IoT Brings Companies and Cities Together
The widespread adoption of IoT-enabled devices and solutions is already well underway. According to a recent forecast from IDC, the global marketing intelligence firm, 20 billion devices (yes, that’s Billion with a capital B) will be connected to the internet by 2020, and that number is expected to more than double by 2025 -- devices ranging from smart phones and kitchen appliances, yes, but also solutions for decongesting traffic on crowded city streets, reducing a building’s (or company’s) carbon footprint, and even optimizing harvests in agricultural settings. In accordance, the public and private sectors are embracing IoT as the wave of the future – and investing accordingly.
In a similar study commissioned by Microsoft, 94% of companies surveyed are either already implementing IoT or will be doing so by 2021, while also revealing that only 33% of those same companies believe they have adequate resources and/or personnel to see their IoT investments bear fruit. Microsoft, seeing the obvious potential in such a growth area, is doubling down on their commitment to IoT: "At Microsoft, we are committed to building a trusted, easy-to-use platform that allows our customers and partners to build seamless, smart, secure solutions regardless of where they are in the IoT journey," according to Sam George, corporate Vic President of Azure IoT at Microsoft. "That's why we are investing $5B in IoT and intelligent edge — technology that is accelerating ubiquitous computing and bringing unparalleled opportunity across industries." The company’s Azure IoT Hub aims to aid entrepreneurs and businesses both large and small in increasing their overall efficiency and reducing operating expenses via a variety of IoT-based cloud services and applications. IoT security is at the core of Microsoft’s increased investment – the aforementioned IoT Signals report Microsoft commissioned revealed that 97% of companies that already have or plan on adopting IoT listed security as their primary concern.
Security is an even bigger concern at the local government level, which is why it’s commonly one of the keynote themes at the annual Smart City Expo World Congress (SCEWC). Being held later this month in Barcelona, Spain, the SCEWC is an opportunity for officials from municipalities around the world to come together and discuss the ways IoT is being incorporated into public life in their respective cities. Last year’s edition saw approximately 700 cities from 146 different countries send representatives to the event, and similar satellite events have popped up in the US, Brazil, Mexico and Japan. Among keynote speakers for this year’s event are experts in transportation and urban transformation, climate change, and yes – cybersecurity. Cities have to be especially wary of security risks – coordinating traffic patterns can be a tricky business, like air traffic control if there were hundreds of planes all trying to land at once. Any fault in the operation could lead to gridlock or even tragedy, so insulating these systems from the chip to the cloud is essential. Hearing that clarion call, heavy hitters in the IoT sector like Cisco, Huawei and, of course, Microsoft, among many, many others, plan on exhibiting at the event this year.
Like artificial intelligence, IoT is becoming a sector where public and private interests are working in concert to evolve and proliferate the technology. The future will be one in which connectivity is king and personal and public security are at a premium.IoT and its relationship with government and private industry (and the relationship between the two) is a topic we’ll be covering more extensively in future blogs.As with AI, IoT is at the forefront of the next wave of technology, and someday soon you might not be able to remember a world in which you couldn’t set your home thermostat with an app on your phone.