The ever-growing collection of things which are connected to the internet, which range from the smartphones of the 21st century to the sensor equipped robots that we now deal with, is what the IoT (Internet of Things) is all about. It is the new rage that has taken over both businesses and everyday life. The world of business has been taken over by the internet and in today’s business world, which is both fast paced and mind boggling, you need to be well versed with how a business can become adapted to IoT. If you are a business owner, and you have done the research you will be able to understand the uses of incorporating IoT as a part of your business plan, so that it gives you an upper hand. The data available on IoT will tell you how businesses have benefited from it and that it has proved its worth time and time again to a number of businesses.
The internet of things (IoT) has become an integral part of businesses today, regardless of the industry which you may belong to. There may even be instances where you may not realize how IoT has been incorporated into your business. For example, it may be playing a role in your business in something as simple as a smart lightbulb which you have in place for an efficient office environment, or it can be a part of a more complex system such as an interconnected network of industrial machines which are used for assessment of quality control in the manufacturing process. You may be utilizing the Internet of Things in more ways than one in your business, and sometimes not even realizing it. Whatever the manner in which IoT has been incorporated into your business, it proves one thing, that IoT is here to stay.
What exactly is the Internet of Things (IoT)?
According to https://journalofbigdata.springeropen.com/ the Internet of Things can be defined as an emerging paradigm that enables the communication between electronic devices and sensors through the internet in order to facilitate our lives. IoT is an innovation that puts together an extensive variety of smart systems, frameworks and intelligent devices and sensors. Moreover, it takes advantage of quantum and nanotechnology in terms of storage, sensing and processing speeds which were not conceivable beforehand.
The Internet of Things makes it possible for any object which has a sensor embedded in it to be able to share, which includes both sending and receiving data, with other similar devices. This capability enables a wide range of actions to be performed in both day-to-day life and businesses. The devices that can become a part of IoT include something as simple as a smart lightbulb to something as complex as a network of industrial machines and everything in between including speakers, vehicles and your smartphones – basically any item that can communicate back to the internet.
Popularity of IoT on the rise:
The popularity of IoT is rising so rapidly that the analysts at International Data Corporation (IDC) predict more than 55.7 billion connected devices will be in the marketplace by 2025, with 75% of these devices connected to an IoT platform. It has become an important aspect of our lives which can be sensed everywhere you turn. This is because the Internet of Things makes use of two things which we cannot live without in the modern day, smart devices and the internet. Using the two it helps us find innovative solutions to a number of challenges we come across in businesses as well as other private and public industries.
There has been extensive research done on the effectiveness of the Internet of Things and its applications, including scientific reports and press reports. These studies show us that the uses and potential of IoT is far greater than what we can imagine and many of its uses are yet to be identified. But for now, businesses can utilize the Internet of Things to further make their operations more streamlined, effective and successful. IoT is important for businesses because it can be used to effectively and efficiently collect data on the various processes, conditions and other behaviors involved in the business. This information can further be processed using the Internet of Things and used in order to take various actions to improve and bring about an effective change in the business, which will enhance the profitability of the said process. There are many uses of IoT within the business set up and the possibilities are never-ending if you know how to effectively make use of IoT.
Many businesses around the world are making use of the IoT trends which helps to shape their business distinctively and helps them to improve their various business processes. According to https://www.hdatasystems.com/ there are a number of trends which are currently being used to adopt business intelligence to IoT devices. These include:
- Data fabric – collection, curation and simplification of the data that is being collected with regard to the business is an important aspect that we have to consider. This is a crucial aspect for any organization. With the use of IoT this data can be better connected with the demographics, and the changes made to the procedures can be customized according to what the processed data reveals. This reduces the need for extensive examination into the data that is collected and also eliminates the need for a special technical team that has to evaluate the data.
- Cloud Native Platforms – there have been a significant number of businesses which have made use of the cloud for various purposes throughout recent years. The cloud offers interminable space for businesses with the security of knowing their data is safe regarding the most delicate of matters.
- Autonomous systems – are systems which will be able to adjust to new environments. This includes both physical systems and software systems which will not have to be updated in order to adapt to the changes which are occurring in the environment which surrounds them. They will be systems which will actually want to change according to the situation so that work will go on without any interruption.
- AI Systems – the use of AI systems within a business set up will empower representatives of the business to work more independently and also help them address in no time. An AI system can be optimized to reach the targets of a specific business, all the time ensuring that this is done in the shortest space of time. This allows businesses to spend all their resources on trying to open new doors for the business, rather than wasting precious time trying to improve existing systems.
As a business owner when reading the above-mentioned trends, you may have started to wonder how to go about incorporating and connecting business intelligence to IoT devices. Well, below are a few ways in which this can be achieved. According to https://www.hdatasystems.com/ these are the top ways in which you can connect business intelligence to IoT devices.
- Come up with an objective and make a strategy – the first step in trying to incorporate IoT devices within your business set up is to come up with an objective for your business and make a strategy as to how you want to go about achieving these objectives. When you don’t know what you want to achieve there will be no way for you to figure out what is the data that you require to make the decisions. When you have a clear idea about what has to be achieved, various IoT devices can be used to collect the data that you need, for you to come up with a much-improved business process.
- Creating a data backup – when you have a clear idea about the data that you require, the next step you need to get into is creating a space to store this data, depending on the size of the business the volume of the data collected will vary. But on most occasions the data you will be collecting and trying to process will be huge. You will need a significant amount of storage space for this data. This is where the cloud administrations come into play. There are a number of cloud service providers you can choose from such as Google Cloud, Azure and others who will ensure secure storage of data for your business. You also have to keep in mind that simply storing the data you collected will not suffice. You need to have a backup of all the data that you store with regard to your business. You can choose which set of data you need a backup of, keeping one only for the fundamentally important information, and choosing not to back up the rest of the data.
- Preparation and training of data – the term data preparation refers to the way in which the data that you collect is segregated and grouped to give you specific information. IoT devices can be used to isolate the data you receive in an appropriate manner. The way to go about this is to create a gateway or focal center point. Various intelligence tools can be used to create this focal center point so that your data can be segregated into the appropriate classes.
- Data examination – when the data you receive has been segregated in the line with your requirements, you need to then go about analyzing this data. There are many different data analysis tools which can be used for this purpose, so that the information you yield provides some light to your business inclinations. The purpose of data examination is to help the experts recognize patterns and data changes.
In conclusion you can understand that the Internet of Things is here to stay, and the sooner you adapt to the use of it, the better it will be for your business. You need to have a sound knowledge on how you want to go about incorporating IoT within your business process, so that the profit margins can be increased. Even though you may have a sound knowledge on IoT and how you can go about setting it up for your business, it is always best to get in the experts to work for you.