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Tag: Internet of Things

  • Microsoft Azure and AWS Leading in IoT Onboarding and Lifecycle Management

    Microsoft Azure and AWS Leading in IoT Onboarding and Lifecycle Management

    A new Competitive Assessment report puts Microsoft Azure and AWS leading the pack in IoT deployment.

    AWS and Microsoft Azure are the two largest cloud platforms, and the two companies play an important role in IoT. According to ABI Research, the two companies are also leading the pack in core IoT deployments.

    “Understanding the intricacies of the market is key,” Dimitrios Pavlakis, Senior Analyst of IoT and Digital Security at ABI Research. “Cloud device management alone is not enough to guarantee victory; the importance of critical partnerships is as relevant as ever to increase market reach and not be consumed by the competition. Intelligent solutions and automation are required for a sustainable lifecycle management environment, and even criteria like dev-tools and resource modularity can greatly add to the popularity of certain solutions and shape future IoT-borne revenue streams.”

    According to ABI Research, Pelion, Intel, Telit, Device Authority, Thales, and Digicert were in the middle of the pack, with Avsystem and Sequitur Labs following.

    All together, twelve criteria were used in the assessment, including encryption and hardware security, dev tools, cloud, software options, IoT connectivity and ecosystem support, strategic partnerships, regulatory policies, FOTA, automation, trusted ID, pricing and monetization.

    “Innovation without a clear device-to-cloud roadmap, a flexible monetization strategy, and a solid partnership circle is utterly meaningless in most cases,” Pavlakis concludes.

  • Mozilla WebThings Being Spun Out As Separate Open Source Project

    Mozilla WebThings Being Spun Out As Separate Open Source Project

    Mozilla has announced it is spinning of its WebThings endeavor as a standalone open source project.

    WebThings is Mozilla’s open source take on Web of Things (WoT). WoT is a set of standards aimed at combining Internet of Things (IoT) with the web, using the web as the application layer. WoT will allow IoT devices to be discoverable and linkable on the web via URLs.

    With the change, “Mozilla WebThings” will become “WebThings” and the project’s homepage will move to www.webthings.io.

    “Mozilla is winding down its direct investment in WebThings and is transitioning control and responsibility to the community,” writes David Bryant. “It is important this happens in a way that allows easy continued contribution to the project as an open source effort, and so all the WebThings Gateways running around the world continue to function properly. To enable that independence from Mozilla some changes will be needed in how the project is named as well as how project infrastructure operates.”

    The announcement is not a surprise given Mozilla’s recent layoffs. The company has struggled to find a major profit generator outside of its search deals with Google and Bing.

  • Lawmakers May Block FCC’s Ligado 5G Decision

    Lawmakers May Block FCC’s Ligado 5G Decision

    The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently voted unanimously to allow Ligado to deploy a low-power 5G network, and lawmakers are not happy.

    In its initial ruling, the FCC authorized “Ligado to deploy a low-power terrestrial nationwide network in the 1526-1536 MHz, 1627.5- 1637.5 MHz, and 1646.5-1656.5 MHz bands that will primarily support Internet of Things (IoT) services.”

    There was only one problem with the FCC’s decision: It was opposed by numerous organizations and agencies, including major airlines, the Departments of Commerce, Defense and Justice. The reason for the objection is the potential for Ligado’s network to interfere with commercial and military GPS equipment.

    In an op-ed published in C4ISRNET, Sen. Jim Inhofe, Sen. Jack Reed, Rep. Adam Smith and Rep. Mac Thornberry lay out the case for why they believe the FCC made a mistake:

    “The problem here is that Ligado’s planned usage is not in the prime mid-band spectrum being considered for 5G — and it will have a significant risk of interference with GPS reception, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA),” the lawmakers write. “The signals interference Ligado’s plan would create could cost taxpayers and consumers billions of dollars and require the replacement of current GPS equipment just as we are trying to get our economy back on its feet quickly — and the FCC has just allowed this to happen.”

    The lawmakers go on to highlight that no fewer than nine federal agencies and departments did extensive testing and came to the conclusion that Ligado’s network would interfere with existing GPS equipment.

    “Considering the risks, it’s clear the FCC commissioners made the wrong decision regarding Ligado’s plan, which will set a disastrous precedent while impeding ongoing work on spectrum sharing,” the lawmakers continue. “The vulnerabilities to our national and economic security are not worth the risk, particularly for a band of spectrum that isn’t necessary to secure a robust 5G network.

    “We encourage the FCC to withdraw its approval of Ligado’s application and take this opportunity to work with the NTIA and other federal agencies, including the Departments of Defense and Transportation, to find a solution that will both support commercial broadband expansion and protect national security assets. Moreover, we expect the FCC to resolve Department of Defense concerns before moving forward, as required by law.

    “If they do not, and unless President Trump intervenes to stop this from moving forward, it will be up to Congress to clean up this mess.”

    We will continue to monitor the story for the FCC’s response and whatever action is taken by either side.

  • FCC Prepares to Open 6 GHz Spectrum

    FCC Prepares to Open 6 GHz Spectrum

    The FCC is preparing to vote on making 1,200 megahertz of spectrum available for unlicensed use in the 6GHz band.

    In a blog post on the FCC’s site, Chairman Ajit Pai laid out his plan:

    “Specifically, I have proposed a set of rules to make 1,200 megahertz of spectrum available for unlicensed use in four segments of the 6 GHz band (5.925–7.125 GHz). This band is currently populated by, among others, microwave services that are used to support utilities, public safety, and wireless backhaul. So unlicensed devices will share this spectrum with incumbent licensed services under rules that are carefully crafted to protect those licensed services and to enable both unlicensed and licensed operations to thrive throughout the band. Ultimately, I expect that 6 GHz unlicensed devices will become a part of consumers’ everyday lives. For the rules we will vote on would play a major role in the growth of the Internet of Things, connecting appliances, machines, meters, wearables, and other consumer electronics, as well as industrial sensors for manufacturing.”

    The newly available spectrum will be a boon for numerous industries, not the least of which is 5G. With the FCC voting in April, it shouldn’t be long before devices using the 6 GHz band start showing up.

  • In a 5G World, You Can Connect Millions of IoT Devices Per Square Mile, Says AT&T CEO

    In a 5G World, You Can Connect Millions of IoT Devices Per Square Mile, Says AT&T CEO

    “You can begin now to conceive of robotic manufacturing that is always on and always connected via 5G networks,” says Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T Inc. “Just to put this into perspective, the Internet of Things, the devices and sensors that are connected all over the place, with today’s networks in a square mile you can connect a thousand, two thousand, or possibly three thousand of those. In a 5G world, you can connect millions of those in a square mile.”

    Randall Stephenson, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AT&T Inc. discusses the massive impact that 5G will have in an interview with The Economic Club of Washington, D.C. president David M. Rubenstein:

    What is 5G?

    The G means generation. So 2G is second-generation technology. When you went to your flip phone and you remember how you used to text using a 10 key device. That was 2G and allowed that kind of service. 3G is when the internet became mobile. Third generation networks allowed mobile use of the internet. The first iPhone was on 2G, but when it went 3G is when it exploded because you’re literally using the internet on a mobile device. Fourth-generation is what really enabled all of us to consume CNN video on a smartphone. It literally mobilized video. But for 4G technology, Instagram would not be what it is today. It’s all video. Facebook is virtually all video now. Just consuming all this video on a mobile device is facilitated by 4G.

    5G is going to prove to be the most transformative of all the G’s that we have seen to date. First of all, it’s a step change faster. It also will have zero latency meaning you issue a command and it’s immediate. You’re just always connected. It’s a real-time network. It’s just like turning a light switch on, it’s real-time. This is really important when you start to conceive of services like autonomous cars. You don’t want to be in an autonomous car that’s dependent on a network with latency. It’s very serious. If a kid runs out in front of a car it needs to be a real-time, always on, and always connected network. This is really really important as you begin to conceive of these services.

    In a 5G World, Millions of Connected Devices Per Square Mile

    You can begin now to conceive of robotic manufacturing that is always on and always connected via 5G networks. Just to put this into perspective, the Internet of Things, the devices and sensors that are connected all over the place, today’s networks in a square mile you can connect a thousand, two thousand, or possibly three thousand of those. In a 5G world, you can connect millions of those in a square mile.

    With each of those devices that are connected to the network you can now locate (very precisely) on a 5G network. Today, you can locate (only) within a certain number of meters. With 5G we will be able to isolate that device to within centimeters. Think about what you can do as you begin to get that kind of precision on location and so forth, and that kind of speed. I couldn’t conceive of the iPhone when we built a 3G network. You and I can’t conceive of all the services that are going to materialize with this kind of capability.


  • Vehicles of the Future – So Intelligent They Could Drive Themselves, Says Ford CEO

    Vehicles of the Future – So Intelligent They Could Drive Themselves, Says Ford CEO

    This is the year that many of the technological innovations that Ford has been working on will start to come out. That’s the message that Ford CEO Jim Hackett is telling the media at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit which started today. Hackett says that the vehicles of the future will be so intelligent that they could drive themselves.

    Hackett indicated that many of the innovations that will start to appear in Ford vehicles will related to the Internet of Things. IoT features would allow cars to be connected with other intelligent cars on the road which would ultimately make autonomous driving a much safer feature. They could also connect to intelligent cities of the future via the cloud to improve traffic flow.

    Jim Hackett, CEO of Ford, talks about technological innovations that Ford will be announcing in 2019 with Fox Business:

    Ford Working on Vehicles of the Future

    It’s my history to take some time, not too much time, to be very thoughtful about a very powerful way that Ford’s going to win. We are through that phase. This is the year that we start execution.

    A series of announcements are staged in time for when they need to come out. That together forms what we believe are the vehicles of the future. They will be ever more intelligent and ever more fun to drive. They are so intelligent that could drive themselves.

    They relate to a world that in itself has gotten even more intelligent. For the listeners, it’s called Edge Computing. For others, it’s called the Internet of Things. All it means is your vehicle and the things it has to interact with will suddenly be talking to each other through vehicle connectivity, the cloud, and the brains that are inside the vehicle itself.

    This is the Year of Intelligent Vehicles

    There’s a period where all this is evolving and people are going to wonder if we are getting out of the car business. Not at all. It’s just the adoption of all this kind of performance changes what the vehicles can do. We’ve been hard at work mapping all that out and thinking all that through. This year you are starting to see some pieces of that come forth.

    New Ford Investors Focused on New Technology

    The market has begun to see these new technologies as attracting outside investors. There’s news in the last three days of people buying into artificial intelligence drive systems and of people putting money inside other car companies. It’s all about them investing in this new technology.

    Ford is probably even more attractive to people like that because of how run the company is and how well architected the vehicles are. There’s not as much risk in that part.


  • What Are the Security Risks of the Internet of Things?

    What Are the Security Risks of the Internet of Things?

    IBM Resilient CTO and security guru Bruce Schneier takes a look at the security risks of the Internet of Things in his latest video. He brings up an interesting and rather disconcerting point, IoT devices tend to do critical things like turn on and off power or drive your car, so preventing hacking is even more critical with IoT than typical computers.

    During the writing of this article, I noticed that Bruce Schneier and other cybersecurity experts at IBM are offering a free webinar today on the overall subject of cyber security that you might also be interested in:

    December 6, 2018, at 12:00 PM: The Resilient End of Year Review: The Top Cyber Security Trends in 2018 and Predictions for the Year Ahead

    Bruce Schneier, CTO at IBM Resilient and Special Advisor at IBM Security, provided an overview of the IoT security threat in a recent IBM video:

    What Are the Security Risks of the Internet of Things?

    IoT devices are just computers so all the threats that we’re used to from the computer world get transferred into any IoT device. In addition, they tend to be low cost, not well designed, built offshore, so they have more vulnerabilities. They tend to be deeply embedded in networks and organizations so they have a lot of access. They often control physical processes.

    They turn on and off the power, they drive your car, they’re medical devices, which means the effects of a hack can be much more dangerous. On the one hand, they’re exactly the same as computers. On the other hand, because of how they’re made and what they can do, they’re very different than computers.

    How Will IoT Security Evolve in the Coming Years?

    These are low-cost consumer devices in many cases and there’s not a lot of money or even market demand for security. I think two things will happen. I think there will be more security in some of the more expensive devices.

    Of the cheaper devices, there will be other things that you could purchase to go on your network that will monitor them. We don’t really have them yet but I think that’s where the future is going. We have to assume there’ll be lots of cheaply made insecure IoT devices in every network. How do we get security on top of that? 

    Click Here to Kill Everybody

    Schneier has a brand new book out that goes into the security risks of IoT in depth called, Click Here to Kill Everybody: Security and Survival in a Hyper-connected World.

    Here’s how Bruce Schneier describes the IoT threat: 

    Everything is a computer. Ovens are computers that make things hot; refrigerators are computers that keep things cold. These computers—from home thermostats to chemical plants—are all online. The Internet, once a virtual abstraction, can now sense and touch the physical world.

    As we open our lives to this future, often called the Internet of Things, we are beginning to see its enormous potential in ideas like driverless cars, smart cities, and personal agents equipped with their own behavioral algorithms. But every knife cuts two ways.

    All computers can be hacked. And Internet-connected computers are the most vulnerable. Forget data theft: cutting-edge digital attackers can now crash your car, your pacemaker, and the nation’s power grid.

  • Why Would I Want My Underpants Connected to the Internet?

    Why Would I Want My Underpants Connected to the Internet?

    There was a session at the recent GeekWire Summit on how the IoT explosion will impact retail stores where underpants were discussed. It’s humous but very illustrative of how every item in every store, electronic or not, will be tracked in order to provide personalized shopping experiences and to bring massive efficiencies to the supply chain.

    Below is a conversation with Hointer CEO Nadia Shouraboura and Impinj CEO Chris Diorio on the importance of all items, even underpants, being eventually connected to the internet:

    Hointer CEO Nadia Shouraboura – What is the Internet of Things?

    The Internet of Things is just one part of the puzzle and many things need to come together to make this puzzle happen. For example, in the retail space, product is very important, price is very important, but experience is very important too, so IOT is just one part of that puzzle.

    Impinj CEO Chris Diorio – Connect Every Item in the World

    Impinj builds products around a certain type of RFID technology called Rain for radio identification. Our vision is to connect every item in your everyday world to the Internet, everything. Every apparel item, every food item, just literally have connectivity for every item in the world. Impinj has connected more than 25 billion items to date and more than seven billion last year alone.

    We connect those items wirelessly and what we’re focused on delivering is for each item is its unique identity, its location, and its authenticity, and in so doing extending the reach of the Internet to everybody and to everyday items. For us, the Internet of Things truly means things, not just connectivity for powered electronic devices, but for everything, and in so doing bring benefits to industries and consumers.

    Impinj CEO Chris Diorio –   Connecting Underpants?

    When you go into the store and you want to find the ones that you want to buy in the right size and the right type if you’re like me you know exactly what you want to buy and when you go in the store you want it to be there. If it’s not there because the supply chain inefficiencies you’re probably not going to buy anything.

    Hointer CEO Nadia Shouraboura – IoT and Underpants

    The importance of IoT to underpants is to measure results and what IoT delivers in terms of results. One thing which is important when you think about Underpants is sex. To me, sex is defined by two metrics which is quantity and quality. What I discovered personally is, for example, IoT lights, beautiful lights.

    The experience is you come in and you’re tired and you don’t want to think about sex and suddenly the whole room turns to your mood in soft blue and it genuinely works. If you measure IoT devices and lights and its correlation with quantity and quality of sex in underpants there is a very strong correlation. That’s an example of the impact of IoT to your underpants.

    Impinj CEO Chris Diorio – Even Your Underpants

    There’s a retailer that we work within France that if you are a consumer and you walk into the store, there’s a kiosk you basically where you decide what you want and when you click the item within 90 seconds the item comes down in a little tube like they used to have in the banks. A little tube comes down with your little capsule with exactly what you want to buy. Just check it out right there just walk out of the store, even if it’s your underpants.

  • 3 Cloud Trends to Watch Out for in 2018

    3 Cloud Trends to Watch Out for in 2018

    Cloud computing has dominated the business world this year, and the trend will only continue into 2018.

    Thanks to the many benefits cloud computing provides, private cloud solutions, cloud data centers, platforms, and infrastructure as a service has come into its own. Startups and small and medium enterprises have been quick to take advantage of this.

    But as the year winds down, companies are starting to turn their thoughts on how they can further take advantage of cloud technology next year. To that end, here are cloud trends to watch out for in 2018.

    Cloud Computing Will Push the Internet of Everything to the Forefront

    This year saw artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) taking center stage as using mobile devices for Image result for cloud computing internet of everythingbusiness transactions and communications became ubiquitous. The IoT is expected to remain strong next year, but the continued development of cloud computing and real-time data analytics will also see the Internet of Everything (IoE) pushed to the forefront.

    Since the IoE depends on data processes, machine to machine communications and people’s own interaction with their environment, improvements in cloud computing could result in significant developments with IoE as the complex system tries to simplify all interactions. This means that people will enjoy more intelligent interactions with devices connected to a network. It will also pave the way for richer communications between people. One prime example is Google’s Pixel Buds. The ear piece’s capacity to recognize and translate around 40 languages in real-time will surely open doors to tourists and students.

    Demand for Enhanced Cloud Storage Containers Will Continue

    Since cloud services are fast becoming a crucial aspect of running a business, the demand for data storage in 2018 

    Related image

    will increase. Cloud storage has made operations more flexible and efficient for a lot of enterprises. The flexibility of the system and the option to just pay for the storage space used also contributed to the necessity and demand for cloud containers. In fact, Microsoft, which ranks as one of the leading providers of cloud services, expects to see its cloud revenue go up 33 percent by the end of 2018.

    The rise in demand means that service providers will be utilizing more online data centers that are equipped with higher storage capabilities. According to a Cisco survey, the total data stored in these centers in 2017 are at 370 exabytes (EB), with global storage capacity expected to hit 600 EB. The demand for cloud storage is expected to reach new heights next year, with insiders estimating that storage capacity would reach as much as 1.1 zettabytes (ZB). That’s about double the space available this year.

    The expectation is that the increased demand for containers would make it possible for more real-world problems to be resolved efficiently and more securely. Businesses that use big data can use expanded storage space to store data, conduct analytics and derive valuable insights into areas like key financial investments, human systems, and customer behavior. Meanwhile, small business can benefit from the fact that increased storage could mean deeply customized or cheaper storage options.

    Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Will Go Mainstream

    The two main factors affecting cloud computing these days are artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).

    Image result for IBM introduced an AI-powered cloud-based system

     As a matter of fact, the four main tech companies – Amazon Web Services, Google, IBM, and Microsoft – are already taking advantage of both to provide cloud services geared to increase company growth.

    IBM introduced an AI-powered cloud-based system that facilitates decision-making in 2016. Meanwhile, Microsoft’s Azure can now deliver about 20 cognitive cloud services. The proliferation of services that run on AI will definitely push for increased cloud storage just to meet the need for shorter data processing, analysis and feedback.

    As companies brace themselves to say goodbye to 2017, business owners are also looking forward to 2018 and what it will bring. In this light, knowing the upcoming trends in cloud computing will help companies achieve their business goals.

    [Featured image via Vecteezy]

     

  • Government Can Speed Up Implementation of IoT Technology

    Government Can Speed Up Implementation of IoT Technology

    Government around the world play a key role in whether IoT becomes a mainstream technology sooner rather than later according to Cisco IoT expert Maciej Kranz. Kranz recently posted an excerpt of his book Building the Internet of Things on the Cisco Innovation blog.

    IoT Adoption is Key to Regional Competitiveness

    “Governments around the world are beginning to realize that IoT adoption will be one of the key factors defining the competitiveness of their cities, provinces, countries, or regions and that IoT can help solve many of the chronic problems plaguing their economies and their environments,” says Kranz. “Thus, governments at various levels have a number of key roles to play.”

    “There will be competition for bandwidth and other resources; there will be ideas that may conflict with public policy; and there will be IoT-based ideas that need to be regulated to ensure public safety and privacy,” noted Kranz. “Think drones. In these and other ways, government regulations can help direct and align the industry.”

    Kranz offered a few examples of U.S. legislations and related impact:

    • The Energy Act drove the need for energy monitoring, including smart meters.
    • The Rail Safety Improvement Act specified the requirements and the deadline (since extended) for adoption of Positive Train Control on main U.S. railways.
    • The Food Safety Modernization Act drove the requirements for IoT-based systems, including quality control and source tracking, across the food supply chain to prevent food safety issues.
    • Most recently, the Drug Quality and Security Act requires the adoption of a system to identify and trace prescription drugs.

    Kranz believes that government funding priorities may drive the future of IoT. “Through their spending power, governments can drive the focus and accelerate the adoption of IoT technologies and solutions. In aggregate, governments represent a huge global market. Their priorities, what they choose to buy, and what problems they choose to address can drive the roadmaps of IoT technology and solution providers.”

    He lists these additional government roles:

    • Supporting training and education
    • Supporting development of startup ecosystems
    • Supporting standards efforts
    • Supporting basic research and development
    • Enabling competitiveness and openness of the country’s markets
    • Promoting best practices and modern business models
    Why the IoT is Important to Our Future

    Kranz’ promo video for his book says this about the amazing future predicted for IoT technology, impacting not just consumers but manufacturers and really… everybody.

    “The wheel, printing press, the airplane. It’s impossible to imagine life without them and soon it will be just as impossible to imagine life before the Internet of Things! IoT is already happening and the growth and opportunity it provides isn’t just big, it’s huge. Wheel, printing press and airplane huge. Billions of connected devices, trillions in revenue.”

    At its core, Kranz said on his website, “it’s about business outcomes and people; it is about new ways of doing business, talent and change management; it is about migration to open technologies and open business structures based on co-development and ecosystems of partnerships; it is a multi-year, multi-phase journey.”

    Here’s a recent interview that Maciej Kranz gave explaining IoT to investors:

  • How to Use In-Store Behavioral Data to Increase Sales

    How to Use In-Store Behavioral Data to Increase Sales

    We all know that online shopping behavior is tracked in order to increase sales, but what about the behavior of brick and mortar shoppers? The Global Director of Marketing for IBM Watson Internet of Things (IoT), Scott Neuman, points out that gathering data about a shoppers activity in a physical retail store is just as important as it is when the customer is shopping online.

    Capturing Offline Shopper Data

    “Over the past decade we have seen many advances in online retailing ranging from dynamic pricing to predictive buyer behavior, all with the goal of providing better service and driving increased revenue,” notes Neuman. “All of this has been achieved through the creative use of data captured through the experience. But have in store experiences kept pace with the online experience? Is the in store data that is being captured falling into a black hole? Is the potential data being captured at all?”

    Neuman suggests that just like how retailers track their online customers, knowing what products are viewed and in what order, physical stores could and should do the same in order to increase the bottom line. He says that by adding RFID tags on each item in the store, a retailer can track the movement of shoppers and know what order they put products into their carts.

    Adjusting In-Store Marketing Based on In-Store Behavior

    You can also know how long customers browsed in the vicinity of certain products. Neuman says that with this data retailers should ask, “What made them move on? Was there more you could have done with the display? Was the price point wrong?”

    Using IoT data a retailer can “correlate the current flow of customers with check out receipts” in order to adjust in-store promotions with in-store data. “Much the same way online retails can track a customer’s digital journey of page views and their shopping cart at checkout,” said Neuman. “Then you can tease out where opportunities lie to not only increase sales, but increase customer satisfaction.”

    How Will the Internet of Things Impact Marketing?

    IBM’s IoT marketing director was recently asked how will the Internet of Things impact marketing. “It really comes down to the data that’s available to marketers,” said Neuman. “When you think about the sensors and what they are connected to, reaching out to where customers are and where they are making decisions, that’s really the nirvana for marketing!”

    The IoT revolution is an “explosion of data” that is a significant opportunity for retailers, but also an extreme challenge. “How do you make sense of all of that?” asks Neuman. “That’s where technology really starts to play a role.”

  • Internet of Things to Drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Industrie 4.0 — Companies Endorse New Interoperable IIoT Standard

    Internet of Things to Drive the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Industrie 4.0 — Companies Endorse New Interoperable IIoT Standard

    The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will be the primary driver of the fourth Industrial Revolution and Cisco and other companies are at the forefront. It’s commonly referred to as Industrie 4.0.

    “Industrie 4.0 is not digitization or digitalization of mechanical industry, because this is already there,” said Prof. Dr.-Ing. Peter Gutzmer, Deputy CEO and CTO of Schaeffler AG. “Industrie 4.0 is getting the data real-time information structure in this supply and manufacturing chain.”

    “If we use IoT data in a different way we can be more flexible so we can adapt faster and make decisions if something unforeseen happens, even in the cloud and even with cognitive systems,” says Gutzmer.

    From the 2013 Siemens video below:
    “In intelligent factories machines and products will communicate with each other, cooperatively driving production. Raw materials and machines are interconnected, within an internet of things. The objective, highly flexible individualized and resource friendly mass production. That is the vision for the fourth industrial revolution.”

    “The excitement surrounding the fourth industrial revolution or Industrie 4.0 is largely due to the limitless possibilities that come with connecting everything, everywhere, with everyone,” said Martin Dube, Global Manufacturing Leader in the Digital Transformation Group at Cisco, in a blog post today. “The opportunities to improve processes, reduce downtime and increase efficiency through the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is easy to see in manufacturing, an industry heavily reliant on automation and control, core examples of operational technology.”

    Connectivity between machines is vital for the success of Industrie 4.0, but it is far from simple. “The manufacturing environment is full of connectivity and communication protocols that are not interconnected and often not interoperable,” notes Dube. “That’s why convergence and interoperability are critical if this revolution is to live up to (huge) expectations.”

    Dube explains that convergence is the concept of connecting machines so that communication is possible and interoperability is the use of a standard technology enabling that communcation.

    Cisco Announces Interoperable IIoT Standard

    Cisco announced today that a number of key tech companies have agreed on an Interoperable IIoT Standard. The group, which includes ABB, BoschRexroth, B&R, Cisco, General Electric, National Instruments, Parker Hannifin, Schneider Electric, SEW Eurodrive and TTTech, is aiming for an open, unified, standards-based and interoperable IIoT solution for communication between industrial controllers and to the cloud, according to Cisco:

    ABB, Bosch Rexroth, B&R, CISCO, General Electric, KUKA, National Instruments (NI), Parker Hannifin, Schneider Electric, SEW-EURODRIVE and TTTech are jointly promoting OPC UA over Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) as the unified communication solution between industrial controllers and to the cloud.

    Based on open standards, this solution enables industry to use devices from different vendors that are fully interoperable. The participating companies intend to support OPC UA TSN in their future generations of products.

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  • Cisco: It’s Increasingly Easy to Imagine a Time When Every Device is Connected to the Internet of Things

    Cisco: It’s Increasingly Easy to Imagine a Time When Every Device is Connected to the Internet of Things

    Yves Padrines, Paris based VP, Global Service Provider EMEAR at Cisco, says that all devices will soon be connected to the internet of things (IoT).

    From the Cisco SP360: Service Provider blog:

    It’s increasingly easy to imagine a time when every device – from the street lamps on your road to the fridge in your kitchen – is connected to the internet of things. So it’s probable people will use IoT in ways we haven’t even begun to imagine.

    The automotive industry is one area where IoT is already becoming a reality. Recent research by technology consultants Chetan Sharma found that in the first quarter of 2016, there were more cars added to networks than phones (32%, compared to 31%).

    The owner of a connected car might want to subscribe to a connected vehicle care service, including options like virtual in-car assistance, sensor-based maintenance alerts, and on-board scheduling of appointments. They might also want to assess their driving safety, limit the speed a teenage driver can reach, or even monitor the health of an older family member at the wheel. And lots of organisations would be interested in the data provided by connected cars – insurance companies, emergency services, and parking providers, to name just a few.

    In the US, AT&T already has over 8 million cars on its network. AT&T used Cisco’s virtualisation technology to create a network specifically for connecting cars. They required a fundamentally new mobile architecture that would enable machine-to-machine connections. Using Cisco technology, they were able to create a network that combined virtual and physical resources.

    Of course, it isn’t just cars that can benefit from being connected. Philips has announced it sees itself as “the lighting company for the Internet of Things”, and has begun partnerships with Cisco and Vodafone. And in a further indication of IoT’s huge potential, service providers like Orange France – who last year created a low power network for machine-to-machine applications – are investing in the technology.

    Read the rest on SP360: Service Provider.

    Below is a related interview with Guillaume Gottardi, a Consulting System Engineer at Cisco Systems based in Paris, France.

    Also worth watching is Cisco’s video on their IoT advancements with General Motors cars:

  • By 2020 There Will Be 30 Billion Connected Things!

    By 2020 There Will Be 30 Billion Connected Things!

    By 2020 there will be 30 billion connected things, according to a new infographic by Cloudera. The company believes that the Internet of Things (IoT) could be an extremely disruptive force in society, basically changing everything, according to Vijay Raja, Sr. Solutions Marketing Manager for Cloudera IoT.

    “With billions of things — including everything from cars, homes, airplanes, apparels, parking meters, wearables, factories, oil rigs, and heavy machinery — connected to the internet, the Internet of Things (IoT) has the potential to be the most disruptive technological advances in recent ages.”

    IoT is Really About the Data

    Despite the name, IoT is less about things and more about the data that these things will be generating, with data streams in real-time that will need to be processed, calculated and computed into action items for both other things and humans.

    “However, IoT is going to be much more than the things itself — IoT is really going to be all about the data!” says Raja. “IoT will generate far greater volume and variety of data than most information leaders are currently familiar with — requiring re-architecting of their existing data management infrastructures. Organizations around the globe will need to adopt a more scalable, agile, and open data management architecture in order to effectively ingest, store, manage, process and, more importantly, drive insights from all of their IoT data.”

    iot-infographic

  • Are You Ready for the New Mobile Gold Rush?

    Are You Ready for the New Mobile Gold Rush?

    “Are you ready for the new mobile gold rush? Of course you’re not,” said Jim O’Leary, Sr. Manager Mobile Solutions Marketing at Cisco. “Though truth be told, the pending growth in mobile video may be more like a video tornado and only a handful of mobile operators are prepared.”

    What Jim O’Leary is talking about is the rapidly changing landscape of content viewing. Multi-device viewing is now the norm and the dumping of the old cable content bundle is well under way. Over-The-Top content (OTT), where content is consumed without going through the traditional gatekeepers such as the cable or satellite provider, is bringing complete and utter disruption to the cable and broadcast companies.

    (Related: How Google Measures Cross-Device Ad Conversions)

    However, with disruption comes opportunity.

    Video now accounts for the majority of global mobile data traffic and is forecast to be the key driver of data traffic growth globally. To date, mobile video (and the ability to monetize the content) has been dominated by Internet players, such as YouTube, Netflix, with the operator role simply one of connectivity provider.

    However, a number of operators are developing their own content delivery platforms. Singtel, Verizon and PCCW are three prominent examples of this trend, with their HOOQ, Go90 and Viu video platforms respectively. While HooQ and Viu are variants of the subscription-based model, Go90 more closely resembles the Internet business model, with a reliance on advertising for revenues and a focus on millennials. – Jim O’Leary, Cisco

    “Mobile operators across the world face the same twin challenges of slowing growth and ongoing disruption of core services by new Internet & OTT players, even as the broader mobile ecosystem continues to see significant revenue growth,” O’Leary posted. “So if you are tired of being just an operator that carries mobile video and prefer to be able to monetize it, read on.”

    Mobile Video Watching is Booming!

    O’Leary sees a significant monetization opportunity for mobile operators with video for a very good reason, the exploding growth in using mobile devices to watch videos. An On Device Research study commissioned by the IAB in 2015 (Download PDF) confirmed the changing landscape for mobile globally, with 35% watching more video on their smartphone versus last year.

    In February 2016 Cisco released a study predicting that by 2020 there will be 5.5 billion global mobile users which is up from the 4.8 billion currently, and those millions of new mobile users will be watching video too!

    More astonishing, the study says that by 2020 there will be 11.6 mobile-connected devices! This is indicative of another emerging trend, connecting ALL devices to the internet via mobile operators where internet content and data can be consumed and sometimes produced on and by these devices.

    Gartner estimates that the Internet of Things (IoT) is currently connected to 6.4 billion devices and will connect to 20.8 billion “things” by 2020. Some of these “things” will be video enabled devices as well. For instance, watching a video of how to make vegan scrambled eggs on your refrigerator door!

    Mobile Operators Can Play “Central Role” in Content

    So mobile operators have massive connectivity with virtually everyone 12 years old and up having a smart phone and if they can play a central role in providing content they can benefit from the “emerging online video value chain.” It’s about using great content to boost usage of their mobile broadband service. O’Leary believes that Verizon, Sprint, AT&T and others should take advantage of this “content opportunity” in order to cash in and drive business growth.

    The biggest impediment for mobile phone companies entering the video content space is their tendency to charge high rates for large bandwidth consumption. Mobile broadband carriers should eventually come to the realization that their businesses are tied to consumers needing them and it is in their interest to provide inexpensive ways to consume high bandwidth mobile content or they will by bypassed by new mobile broadband competitors that get it.

    Mobile is the New Video Distribution Platform

    O’Leary predicts that OTT, where the internet is used to bypass traditional content middlemen like cable, is the driving motivation that should entice broadband providers to enter the content space more aggressively over the next few years. He advocates mobile operators creating a “cloud based platform” and then partnering with content producers in order to “scale their video infrastructure efforts and deliver high-quality, live video and on-demand content to consumers on any device — be it their smartphone, tablet or connected television.”

    Content producers will likely consist of a wide variety of players from traditional sources like ESPN and Disney to well funded content upstarts such as such as Amazon, Apple, YouTube and Netflix. Content alliances between mobile operators may also include more direct deals with talent such as successful independent internet based content stars on YouTube, Vine and even Snapchat. Mobile is already the primary platform used to consume video content so the next step is to cut out the middleman and partner directly with popular content providers.

    “In growing numbers, consumers are replacing their traditional cable and satellite TV packages with smaller, more customized, and often less expensive mixes of programming, cobbled together from an array of online and on-demand services,” said O’Leary. “As more consumers replace their big-bundle TV packages with à la carte online offerings, an opportunity is emerging for mobile operators and other service providers to combine mobile broadband (MBB) packages with compelling “over the top” content.”

    Mobile operators should realize that they are the distribution platform for millennials, they are the network and they are the new cable and satellite companies. With that in mind, they don’t need the networks or cable to drive viewership and usage of their platform, they simply need great content however they can get it, even if it means becoming content creators themselves.

  • Nearly Half of Businesses Plan to Implement IoT in 2016

    Nearly Half of Businesses Plan to Implement IoT in 2016

    Nearly half (43%) of organizations spanning 18 business sectors throughout North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific and Latin America, are already using or plan to use the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2016. This comes from a November poll by technology research firm Gartner of 465 IT and business professionals in these regions.

    29% of respondents say their organizations are currently using IoT. An additional 14% say they plan to implement IoT this year while another 21% said they plan to after 2016.

    “In other words, the number of organizations adopting IoT will grow 50 percent in 2016, reaching 43 percent of organizations overall,” Gartner says. “In aggregate, the majority of organizations (64 percent) plan to eventually implement IoT. However, it is also important to note that another 38 percent have no plans to implement IoT, including 9 percent that see no relevance whatsoever in the technologies.

    “While there is near universal acceptance of the importance of the IoT, less than a third of organizations surveyed were actively exploiting it,” said Gartner Research Director Chet Geschickter. “This is largely because of two reasons. The first set of hurdles are business-related. Many organizations have yet to establish a clear picture of what benefits the IoT can deliver, or have not yet invested the time to develop ideas for how to apply IoT to their business. The second set of hurdles are the organizations themselves. Many of the survey participants have insufficient expertise and staffing for IoT and lack clear leadership.”

    The firm estimates that more than half (56%) of businesses in asset-intensive industries will have implemented IoT by the end of 2016, and that a third (36%) of service-oriented “light” businesses will.

    So far, for businesses who have already implemented IoT, the primary business case, according to Gartner, is internally focused, such as improved efficiencies, cost savings, and enhanced asset utilization, as opposed to external-facing IoT implementations for enhancing customer experiences or increasing revenue.

    Cybersecurity, integration and management of business requirements are considered to be the biggest challenges associated with the IoT. Still, 2016 is poised to be a “very big year” for IoT adoption, according to Gartner.

    Image via iStock

  • Microsoft And Others Work on IoT Standards For Companies And Developers

    Microsoft And Others Work on IoT Standards For Companies And Developers

    Tech heavyweights including Microsoft, Samsung, Intel, Qualcomm, Cisco, ARRIS, Electrolux, CableLabs, and GE Digital announced the formation of the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) aimed at helping to unify Internet of Things (IoT) standards so businesses and developers can create IoT solutions and devices that cooperate with one another.

    According to the announcement, the OCF, which unifies the former Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC) with various companies, will work to accelerate industry innovation and collaborate on specifications, protocols, and open source projects so that a wide range of consumer, enterprise, and embedded devices and sensors from a variety of makers can seamlessly (and securely) work together.

    The goal is to make it so that billions of connected devices, appliances, phones, computers, and industrial machines can communicate with one another regardless of manufacturer, operating system, chipset, or transport.

    Terry Myerson, EVP, Windows and Devices Group at Microsoft said, “The OCF will help consolidate industry attention and create opportunity, via an agreed upon set of protocols that move the world forward. We are designing Windows 10 to be the ideal operating system and Azure to be the best cloud companion for Things, and for both of them to interoperate with all Things. Windows 10 devices will natively support the new OCF standard, making it easy for Windows to discover, communicate, and orchestrate multiple IoT devices in the home, in business, and beyond. We look forward to seeing the innovation this new standard will enable for all customers and the endless opportunities it will create for developers.”

    “OIC has been working to develop a standard specification for IoT devices, and at the same time developing IoTivity as an open source reference implementation,” said SeungHwan Cho, Executive Vice President and Deputy Head of Software R&D Center at Samsung. “We welcome these leaders in their fields to OCF, which we believe will become the most diverse global organization developing IoT standards and code.”

    You can learn more about the Foundation and peruse various resources here.

    Image via OCF (Twitter)

  • AWS IoT Is Now Generally Available

    AWS IoT Is Now Generally Available

    Amazon announced that the AWS IoT, which launched in beta a few months ago, is now generally available. This is the company’s managed cloud platform that lets connected devices interact with cloud applications and other devices.

    In a post on the AWS blog, Amazon’s Jeff Barr writes:

    We built AWS IoT because connected devices are proliferating. They are in your house, your car, your office, your school, and perhaps even in your body! Like some of our more advanced customers, we have been building systems around connected devices for quite some time. Our experience with Amazon Robotics, drones (Amazon Prime Air), the Amazon Echo, the Dash Button, and multiple generations of Kindles has given us a well-informed perspective on how to serve this really important emerging market. Behind the scenes, AWS services such as AWS Lambda, Amazon API Gateway, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Kinesis, Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), and Amazon Redshift provide the responsive, highly scalable infrastructure needed to build a robust IoT application.

    When we talked to our customers and to our own engineers, we learned quite a bit about the pain points that add complexity and development time to IoT applications. They told us that connecting devices to the cloud is overly complex due to the variety of SDKs and protocols that they need to support in a secure and scalable fashion. Making this even more difficult is the fact that many devices “feature” intermittent connectivity to the Internet, even as application logic shifts from the device to the cloud. Finally, the sheer volume of data generated by the sensors attached to the devices mandates a Big Data approach to storage, analytics, and visualization.

    In the post, Barr talks about how the Philips HealthSuite platform and Scout Alarm are using AWS IoT. Uses cases Amazon highlights include: agriculture, cars/trucks, consumer devices, gaming, home automation, logistics, medical, municipal infrastructure, oil/gas, and robotics.

    You can find the documentation here.

    Image via Amazon

  • Infobright Internet Of Things Database Joins ThingWorx Partner Program

    Internet of Things database analytics platform provider Infobright announced that it has joined the ThingWorx Ready partner program, which enables hardware and software companies to integrate products to make it easier to create and deploy Internet of Things solutions.

    Infobright joins B&B Electronics, Digi, Eurotech, GROK, ISS Connectivity, Kepware, Kore Telematics, Libelium, Novatel Wireless, Option, SigFox, Systech, and Wyless in the program.

    As part of the program, Infobright is now providing IoT and machine-to-machine app developers with an analytic database that can be used by apps built on the ThingWorx IoT platform. As a result, developers can store, manage, and analyze large volumes of machine data being generated by IoT apps.

    “We are thrilled to be part of the ThingWorx Ready Partner program to help power the data analytics needs of solution providers as the IoT prepares to explode into a reality,” said Infobright CEO Don DeLoach. “ThingWorx is rapidly expanding their IoT platform ecosystem. Infobright brings unique, value added capabilities, such as in-stream creation and exploitation of metadata. This allows for scalable and cost effective storage of massive amounts of IoT and M2M data. There are no brute force hardware and administrative requirements that you see with more general purpose solutions, giving solution developers and data scientists the ability to take the Internet of Things from the possible to the practical.”

    “Infobright complements the ThingWorx IoT platform by simplifying the data pipeline. As the Internet of Things continues its exponential growth, Infobright delivers the integral analytics piece of the puzzle to aid in the designing, building, and running of M2M and IoT applications,” said Chris Kuntz, VP of Ecosystem Programs at ThingWorx. “With Infobright, customers can now benefit from extremely fast ad-hoc query capability. Customers no longer have to worry about the nuts and bolts that go into data analysis and instead can focus on extracting valuable intelligence from their data sets.”

    InfoBright Enterprise Edition is embedded in hundreds of applications, and according to the company, reaches almost every telecom service provider and Fortune 1000 enterprise.

    Image via ThingWorx

  • Adobe Aims To Improve ‘Internet of Things’ Marketing

    Adobe Aims To Improve ‘Internet of Things’ Marketing

    Adobe held its digital marketing conference Adobe Summit, and made a slew of marketing-related announcements

    “The product and partner announcements cover where marketing is going next: bringing digital experiences to the physical world, IoT and wearable devices, mobile marketing innovations for the entire app lifecycle, and the convergence of marketing and ad technologies,” a spokesperson for Adobe tells WebProNews.

    Connecting Businesses and Consumers via the Internet of Things

    First off, Adobe Marketing Cloud is getting an upgrade related to the Internet of things (IoT). The company says it’s enabling brands to bring “highly personalized experiences” to physical spaces like retail stores, hotel rooms, vending machines and other IoT devices. It’s doing so by offering a new IoT SDK to let brands measure and analyze consumer engagement across any of these devices.

    “What’s driving this is the digital transformation of the enterprise, catalyzed by the marketing department. Previously siloed, marketing data is now being used in concert with data collected by other departments like sales and customer service, creating a richer view of the customer,” Adobe says.

    “Marketing is moving beyond existing digital channels to include new physical experiences in the real world,” said Adobe SVP of DIgital Marketing Brad Rencher. “Adobe Marketing Cloud helps brands use their online marketing data to create unparalleled personalization in retail, entertainment, and travel and leisure experiences.”

    In addition to the SDK, Adobe has new “Experience Manager Screens,” which it says enable marketers to extend interactive content to these physical spaces with one author user experience to ensure consistency across devices. It supports multi-touch so content can easily move among screen sizes. It’s all tied into Creative Cloud.

    “Adobe Experience Manager Screens allows us to redefine the way clothing lines are designed and displayed,” comments Jody Giles, SVP of Product Integration at Under Armour. “Instead of physical samples, we are able to create rich digital designs and experiences in record time and extend them to our Catalog app. We can also see customers using the technology in our stores and engaging with our brand on life-size touch screens.”

    Marketing Cloud also has new “intelligent location” capabilities, which let businesses tap into GPS and iBeacon data to optimize their physical brand presences.

    “With the visualization of iBeacon data, brands are able to view traffic patterns and customer engagements within retail stores, sports stadiums, airports, hotels, museums and other points of interests,” the company explains. “Marketers can view and measure dwell times throughout the day, consumer interactions with push notifications and in-app messages triggered by iBeacons and more. The visualization of data enables them to reconfigure store layouts and optimize the display of merchandise to fully maximize ROI.”

    As Marketing Cloud users can now reach IoT devices, Adobe Target now supports digital content testing, optimization, and personalization across them. Content can be served on ATMs, gas pumps, game consoles, car dashboards, appliances, etc. based on users’ personal interests. Adobe says it uses “predictive, yet anonymous” data including CRM and third-party sources to personalize content in real time. Businesses will be able to analyze engagement using Mobile Core Services and Adobe Analytics.

    According to a consumer survey, the top IoT devices consumers want to interact with digitally are home electronics (61%), home appliances like thermostats, fridges, or ovens (54%), and cars (51%). 27% of those who don’t currently own a smartwatch say they are very likely to buy one in next 6 months, while 67% of those said they were very likely to buy Apple Watch (I wonder what percentage plan on buying a $17,000 model).

    77% said it would be useful to receive promotions while inside a store (j84% for 18-34 year-olds), and 74% of marketers see great potential in impact of IoT and wearables.

    Mobile Marketing and App Development

    Also at the summit, Adobe introduced some new stuff for Adobe Mobile Services, including a new mobile app framework that brings together Adobe Experience Manager Apps, Adobe PhoneGap Enterprise, Adobe Analytics – Mobile Apps, and Adobe Target.

    “Adobe Digital Index data shows a new record in the use of mobile devices and yet, building a successful mobile app experience today remains a mystery for many marketers,” said Matt Asay, vice president, Mobile Strategy at Adobe. “They struggle to synthesize a myriad of different mobile tools that address very specific needs. With Adobe Mobile Services, we will dramatically simplify this process, making it easy for marketers to build and optimize their apps.”

    The framework includes tools to aid in development, user acquisition, app analytics, and user engagement. The spokesperson says it “delivers the complete, integrated solution in the industry for developing and managing apps, and is the first to eliminate marketers’ dependence on an array of disjointed point solutions.”

    Adobe has added six new app tech providers to its partner ecosystem, including: Fiksu, Vibes, Kochava, Ionic, Crittercism, and appFigures. Each is integrating its tools into the framework.

    “Adobe Analytics clients will be provided with mobile app store data including: app downloads, app and in-app revenue, returns, ranks and ratings,” a spokesperson for appFigures tells WebProNews. “Data provided by appFigures will be updated in near real-time. With app store data directly available in their dashboards, marketers and developers will have more insightful data to base their mobile decisions on.”

    That particular integration is expected to be available in Q2.

    Data-Driven Marketing and Ad Tech

    Adobe also introduced a new algorithmic engine and updates to its Marketing Cloud Audience Core Services to “bring together the worlds of data-driven marketing and ad tech.”

    This involves integrating programmatic buying natively to put the marketplace right in front of the marketer as they put it.

    “New Audience Core Services enable brands to connect massive audience and behavioral data from a broad range of sources, including CRM systems, websites and apps while a new set of algorithms lets them reach those audiences with paid media through Adobe Media Optimizer,” the company says.

    “We believe programmatic efforts to date are broken and focus simply on display ad bidding,” adds John Mellor, VP of Digital Marketing at Adobe. “Having a one-stop shop for all your targeting and data as well as transparency into technology pricing and media costs is a big step towards true programmatic. The ability to share audience segments across other Adobe Marketing Cloud Solutions brings that data to life across channels and ensures that audiences are seeing the same message no matter where marketers connect with them.”

    Partnership with IBM

    Adobe has also partnered with IBM Interactive Experience, which is building specialized enterprise consulting capabilities for Marketing Cloud.

    “A recent IBM Institute for Business Value study indicates that there is a disconnect between what consumers say they want from digital experiences and how they actually behave,” said Paul Papas, Global Leader, IBM Interactive Experience. “Today’s announcement will help marketers close the gap between expectations and experience using a combinations of Adobe Marketing Cloud and the services of IBM Interactive Experience, a unique digital agency that brings together experience design, systems integration and strategy consulting.”

    Adobe is also expanding its alliance with Accenture with a new cloud-based managed service based on Marketing Cloud. More on that here.

    According to Adobe, 76% of the Fortune 50 utilize Marketing Cloud, as do 9 of the top 10 internet retailers and all of the top 5 media companies and top 10 software companies.

  • Supply Chains To Be Significantly Impacted By Huge Growth Of ‘Internet Of Things’

    Supply Chains To Be Significantly Impacted By Huge Growth Of ‘Internet Of Things’

    Gartner is predicting a 30-fold increase in Internet-connected physical devices within the next six years, and says this will “significantly” alter how the supply chain operates, and create more “cyber-risk exposure”.

    So how much is a 30-fold increase exactly? We’re talking about 26 billion devices on the “Internet of Things”. For comparison, it was more like 0.9 billion just five years ago (Facebook just turned 10 if that helps add some perspective for you).

    With regards to how this will change the supply chain, it’s all about the flood of information that comes along with having so many connected devices. This will, of course, vary by industry.

    “It’s important to put IoT maturity into perspective, because of the fast pace at which it is emerging, so supply chain strategists need to be looking at its potential now,” said Gartner managing vice president Michael Burkett. “Some IoT devices are more mature, such as commercial telematics now used in trucking fleets to improve logistics efficiency. Some, such as smart fabrics that use sensors within clothing and industrial fabrics to monitor human health or manufacturing processes, are just emerging.”

    “Supply chain leaders must design their processes to operate in this digital business world,” said Burkett. “This includes fulfilling the new expectations of customers and the volatile demands that digital marketing will create. A future supply chain will meet those expectations by converging people, business and things in a digital value network, and incorporating fast-emerging capabilities such as IoT and smart machines into this design strategy.”

    The firm makes the point that as the quantity of connected devices increases, greater fragmentation will occur while marketing budgets continue to increase. In other words, marketing efforts will have a broader array of devices to target, but all of that data from said devices should open up some interesting targeting opportunities at the same time.

    You can find a lot more insights into the subject in Gartner’s new report “Digital Marketing, Internet of Things and 3D Printing Are Digital-Business-Driven Disruptions for Supply Chains.”

    Gartner will discuss issues facing the supply chain industry at its Supply Chain Executive Conferences in May and September in Phoenix and London respectively.

    Image via Gartner