The IoT Surge: Transforming the IT Landscape for a Smarter Tomorrow!
Good morning everyone. Today we will try and understand a little bit about IoT. What is it and what would it mean to a lay man and businesses and why it has become the buzz word nowadays. What is it about IoT that makes people think or talk about it.
Internet of things, as the name suggests is nothing but the set of smart devices connected through sensors, and yes of course need to have internet to be able to have the connectivity making it possible for those devices to interact with each other.
Let’s try and understand IoT with this simple example. Let’s say that you have an option to link your smart phone, smart tv and even AC using this feature. What would happen is that, when connected using this technology, it would give me the flexibility to switch on my tv or AC using my smart phone. If I were to do a setting on my phone so as to when should my AC be switched on or off, it could be done having made changes to my smart phone. Let’s take another example to understand it even better. I could have my car being connected to my AC or main door of my house having had sensors installed in them. Which means that if I were to pass on an instruction on my main door being locked when I exit my house, it could be. When I think of having had AC switched on the moment I am close to my house, an instruction could be passed on when I am 100 meters while being on the way to home.
Companies need to make business decisions which should be quick and spontaneous. If they have the data, having fed algorithm into the machine, they would be in a position to have the analytics which could make it possible for them to have the market insights. Tableau and Power BI are
the tools which come very handy and fit into the example mentioned above. When AI is integrated with the concept of IoT, it could automate many things which would have only been an imagination earlier.
Things being centralized earlier, used to take a considerable longer time while making the connectivity possible. However, with the gadgets such as Routers, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth functionalities being supported with the Edge technology, a faster connectivity could be experienced. Decentralization which once far to be thought of, has been achieved using the same concept as mentioned above.
What has happened is that, IoT has brought a revolution in the Healthcare Industry using the functionalities and features which could never be thought of before. Remote patient monitoring, Hearable, glucose monitoring, tracking employees and patients, drug management are a few features which have been made possible for the hospital staff and patients. The benefits are enormous, since it saves our time while trying reach out to hospitals and money which were spent on hospital, doctor’s fees and bed & medicine charges which were to be incurred earlier. Isn’t that wonderful? Now the patients will have an option of being able to monitor their blood pressure and sugar at their own convenience and reach out to the doctor only when required. The option of telemedicine and consultative approach has turned out to be a blessing for the masses.
Another Industry which has benefited the most is the banking Industry, which has implemented the Block chain technology making the transactions even more secure, providing customers and partners a sense of security and transact freely. Smart Contracts is another feature which has made businesses utilize this technology while dealing with one another.
The application of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality could be seen when customers try use 3D images and try match it with their house interiors making it more appealing. These features either let you know how the overall outlook would be using the images and imagination that you would want to turn into reality if not all, at least a part of it. Virtual reality gets you into a different dimension all together, which certainly is the way to go. The idea of Smart City has caught up nowadays. There has been a surge in the smart cities and there are many which are on the verge of becoming one. 6G is another thing which businesses having been trying achieve. There’s a lot of research which has been done in this regard and could be brought to reality in another few years.
While we have been talking about the benefits that has come our way in the form of Block chain, Automatic Cars, Smart device, Smart Cities, devices in the healthcare Industry which have made our life easier. We can’t ignore the challenges that we might face in the form of Data Privacy and Cyber Security. The consumption of data which would be required to make all this possible is another aspect that we need to think of to be able to make it happen and go a step further reshape the IT Landscape that we live in.