By Julie Zander, Numeric Analytics Marketing Manager
If you aren’t familiar with the “Internet of Things” (IoT) yet, you will be very soon. The IoT is the latest buzzword that describes the interconnectivity of physical objects and devices that communicate with each other and become active participants in daily business and leisure without person-to-person or person-to-computer interaction. This is accomplished through the use of RFID tags, processors, and/or other sensors that are implanted into a physical object or device that give it the power communicate and to be monitored and controlled through the internet.
Imagine your alarm goes off at 6 a.m. This triggers your coffee maker to start and your shower to turn on, ensuring your water will be the perfect temperature when you step in and a fresh cup of coffee will await you. The next day, you decide to hit the snooze button for an extra 10 minutes of sleep. Your coffee maker and shower go on “pause” until they detect your alarm clock has been turned off.
As futuristic as this seems, the technology already exists. There are security systems that can be activated via cell phone, physical activity trackers that can sync to your smart phone and track your activity over a span of time, pacemakers that can communicate real-time with a physician’s office, farming equipment that can analyze crop performance and conditions over time, as well as intelligent cars and smart home devices that help you use electricity more efficiently.
According to The Gartner Group, the IoT, (which excludes PCs, tablets and smartphones) will grow to 26 billion devices by the year 2020. This represents 30 times the number of devices that were estimated to be in use in 2009.
With the advances in technology and the explosion of device use, data will be able to be collected at almost every move and every hour. With this type of data deluge, how will companies manage it all? Picture a constant stream of data coming in. Will your data software be able to handle it all? Who will sift through it? What are the questions you want answered and what information will be important to your organization?
We’re still years away, but now might be the time to consider a paradigm shift in your thought process about how the IoT will impact your business. Within this ever-growing digitally connected world, do you have the resources in place? How will this affect your data governance policies as it relates to privacy and data security? What data truly needs to be collected?
The IoT has the promise to impact the world and change the way organizations do business by ushering in a myriad of alternate business models.
