What is this Internet of Things? And why should you care?

The internet has been around for a while, but it’s been mostly the product of people. So all the data, images, coding, games, books and commerce was all about created by people, for people, and about people. The internet is the most important and transformable technologies ever invented. It’s like a digital fabric that is holding in the life of all of us in one way or another.

The internet of people changes the world. This new internet is not just about connecting people, it’s about connecting things and so it’s named the Internet of Things.

This is the only channel where things start sharing experiences with other things. Well, how is that works? It works like this……..You take things and you add the ability to sense and communicate, touch and control and their things get the opportunity to interact and collaborate with other things.

Let's just take an example to make it easier!

We as human beings interact, contribute, and collaborate with other people in our own environment through five senses. Smell, Touch, Taste, Hearing, and Sight. We imagined things with the ability to sense with touch and then add the ability to communicate and that’s where the internet of people and internet of things intersect.

Let’s take another example

How about smartphones? You don’t believe how many senses your smartphone has. It knows where we are, it knows if we are moving, it knows that we are holding it, it knows the light in the room, it knows that you holding it near to your face and it also has eyes to look at the surrounding. And most importantly it also has the ability to communicate over a wireless network.

Some of the example of IOT devices that are making difference in our day to day life

Smart bands 

Tracks your steps, tracks your activity, and that even knows how well you slept, and that can communicate over a network. The beauty of it is that it can sense your sleep cycle and it knows the most opportunist moment to gracefully wake you up by gently vibrating and blinking light. 

Thermostat  

All most of us are having this on our home or some version of one of these. Thermostat knows more than just the temperature in the room. It knows whether you are in the room or not. It learns and tracks the home to ensure comfort and save energy. It also communicates on a network so you can control it from very far.

Light bulbs

Using smart light bulbs you can create several moods in terms of brightness, teeming and so on. But because they communicate on a network they know how to listen. So you can tell them or other things can tell them to turn on, off or blink.

There are a lot of things that are manufactured and build before the internet of things. And the good thing is that we have tool and systems to allow you to have sensing and communication capability to existence.

The same way one thing communicates with other things. How about a chain of events starts to curve every morning when you wake up. One device sending a message or communicating with your fans to start up and drove cool morning air inside the house when the temperature gets heat up and not allowing you to turn on your air conditioner.

Big Business Care 

The Internet of Things is changing much about the world we are living in. From the way we drive to how we make the purchases and even how we get energy for our homes. Sophisticated sensors and chips are embedded in the physical things that surround us. Each transmitting valuable data. Data that lets us better understand how these things work and work together. But how exactly these devices share such large quantities of data and how do we put that information to work.

Whether we are improving the production of a factory, giving city residents real-time updates on where to park or monitoring our personal health. Its common internet of thing platform that develops information together and provides the common language to the devices and apps to communicate with each other. The process starts with the devices itself which securely communicates with the internet of Things platform.

This platform integrates the data from many devices and applies analytics to share the most valuable data with an application that address industry-specific needs.

The care for the billions of the dollars that are making huge investments in weapons of farms on the 

Internet of Things. IBM is been in this for the longest time under the banner of SMART PLANET, Google as Nest and Apple launching the watches and phones.

IOT defines n numbers of virtual interaction between the devices. It is growing fast and maybe by 2020 there will be 50 billion devices connected globally. Driven largely by smart city initiatives as the government makes the city more intelligent.

There are five segments of the IOT value chain

1. Objects, that can be connected to the internet from thermos stands to the smart refrigerator and electrical grades. Leading players includes CICSO, nest, Samsung, Cooper, GE.
2. Translation Networks, which captures, stores and share data across devices ex: NFC, BLUETOOTH.
3. Connectivity which refers to the connection of the sensors to the internet over private networks. Major connectivity providers include singtel, AT&T, Celcom.
4. Platforms that connect the sensors together, automating them and enabling easy monitoring. Like telenor, Jasper, Ericsson, Conversant, Ascent, and Tridium.
5. Finally the Application themselves from enterprise solutions like ERPs, CRMs, SCMs, Analytics, Apps for ex: Crosspoint, Capriza.

No matter where you are following the chain, there are few questions you should ask about any IOT company.

1. How big is there network or partners? Who can provide complementary services?
2. Is their solution compatible? With other services & devices.
3. Is it easy to use? With an intuitive design
4. How many application deployments do they have?

Unlike some other online industries valuing, IOT Company is pretty straight forward. In the early stage, customer interaction is key. So the revenue growth and monthly active users are key metrics to consider.