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“The IoT demands an extensive range of new technologies and skills that many organizations have yet to master,” said Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “A recurring theme in the IoT space is the immaturity of technologies and services and of the vendors providing them“.
Introduction of the Gartner press release, detailing the Top 10 IoT Technologies for 2017 & 2018. Totally convinced by the statements that Gartner-expert’s push, I’ll try to transpose each of these 10 points in real business cases as below
IoT Security
Since IT and especially the Internet arrived on all our desks, houses, in restaurants and on trains, ensuring security is a herculean task these past years. As we all know security is measured on the basis of the weakest link.
Now we are about to add to an unsecured situation, millions of “things” developed by thousands of editors and manufactures, for whom security will never be a major concern. Most of these “things” will not support sophisticated security approaches. In fact each time we’ll buy a new IoT device, we will increase our hackability. Any individual, including children, grandfathers, VIPs, or politicians will be a potential target, and that constantly. Any equipment on the streets or trains, in buildings, or houses is vulnerable. And guess what – it is 24/7? The IoT will likely and irremediably draw the connected world into unsafe digital territory.
IoT Analytics
IoT business models will exploit the information collected by “things” for data analytics. Today, the 23rd of May 2017 we are twelve months ahead of the planned entry into force of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in all EU countries. So we’ll have millions of “things” that will be collecting gigabytes of data on European citizen’s behavior, processed by a multiplicity of companies. That will generate an unprecedented show of strength between EU institutions and digital players. As you may know, GDPR seeks to force companies or organization which deal with EU citizens’ personal information to allow the citizens to know which data is accessed, for which purpose, and also grants the right to citizens to ask that all their personal data be removed. Authorities and lawyer – get ready to rumble!
IoT Device – Thing Management
All the companies will have “things” spread all over the world that will be accessing, processing and producing data. Based on the previous statements, managing all these “things” will be vital for any organization. This point is definitely a call for all Cloud providers, and all IT companies in this chain to see a huge bargain for the next decade[VM1] . This is applicable for both businesses and consumers worldwide. We’ll need big players to help people and companies tackles the threats mentioned above. Who will the new G.A.F.A. acronym letter ?
Low-Power, Short-Range IoT Networks, Low-Power, Wide-Area Networks, IoT Processors
IoT will bring to the table new technologies: new processors, low-power short range and wide-area networks. I’ve merged these 3 points, from the Garner article. They pose serious concerns for the business world. The case I’m about to describe already happened once last years. Indeed, the rise of hybrid Cloud and coexistence concerns, mandates companies to mobilize more expertise for more IT strategy. No matter the size, no matter the vertical. It is the same with IoT. Adding these new technologies will significantly inject more complexity into corporate IT Systems. In the past, only manufacturing vertical had to deal with tools from industrial sector, and most of the time, IT resources were separated from Office IT tools. Now this manufactured world will be for everybody, and it will have to communicate with all the other classical digital systems, such as email, social network, UC, feeds, etc. Yet another huge business opportunity for IT and consultancy companies unfolds before us.
IoT Operating Systems
Traditional operating systems (OSs) such as Windows and iOS were not designed for IoT applications. In a digitalized world, day by day, the App is imposing its supremacy at the expense of operating systems (OS). The best example is the Windows phone where the penury of Apps condemned it. IoT will seal the OS casket. I’m not saying that there won’t be OSs anymore. But for the end-user it will be as important as the brand of the chipset that drives your smartphone: just uninteresting.
IoT Platforms and Event Stream Processing
Some IoT applications will generate extremely high data rates that must be analyzed in real time. Who can estimate now the future IoT footprint of our IT infrastructure? Capacity planning, monitoring, troubleshooting, helpdesk and correlating logs from IT systems will be even more complex. More devices, more elements, more usage will indubitably generate more issues and support within enterprises. Regarding the end-users, companies will probably use spare and a replace-my-thing practice as their first solution.
IoT Standards and Ecosystems
Since a “thing” can be used by anyone, any business, any case, any location, this ecosystem will explode. I’d like to add something that is missing from the Gartner press release – ecology.
Proliferation of intelligent “things”, with chips and technology but also battery-inside, will become an ecological catastrophy. IoTs will be cheap and have long-life batteries. Add to that, the replace-my-thing as a routine for companies. We should think about the recycling of these “things”, not only in term of the materials, but also about the intelligence of these “things”. The next generation, or even probably ours faces a real and global ecological danger.
I’m convinced by what IoT will bring to humanity in terms of health, comfort, fun and more.
But if we don’t consider from the outset, the challenges of this step of the digital revolution, we will face a global danger. Enterprises will likely rein in IoT adoption. Meanwhile, marketing campaigns lead by aggressive manufacturers will overrun the consumer world. Fostering the consumerization of IT within companies, IoT would widen the gap between pro- and personal- technologies.
