The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things has become a buzzword recently, but what is it and what can it do?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is more of a concept than a physical object. In truth it is a series of objects that talk to each other using an internet connection. This can be as simple and convenient as your smartphone being able to control your garage door or your security system. Someday the IoT will also include your personal fitness tracker communicating with your doctor or hospital automatically. IoT is just a series of objects being able to connect and “talk” to each other and it is taking over as the next wave of internet development.

This new wave of internet has the potential to connect over 28 billion devices by 2020. That is four times the current population of the planet and 28 billion might be a low estimate. A Business Wire report is predicting 212 billion devices in the same time frame at a market value worth over $8.9 trillion.

The reality of IoT has already begun to filter into our daily lives. Our cars are connected to the internet, wristwatches are connected to our phones, and machines in a factory are all connected through Wi-Fi. These are also the areas where we will see the most growth of connected devices in the next few months: transportation, consumer devices, and industry.

As the demand for more connected devices increases, there will be a direct increase in demand for developers and companies like Novel that can engineer solutions and communication paths for these devices. “The key isn’t the things, but the data these things generate and the applications that will be built on top of that data,” said Stacey Higginbotham in a recent blog for Gigaom.

IoT will be generating massive amounts of data, and most of that data will be stored on a cloud. We’re not talking terabytes, think more about zettabytes and yottabytes of data. Right now, there are very few machines that can handle that amount of data, but there aren’t 212 billion devices putting data into a cloud yet so we don’t need to panic right away. In the meantime, Novel can help companies establish and manage their own cloud by helping design devices that will collect the data that companies want, and writing applications that can interpret and utilize that data. Novel can also help design encryption software to keep data secure and prevent security breaches.

What businesses can do with the data from IoT connected devices is almost limitless. Do you want to figure out how to optimize a mechanical process? Or perhaps you are more interested in research and want to measure a set of variables over a length of time? Maybe you want to track logistical processes and figure out where your methods can be improved or strengthened. Novel can help design devices to measure any type and amount of data that a business could want to generate and then our developers can write an application that will make that data useful to the company.

There is a lot more work to go with this emerging industry, and there will be some road blocks. If you would like to get started connecting your business, your data, or develop devices that will be a part of the IoT, please contact Novel here. IoT can help your business research, develop, and thrive. Don’t be afraid to catch this new technology wave with us.