You're probably already using IoT devices in your home, and even experiencing their benefits on a daily basis. But what about your business?
When you start connecting things with things, people with people, and people with things — there are almost endless opportunities in the IoT business reality.
The more devices join IoT in general and especially in business, the more the potential impact on our business and everyday life becomes a topic for discussion.
How to Efficiently Apply IoT to Your Business
FinancesOnline estimates that by 2025 the total investment that companies would make in the IoT market is expected to be $15 trillion, while the number of installed devices is expected to grow to 75.4 billion in 2025.
IoT platforms' key role is to develop and adopt potentially innovative business models. The promotion and implementation of business eco-systems should enhance these platforms to jointly create value for clients.
“Being innovative is a challenge by itself. It’s not just about coming up with new ideas, but realizing them”, says Anders Strömberg, Sony.
We have prepared the main theses, based on which you can apply IoT to your business more efficiently if you are already clear about the goals of the IoT project.
Smart rescue in the business model. To create a model based on right there and then, taking into account only the near future, is completely wrong. Think foresighted about how much time is ahead and how your future business activities may develop in the future. Thus, the more demanded and preferred business model should have a more value-oriented version.
During Ericsson’s IoT Day Stockholm, a model based on an inexpensive subscription to conventional monitoring and tracking services or premium payment for an isolated rescue was discussed. In general, service priority, output power, delays, and connectivity are central to all rescue efforts.
Scalability is key. “5G, cellular, IoT, and the platforms behind them will create a new global foundation for digital transformation.”, says Usam Shen, Innovation Leader, Steelcase.
To make great things happen, scalability is important for enterprises and communications service providers (CSPs). Improving scalability is another great topic for an article. For now, let’s say that you at least have to have an eye on automated bootstrapping, IoT data pipeline control, microservices architecture development, and multiple data storage technologies adoption to ensure the long-term success of IoT applications.
IoT trends are worth a closer analysis. There is a whole world to explore. Let’s have a look at the following 2021 IoT trends:
- 5G technology. 5G networks significantly improve communication and speed, which means that they will only continue to be deployed worldwide, extending connectivity to even currently untouched areas. Whether IoT devices are standalone or in smartphones, they certainly will benefit.
- Smart cities. It would seem that smart cities are the first to come to mind when thinking about IoT, and it is quite justified. Maybe the term "smart city" has become a buzzword, but in the near future, this initiative will benefit from integration with 5G. It is assumed that this will also be followed by connected vehicle networks and increased efficiency of healthcare.
- Voice technology. Despite the fact that voice technology is crucial for vehicles, users have become increasingly reliant on them to perform smart home tasks. Consequently, the more powerful the devices become, the greater tendency of using them will be.
- Edge computing. In contrast to cloud computing, the growing edge computing technology stores data at the microprocessor level, which is much more efficient and cost-effective.
- Security is a new codeword. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the importance of security already sounds like a mantra. But the reality is that a company of any size can become a target of all kinds of attacks at any moment. Security particularly is a critical issue when it comes to using IoT devices.
That is why your project needs to be equipped with the most appropriate for your case security tools. Security and privacy risks can be greatly reduced if IoT devices are associated with blockchain technology. To prevent theft of important information often associated with third parties, blockchain technology offers digital signatures, smart contacts, and secure encrypted private keys.
Selection of data and its careful storage. Considering which data to generate and which data to process, one can remove the additional costs of collecting, storing, and processing data that are not valuable for the intended purposes, resulting in wasted resources, and thus, money.
Balancing many of the options that need to be considered can be difficult. With this comes a lot of options — you should realize whether to use a cloud solution or if it will have enough power in the end nodes to process the data, whether it will be public, private, or even hybrid, and many others.
For determining the system that will collect and process the data, all of these prerequisites are key. This leads to identifying the systems, software, vendor, and team you need to develop and complete your IoT project.
Key Conclusions
Using IoT you have to realize what specific goals you want to meet. Otherwise, as with many other models, you end up with wasted resources like time and money. The fact is that the need for IoT solutions has existed for some time, but the technology itself has its own security features, and it is not so affordable.
For organizations that want to take advantage of this technology and understand how best to use IoT in business, make sure you choose the right provider and dedicated team.