Folks, Welcome to IoT

You would have seen a TV zdvert by Signature of Nairobi, about their new residential property in Nairobi. The ad depicts this property as being smart, with residents being able to control lighting and other features from a mobile device. The property is also touted as being the first smart building in Nairobi. Folks, welcome to the world of IoT. The Internet of Things. The Google Cloud Platform has a definition of IoT being “a sprawling set of technologies and use cases that has no clear, single definition. One workable view frames IoT as the use of network-connected devices, embedded in the physical environment.”

 IoT is one of the leading trends in technology and will continue to play an even more ubiquitous role in private and business facets of life. The example of Signature of Nairobi is one use case of IoT.

For consumers, many day-to-day activities and devices will become more and more interconnected — and connected to the internet. And this does not stop at merely connecting devices. The connected devices will have different kinds of sensors, each of which collects all kinds of data. IoT also leverages major software trends like cloud, big data, and analytics. The data from devices is pulled into the cloud, stored, and analyzed.

A lot of consumers’ private or behavioral data will be stored on the internet. Seemingly mundane information such as what TV station one watches, what time one arrives at and departs from specific places, what time one goes to bed or wakes up, etc., are all being gathered.

Ahead of inter-connecting other consumer devices to the internet by use of specific sensors, smart phones already ‘know’ a lot of things about consumers.

According to http://www.computerweekly.com, a key emerging use case for the IoT is in the health sector. Dutch technology giant Philips aims to equip patients with the tools and technologies they need to self-manage and monitor their healthcare at home. These tools include IoT-ready weighing scales, blood pressure monitoring cuffs or hardware that keeps tabs on when patients take their medication.

In findings by Beecham Research, Smart farming will allow farmers to improve productivity and reduce waste. IoT could be key to the farming industry’s improved productivity.

What is your business doing to adopt to the IoT trend? How are you taking advantage of this trend to stay competitive?