Workplace tropes frequently peg the office watercooler as the unofficial meeting place where people congregate to gossip or commiserate while staying hydrated in the corporate world’s climate-controlled environs. But imagine a future where that watercooler does more than just dispense liquid—what if it could connect to a network and become “smart?”
I’m old enough to remember a time when the decision to travel to some distant place was, pretty much without exception, followed immediately by deciding which travel agent to call. Try mentioning that to a millennial and see what reaction you get. Crickets.
The way we work together in teams is changing. Collaboration has always been a part of work, but today it’s both harder and more important than ever. More and more teams today include workers who are geographically dispersed or work remotely, and more and more projects involve freelancers or contract workers who set their own schedules and rarely come into the office.
Wireless technology is the backbone of IoT. Here’s what to look for in a future-ready network, and how to budget for it. Science fiction has teased us for decades with the idea that someday our buildings would be able to adapt to our every whim, allowing us to control lighting with a wave of the hand, gain access with a fingerprint or retina scan, or employ robots to clean floors or deliver mail. Now, the IoT (Internet of Things) is poised to help deliver on those promises.
When you first heard the term “Internet of Things,” what were you picturing in your mind? What was your interpretation of what the IoT (Internet of Things) meant? For many, it was consumer-based, thinking of fitness trackers, smart thermostats, and connected doors that “tell you” when they are opened. For others, it meant scenarios in the commercial world such as sensors on jet engines that communicate the state of the engine for analysis or commercial fleets that could be tracked and managed with a high level of insight as to where the vehicles are and their current operating conditions. It may have meant “smart grids” that conveyed the status of electricity distribution to provide more efficient operation. One thing seemed clear, this was all very futuristic, and certainly very cool.
There is no other IoT (Internet of Things) sector that is covered with such adoration and frequency as the connected car. With a potential market of more than $250 billion, it’s rightfully so. Connected cars are sexy and appealing to a wide range of people so they grab all the headlines while the less attractive, connected commercial vehicle market chugs along quietly in the shadows building up a market value that will exceed $300 billion.
Today’s enterprise understands the value of data. The ability to collect data related to performance and processes, and turn that data into meaningful business intelligence is a major driver in the adoption of technologies that connect objects to networks—the IoT or Internet of Things—in order to communicate back to an owner for the purpose of controlling, monitoring, or better understanding its operation.
There have been serendipitous product calamities. Janet Jackson’s infamous “wardrobe malfunction” is still amongst the Top 10 halftime shows in Superbowl History according to CBS News, and “led to the creation of YouTube.”
In 2016, we saw IoT (Internet of Things) technology being implemented into almost every technology sector, and with that came significant changes in how enterprises and consumers interact with machines. We believe 2017 will be the year that we begin to see more refined IoT solutions, as well as reap the benefits of these more sophisticated solutions. In this article, we’ll look at some more specific trends that are expected to emerge in the industry this year.
Your mom probably told you it’s polite to share, but did she tell you that the IoT (Internet of Things) won’t get off the ground if companies can’t split the bounty? Since the IoT is a lot younger than you, probably not, but it’s true nonetheless.
In 2016, we saw breathless growth in the industrial IoT market. A bewildering mix of solutions confront the industrial operator, and many are choosing the easiest, most basic approach. In 2017, we see this customer base increasing in sophistication as they begin to reap early rewards—and stumble on pitfalls—from their early efforts. Here’s where the conversation is going in 2017 and beyond:
Peggy Smedley, editorial director, Connected World magazine, recently sat down with Dirk Morris, founder and chief product officer, Untangle, to discuss DDoS (distributed denial of service) attacks on large organization such as Amazon, Spotify, Netflix, and Twitter. He explains how the IoT (Internet of Things) is involved and what we can expect going forward.
Software is a key element in the architecture and construction world—as it is necessary to create and construct in today’s connected world. From design drawings to promotional images, via building construction, software is tracking the stages and presenting the results to improve productivity and ensure on-time delivery across the board. The data to support all this has to come from somewhere and has to be managed in a coherent way and the model is perhaps the obvious place.
Consumer applications for the IoT (Internet of Things) may dominate the headlines. However, most industry experts agree that the lion’s share of IoT revenues will go to B2B (business-to-business). Many of them will be recurring in nature. And if you think you have to be an IBM to grab your piece of the pie, think again. Here are three IoT recurring monetization tactics available to B2Bs of all sizes and stripes serving a broad spectrum of industries.
There is no doubt digital disruption and IoT (Internet of Things) is here and more is on the way. The Detroit Free Press just reported that “By 2022, more than 200 million vehicles around the world will be able to get over-the-air software updates, according to ABI Research, www.abiresearch.com, a company that studies technology trends.”