How to understand Internet of Things phenomenon?

The term Internet of Things is used to describe physical objects that have sensors that enable data acquisition and communicate with each other and the Internet. They belong to the following categories:

• Wearable sensors – sensors built into clothing or smartphones and smart watches
• Medical parameter sensors for monitoring health
• Sources of geoinformation, allowing to determine the location of objects and people
• Sensors of physical parameters of the environment, e.g. temperature, pressure, insolation, dust
• Sensors for the operation of technical devices, e.g. measuring power consumption, performance, including specialized sensory networks in industrial installations.

Other factors that contribute to the popularity of IoT are the versatility of use (e.g. intelligent buildings and cities, healthcare, trade, sport) as well as the benefits obtained through their implementation, e.g. streamlining the delivery process, loss prevention, and improving customer experience. Therefore, we can expect a growing number of new IoT solutions appearing on the market for various sectors. Gartner estimates that IoT product and service providers will generate growing revenue of $300 billion in 2020.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has rapidly become one of the most familiar — and perhaps most hyped — expressions across business and technology. We expect to see 20 billion internet-connected things by 2020. These “things” are not general-purpose devices, such as smartphones and PCs, but dedicated-function objects, such as vending machines, jet engines, connected cars and a myriad of other examples. The IoT will have a great impact on the economy by transforming many enterprises into digital businesses and facilitating new business models, improving efficiency and increasing employee and customer engagement.

Source: Gartner, https://www.gartner.com/imagesrv/books/iot/iotEbook_digital.pdf

With new possibilities, new challenges arise, such as the creation of an unprecedented amount of data. According to Oracle, there will be 40 trillion GB of IoT data by 2020.

Open source IoT solutions rushing gaining market

Referring to the results of the 2016 Future of Open Source Survey conducted by Black Duck and North Bridge, 65% of companies increased the use of open source solutions in 2016 compared to 2015. Not only small and medium enterprises use open source solutions. Open source solutions and technologies are used by large international corporations. They see no need to pay for solutions and services that they can use virtually free. Employing only people with appropriate qualifications.

Large corporations are not interested in paying for server logos, network devices, or mass storage. Instead of buying equipment from well-known suppliers, they prefer to set up an order in companies in East Europe and Asia. Companies where devices are designed and assembled (ODM original-design manufacturers).

Software-as-a-Service will be standard

As for IoT application trends, Software-as-a-Service is seen as a hot topic of discussion. SaaS is a service model. In this model, the service provider provides the desired application and makes it available to clients via the Internet. This helps organizations to outsource IT applications.

These Internet of Things trends provide companies with a marketing platform to promote their products. To this end, Stewart Butterfield, co-founder of Slack, a cloud-based instant messaging platform, said:

Every interaction with the customer is a marketing opportunity. When you go beyond the customer service page, people are more likely to recommend you.

SaaS is the preferred choice for the IT gaming industry due to the low investment cost. The emergence of SaaS has significantly contributed to the development of technology. When this trend of the Internet of Things appears on the market, people’s lives are better than ever.

Artificial Intelligence influencing Industrial IoT

From the end of 2017 to 2018, artificial intelligence-specific processors (AI) began to appear on mobile devices. The goal is to make smartphones more intelligent. As GPUs shrink, AI-related equipment becomes necessary for the Internet of Things.

Support for enterprises from platforms such as Google TensorFlow will be introduced in 2020 with equipment adapted to artificial intelligence. TensorFlow is already optimized for mobile devices and can be quickly launched on single-board computers. In many ways, AI frameworks are better than other mobile frameworks, such as ReactJS. The AI structure is not designed to work with the user interface. It’s perfect for the Internet of Things.

Until the end of 2020, artificial intelligence will be as important for IoT devices as the cloud.