April 04, 2016
The Internet is a vast beast and interconnectivity between devices has only made it bigger. But what can we do with all this new data?
With the concept of IoT, practically any object that has an electronic brain can be connected to the Internet, equipping everything from appliances to security doors with sensors to measure and send data to the cloud. In other words, everything will be “smart”.
Here are a few trends to take note of.
1. A New Field to Harvest Big Data
With everything being connected, data – tremendous amounts of data – will be transmitted and tracked all the time. Cloud-based apps and tools will be able to analyse and translate that data into useful information. All this data can fuel better decisions and help develop better outcomes.
Big data has already made waves in nearly every industry, showing the value of information and analytics.
2. Real-time Data means Real-time Metrics
The collected data can be analysed and used in real time. That means data is collected and instantly put to use to make improvements, making the data meaningful.
With IoT, information can be turned into action at an unprecedented speed. Not only will technology respond to data and changes instantly, but it will be able to predict problems and take actions to prevent them. Constant monitoring can detect major issues and mitigate them before they happen.
3. Sharing Actionable Data
All the data that IoT delivers can be shared among co-workers, stakeholders and other parties. For example, think about how wearable tech allows individuals to collect health data and share it with doctors and other healthcare providers.
Once this type of technology is applied in other industries, the impact will be huge.
Monitoring the effectiveness of strategies, the results of campaigns and the efficiency of systems becomes easier and more actionable when more people are kept up to date.
4. Interconnecting Industries
The more communication among machines, the more connected everyone will be to each other.
For example, data from smart cars can help to improve traffic, which can help to develop and improve smart cities, which can make energy use more efficient, and so on.
For entrepreneurs, IoT offers up a whole host of new opportunities for collaboration, valuable partnerships and outside insights to make their business better. Which, from a business perspective, means streamlined efficiencies and communications, reduced expenses and better value adds for customers.
The Internet of Things might seem like a great multitude of different things all melded into one. But in reality, it could quite possibly be the next big thing that changes our world.