What is the Internet of Things?

First of all, let’s have some definitions:

Things refers to the physical items, which usually consist of an embedded device, with processors, software, sensors and some kind of control system.

Internet refers to the fact that these devices, these things are connected to the Internet. It is this connectivity which provides all the real value to upstream processing.

Now we’ve established the basic idea, which is to connect an embedded device which will monitor and/or control something on the Internet so we can further process its data and then act upon the result of that processing.

Think for a moment how powerful that is as a model. For literally a few pounds or dollars, we can continually monitor something, and I’m being deliberately vague, process it in real time, if we so choose, and then use this information to make business decisions.

Some Examples

Please don’t take this list to be comprehensive:

1. Monitoring and controlling the environment within a building. With a variety of sensors distributed all over the building measuring the temperature, relative humidity, light level and noise level, it becomes possible to now actively control the environment in the building.
2. Monitoring and controlling the environment within a greenhouse or commercial market garden, in much the same way we could for a building. However, the processing and the final result would be much different.
3. Energy management, such as monitoring the output from solar panels, a wind turbine all the energy wasted as the result of some process.
4. Looking at Healthcare, perhaps in a residential care home, it would be possible to monitor the activity level of residents, notice anomalies and take corrective action. Or perhaps the monitoring of medication as its dispensed.
5. In a farming environment, the monitoring and tracking of pollutants, such as within a manure shared, a barn or during fertilisation of the fields.

Potential

The Internet of Things is growing year by year, as companies and organizations begin to see the benefits and start to dip their toe into the water. According to Gartner by 2020 there will be 26 billion IoT connected devices (across all categories). This means, that there will be a huge competative advantage to getting in early(ish) and a huge disadvantage for being too late. The Internet of Things has been with us for some years now, with serious use beginning to ramp up.

Why?

The Internet of things, is all about the data. What this data is, what you would do with the it and the value that that contains, is entirely dependent on the business case.

Principally, an IoT deployment is about to better understand something. That something is normally tangible and real. The goal is therefore, to either save money or to generate more.

Insight is normally gained through the processing and analysis of the raw data delivered from the Internet of Things device. This could be done with machine learning, artificial intelligence, or any of the other big data techniques. The intent is to always be more efficiently and more effectively do something. Often, something unexpected will present itself from the data, which might well take us in a new direction.

How We Help

DVANA have the full set of skills that you will need for an IoT deployment. This includes:

• the hardware of the device itself
• the software to drive it
• the security understanding to keep it safe
• the data and analytics experience to leverage the maximum benefit from the data
• the management and project experience to make sure that everything happens on time and to budget

In essence, DVANA have everything you need to gain the maximum benefit from any Internet of Things deployment.

Your Requirements

Before you start your next Internet of Things (IoT) project, contact DVANA for a free consultation.