7 Facts, Fictions and Predictions about the Internet of Things

PARVEEN S. GOEL

1. Fact: It is already happening Companies are investing huge amount of money in technology

related to IoT

Google bought a start up co. Nest, which makes smart thermostats for a paltry sum of $3.2 billion

Last week on October 9th 2014 GE just announced an alliance with Verizon, Cisco, and Intel for IoT

GE monitors and analyzes 50 million data points from 10 million sensors on $1 trillion of managed assets daily

2. Fact: It is growing astronomically

Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to connect another 20+ billion objects within a year.

IPv4, which uses 32-bit addresses and provides approximately 4.3 billion addresses, is not enough to handle IP addresses for IoT.

IPv6 is being introduced which uses a 128-bit address, allowing approximately  3.4×1038 addresses, or virtually limitless addresses

3. Fact: It will create new challenges for the security and safety Many of the devices on the IoT are communicating through the use of unencrypted data, which creates a big security hole

Recently HP tested 10 popular devices likely to be included on the IoT and found 70% of them contained security exposures

4. Fiction: IoT is based on one single revolutionary technology it is a concept, not a single technology you’d buy off the shelf

The technological advances that are being combined to create this revolution include; new affordable sensors, actuators smart phones, ‘big data’ analysis, cloud and ‘fog’ computing, Artificial Intelligence, increased bandwidth of internet and IPv6

5. Fiction: It is a done deal and everything is figured out

There is lot to be learned, understood and developed for IoT. For example, there are liability and legal responsibility issues that need to be understood

Current way of posting disclaimers on websites and requirement of clicking to accept liability is not going to work for IoT

Analysis techniques for the enormous amount of data that sensors and machines will be generating need to be developed

6. Prediction: It is creating huge economic opportunities

The Internet of Things has the potential to create an economic impact of $2.7 trillion to $6.2 trillion annually by 2025

It is reasonable to expect there will be a string of new businesses, from those that will create the required infrastructure to those that will analyze the mammoth amount of data

This opens up new window of opportunity to entrepreneurs and inventors to develop new gadgets and services that we have not even thought of yet.

7. Prediction: IoT has potential to save the planet

It has potential to reduce energy consumption up to 40% as it helps in optimizing usage of energy at home, and factory floors

According to Goldman Sach’s report on IoT “Verizon is saving more than 55 million kWh annually across 24 data centers by deploying hundreds of sensors and control points throughout the data center, connected wirelessly. The result is a reduction of 66 million pounds of greenhouse gases per year

References

Information Week 7/29/2014: http://www.informationweek.com/cloud/software-as-a-service/hp-warns-of-iot-security-risks/d/d-id/1297617

Goldman Sach’s report on IoT September 2014: http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/outlook/internet-of-things/iot-report.pdf

Micrsoft,s white paper on IoT: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsembedded/en-us/internet-of-things-infographic.aspx

McKinsey Global Institute May 2013 report on Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/business_technology/disruptive_technologies