IoT or Internet of things refers to billions of devices and machines in the world connected to the internet, sharing and collecting data.
Now, with the advancement in computing and wireless technology even something as small as a pill or as big as an aeroplane can become a part of IoT. Any device or machine that can be transformed into an IoT device is connected to the internet to communicate and transfer data and perform functions without human involvement.
According to Gartner, a research and advisory company around 21 billion "connected things" right at this moment are working collecting data and performing tasks. They predict that by the end of 2020, the IoT market will grow 21% with 5.8 billion endpoints.
"Electricity smart metering, both residential and commercial will boost the adoption of IoT among utilities,” said Peter Middleton, senior research director at Gartner. “Physical security, where building intruder detection and indoor surveillance use cases will drive volume, will be the second-largest user of IoT endpoints in 2020.”
Be it consumer devices, smart devices, the medical sector, government, industrial sector like automobiles, productions nearly every enterprise use IoT devices in some form.
he utility of IoT devices is realized in this COVID-19 era where the ability to remote control devices and perform works is a great help. These millions of IoT endpoints are bridging the gap between the digital and physical worlds.
Mobilizing the World
The best example of IoT's value is the 'Medical Sector' like Kinsa's connected thermometer which sends the data to the company who uses it to flag possible COVID-19 outbreaks.
79 percent of healthcare providers with over $100 million revenue put IoT devices in production. Gartner also predicts a 13-percent rise in medical IoT spending for the next fiscal year.
As great are the benefits of Iot, the risks are ever-increasing. There are security risks as connecting to internet invites attack vendors that offline machines never face. Installing IoT devices are a great feat in itself with proper procurement, deployment, security, and monitoring.
But the rewards of IoT surpass the risk, they increase efficiency, provides a cutting edge technology, and most importantly the invaluable data. Ofcourse, one needs the right analytics tools and strategy that imputes building a whole analytics team and department. Experts do say, you would definitely fail in your first attempt but learn from the mistakes and get it right the next time
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