Category Archives: Internet of Things

Creating Customer Value Through Internet of Things

Posted on by

As the market opportunity continues to grow for the Internet of Things (IoT), more and more companies are looking at IoT solutions as a means for improving customer service, enhancing operations, and creating new business models. IoT is built on innovative technologies which allow companies to evolve in a more intelligent, adaptive and agile way. By 2020 the IDC is predicting that 32 billion connected IoT devices will be utilized. The challenge that organizations could face is being able to extract timely, meaningful IoT data to enable digital transformations to occur so that the organization has the ability to offer innovative IoT solutions to create new customer values.

What if you were to look at the innovation of IoT not as a solution, but rather the disruption that occurs with these billions of IoT devices with respect to what they do and how they work throughout the organization? Here’s an interesting article perspective that discusses the organizational change and value that is created by IoT along the paths of innovation such as: customer engagement experience, services and business model. Consider the possibilities of IoT as a source of innovative ideas for a platform that addresses customer problems and pain points. Read full article here.

Edge Computing, Key to Autonomous Cars

Posted on by

Advances made in machine learning and autonomous vehicles require a tremendous amount of computing power.  In fact, an autonomous car can be looked at as a data center of its own.  The next generation of applications will need near-real-time response from computing systems and in order to process the data from self-driving cars, computing power is going to need to be pushed to network edges.  Also world leading research and advisory company, Gartner,  is predicting that by 2020 there will be a quarter billion connected vehicles on the road making connected cars a major element of the Internet of Things (IoT). 

Recently Kal Mos, Vice President for Connected Car, User Interaction & Telematics at Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America, discussed the importance of edge computing in autonomous vehicles.  Making use of different techniques in order for car features to work without a connection and enabling artificial intelligence within cars is where development in edge computing comes into play. However, advancements in autonomous driving will experience challenges along the way to evolution.  Associated variables to be considered in human capabilities of drawing upon years of experience with driving will prove to be interesting in witnessing the jump from lab artificial intelligence to edge artificial intelligence. For more insight from Kal Mos, read full article here.

 

Raising the Bar for Internet of Things Through Tougher Security Bill

Posted on by

The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing exponentially everyday with experts weighing in on the warning signals of its associated risks to global security. Notable statistics cited on IoT include the research firm Gartner saying that IoT devices have increased 31% from 2016 to 2017, hitting 8.4 billion connected “things” this year, and that the number will surge to 20.4 billion by 2020. Accenture estimates the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will add $14.2 trillion to the global economy by 2030 making the surge from industrial companies using IoT devices have a very positive effect on economies around the world.  Steps need to be taken to ensure that manufacturers of IoT devices are equipped in producing cyber secure devices and new legislation is being proposed to address security issues.

As a start to try and fix the potential massive security problem imposed by IoT, lawmakers in the U.S. Senate introduced a bill in early August that would apply to vendors supplying the US federal government by setting baseline security standards and use of a broad range of Internet-connected devices, including computers, routers and security cameras.  The new bill, Internet of Things Cybersecurity Improvement Act of 2017, was introduced by Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). As an example, the bill would require vendors of Internet-connected devices purchased by the federal government be ensured that their devices are patchable, rely on industry standard protocols, do not use hard-coded passwords, and do not contain any known security vulnerabilities. For more information on the new legislation, read full article here.