent and connected computing and the next stage is computing everywhere. From a human point of view, computing has gone from mainframes to personal computers to today’s mobile devices and we are now developing wearables. The internet that bears all the data is already so pervasive that mostly we do not notice it’s there. Yet if it was taken away from us, say the ability to search the Web anywhere, any time, it would be like losing an arm or a leg.”
The data and the value that we get from being constantly connected is developing to a whole new level. “On the technology front, we are at or past a tipping point. We have smart networks and bandwidth and the cost of sensors has dropped so that we can consider putting them in most locations and devices. At the same time the costs of data processing and storage have also come down and Moore’s Law still operates. Big Data possibilities have exploded in the last few years. The coincidence of these lines of development is what has now brought us truly to the IoT—which in turn is developing very naturally as people see and try to exploit a very wide range of opportunities.”
Sensor net
Intel itself has implemented IoT throughout its manufacturing, Cook explains, with sensors everywhere throughout its high end fabrication plants. “This has been intrinsic to our manufacturing strategy for a decade and has evolved to a point where each individual piece of fab equipment may incorporate literally hundreds of sensors. Aggregating and analysing all of that information enables us to pinpoint the smallest deviations and reduce them ever closer to zero. This is data analytics in action, as close to the point of action as possible for immediate decision making.”
One aspect of the IoT that Cook stresses is that security is and will be a major concern as the technology evolves and is more pervasively used. “Intel believes very strongly that security is essential at every level—in the hardware, the middleware and at the day to day use level with the McAfee systems.” Intel purchased security software specialist McAfee in 2011 and refers to security as ‘the third pillar of computing’ after Internet connectivity and energy efficient performance.
For IBM also the Internet of Things is by no means new but its accelerating development brings new areas of application and significant economic value. “It’s a very interesting space and evolving very quickly across a number of sectors,” says Michael Curry, IBM VP for software product development. “It’s not new, in the sense that telemetry has been with us forever and in manufacturing and healthcare and lots of other sectors there have been closed proprietary networks of devices like SCADA [Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition] and other monitoring systems. “A number of factors are driving today’s innovation, starting with the open technology base of the Internet itself, plus the cloud and centralised compute capacity. Big Data analytics allows for an ever deeper examination of all of the data and the price of the relevant devices is down and still getting lower. A chip with the capabilities of a computer say 15 years ago, and a battery life of maybe 10 years, can be manufactured for less than $10. So it is economically feasible to keep a big bunch of things connected all the time using open standards and not have to build a proprietary closed network for a specific purpose.”
A chip with the capabilities of a computer say 15 years ago, and a battery life of maybe 10 years, can be manufactured for less than $10. So it is economically feasible to keep a big bunch of things connected all the time using open standards and not have to build a proprietary closed network for a specific purpose, Michael Curry, IBM
Consumer pick-up
What has given IoT a big boost in the last 18 months or so is the pick-up on the consumer side, which always drives things more rapidly in technology. “The capabilities of a smart phone today are almost incredible compared even to a couple of years ago and we are seeing multiple strands of development, from FitBit.com to the connected home and connected vehicles,” says Curry. “At the same time it is by no means entirely a B2C phenomenon, although there is huge growth in enterprises serving those consumer innovations, from electronics to automotive to home health and fitness.
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