Consumer Internet of Things: Everything You Should Know To Improve Your Tech Experience

What is Consumer IoT?

Consumer Internet of Things (Consumer IoT) is the integration of IoT into regular consumer applications and devices. The Internet of Things (IoT) is quite a vast phenomenon, quickly changing how people live and interact with their surroundings without us even realizing its full impact.

This article will comprehensively outline what consumer IoT is and its crucial role in developing a smart world.

How does it differ from Industrial IoT?

The Consumer Internet of Things sector serves a wider variety of tech and applications than you’ll witness in industrial IoT. Examples include smartphones, smart home products, and some wearable devices like smartwatches.

IoT has been more inclined to serve consumers individually.

Larger investments are getting made to fuel the development of Industrial Internet of Things applications: IoT’s integration with different industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, and agricultural markets.

The Same Difference

People often reference the term IoT plainly, regardless of whether it’s industrial IoT or consumer IoT. An exciting reality is emerging from the two-way use of some IoT applications for both consumers and Industrial IoT. Use cases of IoT applications and devices designed for consumers are quite diverse.

Some consumer applications of IoT can also address business goals and, contrariwise:

IoT Use Cases: A Practical Illustration

Some IoT use cases need to emerge relevant to both consumer and industrial markets. IoT use cases are the goals for which the IoT application gets developed. Here’s an overview of the market distribution.

Cross-industry IoT use Cases

An example of a cross-industry IoT use case is the application of IoT in asset tracking and monitoring. In this situation, a consumer would consider asset tracking to monitor their valuable belongings or pets.

Whereas in factories, mining firms, or smart cities, IoT applications track essential business assets, fleets, and equipment. Even if the motives for implementation vary, the use-case serves the same purpose.

Also, a consumer is unlikely to combine IoT asset tracking with IoT equipment monitoring for maintenance, or use sensors to analyze environmental conditions as applied in real-time air quality monitoring for an innovative smart-city application.

Top Consumer IoT Applications

Here’s a quick perusal of a comprehensive list of some top-rated consumer applications of IoT and consumer devices:

Home Security and Smart Homes
Smart home security is soaring, with significant consumer IoT applications emerging and becoming more patent. For instance, you can now prevent home invasions and unauthorized entries by using IoT devices to secure your property and alert you should anything unusual occur. Home security is amongst the many highlights of intelligent homes and integrations of IoT-connected devices with household appliances.

Other consumer IoT examples propelling smart homes include temperature control, smart entertainment systems, lighting, and locks, to name a few. One significant consumer IoT example contributing to smart homes is Amazon’s Echo, a Bluetooth speaker powered by amazon’s voice assistant, Alexa: which directly integrates with several smart home devices.

Asset Tracking–Monitoring Personal Valuables
Consumer IoT makes it easier for people to keep track of personal assets. You can even track pets and animals using GPS monitoring systems. Pet owners easily monitor the whereabouts of their pets, in case they wander off. Asset tracking IoT applications enable the tracking of anything. You easily maintain coverage over vast areas, so long IoT connections are available for low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN).

Smart Healthcare
Personal wearables play major roles in monitoring body conditions. Consumer IoT applications have improved personal healthcare by introducing wearable IoT-connected devices that transmit data to people’s doctors, loved ones, or kin. The Consumer Internet of Things is growing tremendously with increased demand for the development of personal healthcare IoT devices. Their use is also emerging as common practice in various sports.

Doctors now also leverage them to stay engaged with clients’ needs and their health. Many consumer IoT devices can now monitor your sleep, heart rate, blood sugar, and other variables. Imagine this, The Hexoskin; a smart Garment that has textile sensors embedded into comfortable fabrics to take a precise reading of consumer’s respiratory, cardiac, and critical body activities. Data gets presented and reported using a Hexoskin IoT Connected Health Platform.

Wearables: Industrial-Consumer Overlapping
With their popularity growing beyond fitness trackers and smartwatches, wearables are changing people’s lives; how they work, interact, and maintain high performance. Ongoing research is propagating the development of next-generation smart wearables which depend less on smartphones to be helpful.

Although most wearables on the market are consumer electronics, they are also commonly used to maintain safety and protect industry and factory workers. Meaning they are also effective and helpful in the Industrial Internet of Things.

Consumer IoT, Wireless Devices, and Remote Applications
Remote control devices have a seamlessly minimal range of effectiveness. Which requires physical presence within maximum range limits. Consumer IoT has eliminated all constraints upheld by distance. People can operate the connected personal IoT device from anywhere.

Consumer Internet of Things is giving people complete flexibility when going about their lives and it’s also improving personal safety; you can remotely shut down certain equipment and appliances in time of any accidents. It’s also proving to be very helpful in energy conservation.

Consumer IoT and Personal Security

Despite IoT having many industrial initiatives; Security remains a major concern in IoT. Especially with the rapid development of the consumer Internet of Things, enabling unlimited capacity to connect multiple devices to IoT networks.

Before making any purchase as an IoT consumer; research the right applications by reputable developers. This will help you purchase relevant, helpful solutions and devices. Consumers seamlessly lack adequate awareness regarding the risks of having IoT-connected personal devices. Equip yourself with updated IoT security information and choose relevant IoT solutions for use with necessary devices.

The Future of Consumer IoT Devices

Statista reports that 75.44 billion devices will have global connections by 2025. The latest technologies like the 5G network are fueling excessive growth for IoT; Faster network connections will expand the operational capabilities of IoT-connected devices. Eliminating any limitations between reality and the digital world.

Let’s note that IoT serves not only consumers.

Cities and companies are increasingly employing IoT technologies to save on time and avoidable expenses by automating things such as traffic management using IoT data collection and video footage.

Advantages of Internet of Things: 6 Benefits You Should Know

There are many advantages of internet of things that come with unlimited capabilities to merge with digital and mechanical equipment, animals, plants, or humans. Also, the environment. Thanks to interrelated computing devices, IoT technology seamlessly enables businesses to drive value by providing unlimited capacity to install sensors on different devices and objects used to record and distribute data over the internet.

Advantages of Internet of Things

Our primary focus here is the present reality of the advantages that the many IoT devices on the market bring as benefits to businesses and consumers.

Increasing Revenue Streams and Business Development
Data gets collected using the internet and artificial intelligence IoT devices to supply businesses with the capacity to apply advanced analytics and gather insights that help to track revenue growth and business development opportunities. The data helps analyze top customer trends, establish a baseline, and underlines eminent revenue growth opportunities.

IoT-connected devices facilitate the rapid development of new products and services in the market.IoT in data collection helps businesses gather customer insight and gives businesses an upper hand when developing customer-centric products and services.

Increase Customer Interaction
Business development and marketing departments can simply use the data IoT devices provide to underline customer trends and optimize customer communication. Especially the ones dealing with consumer IoT devices.The unlimited capabilities of IoT present many business opportunities to upscale and boost customer interaction levels. Increasing customer interaction can really improve trust and boost retention. What better way to do it than to use efficient artificial intelligence IoT devices?

Predictive Capabilities and Efficient Operation
A major key to success for any business lies in its ability to collect consumer data efficiently, analyze it, and convert it into actionable insights. There are many IoT devices that help increase this smart capability and bring enormous technological benefits to both the customer and the business. You can build customer loyalty by delivering timeless products and services using IoT-connected devices.

As a business, using interrelated computing devices provides precision-based insights which will fortify your competitive advantage and build you an invaluable moat over the long term. Businesses can use historical data to underline business trends and avoid problems before they emerge.

Improve Monitoring
Smart sensors and IoT devices breed the unlimited capacity to manage a network of business assets effectively. Some businesses may require multiple data IoT devices and layers of network infrastructure to interact with customers. IoT helps optimize how data gets collected and distributed to improve network performance. Let’s quickly analyze how retail IoT applications are used to provide an effortless shopping journey for customers.

Interrelated computing devices use video and motion-sensing software to monitor customers’ interactions with products around the store.The aisles have eyesData gets transferred in real-time. Depending on the store, they may direct an associate to assist the customer or analyze store layouts for more efficient customer visits. Retail IoT applications enable the quick implementation of successful digital marketing strategies.

Business Process Optimization
The Internet of Things in business helps structure data visibility and improves the capturing of anomalies during data collection for controlled processes. Perhaps you need to increase response rates and improve service delivery; IoT can help analyze your business infrastructure and provide insight into how you can improve business processes. Besides, enlarging operational capacities, IoT presents great business optimization opportunities.

Using artificial intelligence IoT devices and sensors optimizes the maintenance costs of business assets. You can use the data gathered by monitoring systems to ensure business equipment runs at peak performance and efficiency. Performance glitches get detected before they negatively impact business operations.IoT replaces unwarranted downtime because of repairs with smooth operations and productivity by improving business maintenance workflow.

World Class Products and Services
Multi-lateral firms have exploited the importance of using IoT-connected devices to improve their products and services. Increasing Internet of Things integrations underlines a persevering industrial revolution for smaller companies, especially with about 80% of businesses already using IoT platforms in operations.

The Internet of Things is spearheading world-class customer experience. We can agree that unwarranted interruptions when you are receiving a service or delivering one can be pretty exasperating on both ends. IoT surpasses human capabilities when tracking and looking for hiccups during service delivery.

What the Internet of Things? Understand How Tech Is Making Life Easy in 2021

IoT and The Digital Revolution

The emergence of IoT has birthed enormous game-changing opportunities for virtually every business and individual out there. You must hop on the digital transformation wagon if you are not considering it already. Would you like to learn more about how to fortify your business success story? Contact us for a quick chat on the benefits of IoT that your business may miss out on.

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How does IoT work? The 4 key components You Should Know.

The Internet of Things extends a wide variety of applications with unlimited capabilities across many industries. Each application and example of IoT highlights four different integrations of elements: Sensors/devices, Connectivity, Data Processing, and User Interface.

You can now stop asking yourself, how does IoT Work? This article will quickly outline each IoT component’s importance and role in fulfilling a valuable Internet of Things.

How Does IoT Work?

Some IoT applications may permit the user to trigger and execute an action and alter the system remotely. For example, one may use an app on their screen to adjust temperatures in a test lab or storage room. Also, some artificial intelligence IoT devices may complete actions automatically, minus waiting for the user to trigger them.

But it all depends upon:

  1. IoT Sensors/Devices
    Sensors are necessary to gather data from the environment consistently. Their primary function is to enable connected IoT devices to collect and transfer relevant data for real-time processing.The Internet of Things leverages Sensors or Devices to gather data from connected environments, and the sensors and devices can be chosen or modified based on the requirement. Targeted sensors like smoke detectors or temperature detectors are used for specific purposes, whereas devices like beacons and QR codes with logos can be used for multiple applications. Sensors are essential in the smooth running of IoT processes because multiple sensors can get installed on a connected device and collect different aspects of necessary data. For instance, a mobile phone has a camera, fingerprint scanner, facial recognition, GPS, weather forecast, etc.Sensors and IoT devices collect data and deposit it into the cloud.
  2. Connectivity
    For data gathered by sensors to get into the cloud, it needs an uninterrupted channel for transmission.Sensors and Interrelated computing devices get connected to the cloud via various methods, including Satellite networks, mobile, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, router, or with a direct internet connection using ethernet.Selecting which connectivity channel to use depends on your specific IoT application. Still, the primary aim of connectivity channels is to transfer data onto cloud platforms.
  3. Data Processing
    After data successfully uploads to the cloud, computing software, and big-data analytics process it to render it comprehensive and insightful for the end-user.For instance, night vision and motion sensors can detect unauthorized activity within a defined parameter. Still, the signals get sent to the user via an alert or video footage.
  4. User Interface
    IoT leverages a user interface to make data ready and practical for consumption by an end-user. The IoT-connected devices display the processed information on a dashboard or alert the user via any set and viable notification, as real-time system monitoring occurs.IoT enables provisions for live system monitoring using a mobile phone or a web browser app. For example, an operator may get a text alert when there is a fault in a production line. The user possesses an interface that enables them to review the ongoing processes within their operations.

Key Takeaway

An IoT system works in harmony with sensors/devices to collect and relay information between the user and the cloud using internet network connectivity. The cloud provides storage for all collected data. See what Gartner says.

Cloud Computing software and Big-data process and make it ready for actionable use. Some IoT applications send an alert or make necessary changes automatically to enhance the practical usability of the data accumulated by the sensors/devices without human intervention. Suppose user input is necessary; a user interface enables complete control and auditing of gathered data.

Internet of Things Examples: 12 Practical Ways To Better Your Understanding

The Internet of Things has transformed how people do business and live daily life. IoT applications being merged with artificial intelligence IoT devices have projected technological breakthroughs that promise to improve human interactions with the environment and enhance decision-making, efficiency, convenience, wellness, and energy conservation.

Years from now, the world will connect in ways that are pretty hard to imagine today.

Internet of Things Examples

Real-time data collection and analysis using sensor technologies enables easy tracking of almost every aspect of human interactions and the environment. Data IoT devices have empowered businesses with next-level insights and development tools. Business process optimization is now more straightforward, and customer relationships get managed better.

Now, let us look at 12 of the best internet of things examples on the market.

Smart Home Security

Smart homes stand amongst the most popular consumer IoT devices and service providers currently in development. The major reason is that many IoT devices in this category are easily affordable and readily available. It’s exciting how you can control everything using a smartphone.

Applications such as Amazon’s Echo and the Nest Thermostat, alongside many products on the market, allow users to control their surroundings with their voices and make their lives more connected.

The Internet of Things is using smart homes to improve home security with brilliant and secure technological applications. Various sensors, lights, cameras, and alarms get connected to IoT consumer devices to provide round-the-clock security for households.

Wearable Activity Trackers

Watches now do more than just telling time. Smartwatches now flooding the market have turned people’s wrists into smartphone holsters and allow phone calls and more. People can easily monitor their health and variations in body conditions with many IoT devices. Wearable Internet of Things connected devices make it easy to monitor a patient’s health and reduce emergency doctor visits.

People with special conditions and the elderly can use specific IoT devices to live life more independently and improve comfort.

Research and development currently focus on manufacturing smart-contact lenses to collect health information about the eyes and accurately treat optical conditions. Smart-contact lenses use IoT sensors to broadcast data to a bondable antenna.

Digital Twins

These are typical within the manufacturing world. A digital twin is a digital counterpart of a physical object. Engineers use these to avoid disrupting the fundamental equipment to make test updates and make adjustments where necessary.

Get comprehensive knowledge on the latest industry practice and research to establish a basis for implementing digital twin technology in product design.

The digital twin uses artificial intelligence IoT devices to update itself and simulates the material object’s interactions and responses to the physical world using IoT technologies, machine learning, and artificial intelligence.

Self-Healing Machines

IoT sensors, machine learning, and artificial intelligence all comprise the interrelated IoT networks that allow manufacturing equipment to identify and correct errors within operations before they halt business because of reparations. Artificial intelligence IoT devices use self-healing to analyze, fix, and restore faulty components whenever a machine stops working accordingly.

Self-healing machinery significantly reduces downtime in manufacturing product lines using IoT-embedded sensors. These sensors collect massive amounts of valuable data from the machines and transfer it over connected networks.

Contact us for more insight on how you can leverage interrelated computing devices to avoid losses in your business and save both time and money. Also, you can free up employees to commit to working on higher-level tasks.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) in the Internet of Things is the digital simulation of the physical world. AR is a growing trend among business application and mobile computing companies. They use digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli delivered through IoT technology.

Ingestible Sensors

Tremendous investments in IoT’s diversity and growth have seen the development of pill-sized ingestible artificial intelligence IoT devices that are fitted with sensors and microprocessors to transmit data from within the gastrointestinal tracts and monitor the body’s internal conditions.

An MIT research team has developed an incredible ingestible sensor that can detect gastrointestinal problems using genetically engineered bacteria. The electronic chip picks wireless signals from the sensors and transmits them to a digital dashboard for viewing.

The sensor comprises a computer chip and bacteria that reacts to pre-defined luminescent biomarkers that glow when it encounters unusual conditions, for example, stomach bleeds.

Smart Farming

Farmers are increasingly using IoT technologies alongside their tools to track crop health, livestock health, weather, soil composition and moisture, and livestock activity. The data gathered using specific IoT devices enables farmers to create fertilizer schedules and make accurate harvest time predictions. Farming has become a high-tech enterprise.

You can now grow healthy, rich food faster, and more conveniently than before. The best part is this can be all year-round, with or without Soil. ​Another excellent technology surrounding smart farming is Precision Livestock Farming, where IoT-connected devices are used to monitor livestock health and generate insight analysis of reproduction cycles.

Industrial Security and Safety

Industrial IoT detection systems help optimize pressure changes and quickly identify and fix small leaks of hazardous chemicals before severe catastrophic events occur. Besides, spotting and fixing leakages before they become serious reduces maintenance costs. Such IoT sensor devices are standard in monitoring nuclear facilities, mining operations, and chemical factories.

Industrial companies can install sensors and cameras in different restricted areas to detect non-authorized access.

Smart Cities

IoT has established the outstanding possibility to transform entire cities technologically by solving actual problems encountered by people daily. For instance, the Internet of Things can help reduce crime, traffic congestion, and pollution challenges using proper data connections.

The future is now more efficient and effective

For smart cities to be effective, they make use of “Narrowband IoT,” a standards-based low power wide area technology that enables support of the wide range of IoT connected devices and services. Narrowband Internet of Things improves the power consumption of user devices, raises system capacity and efficiency.

Connected Cars

Cars now have internet access and can efficiently distribute data and share that access with different users, just like a wireless network in a home or office.

Vehicles are now being accessed using remote and sensors, which have replaced standard car keys. This remote access of cars enables people to lock and open the car, start the ignition, manage the alarm, and even open the trunk using smart locks.

Smart Fulfillment

Retailers can employ IoT solutions to automate their point of sale systems. IoT has made sales more efficient and accurate. Automated checkout systems incorporated with IoT sensors read tags on products and automatically charge the client using their mobile payment application as they leave the store.

Automated checkouts, transport maintenance, accountability, and optimization of routes are all made effective and at reduced costs, thanks to the Internet of things. Have you ever entered a store, grabbed what you would like to purchase, but left the store buying nothing to avoid the checkout line? Well, retail IoT applications help customers save time and reduce the frustrations that come with a checkout process.

“knowledge always comes bearing power.”

Chat with our seasoned team of professionals and receive actionable insights on how best you can make IoT work for you in your daily life.

 

Top 20 Internet of Things Facts You Should Know

What is The Internet of Things?

The internet of things is the prevailing network of internet-connected devices and machines continuously exchanging multitudes of information and data across the world, and this article will underline the 20 top Internet of Things facts that everyone must know.

First, keep in mind that the predominant products associated with IoT are consumer electronics, such as smart home devices and smartphones. Larger Internet of Things applications such as smart cars, security systems, and smart cities are becoming prominent integrations as worldwide internet capabilities increase.

Top Internet of Things Facts

  1. The prevailing edification of the consumer electronics industry continues to skyrocket with increasing shares of electronic devices getting manufactured with quality internet capabilities. At the beginning of 2019, the world witnessed 22 billion IoT-connected devices in use.
  2. By 2030, around 50 billion IoT devices will be a part of the massive web of interconnected devices.
  3. Forecasts show that the total volume of data transferred between connected IoT devices will reach 79.4 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025.
  4. Forecasts show that by 2025 the automotive industry will have 25% of worldwide cellular IoT-device connections.
  5. Increased popularity and production of autonomous vehicles and the all-enabling 5G mobile technology are key factors influencing the demand for the Internet of Things.
  6. Connected-cars projections highlight the largest segment of the global 5G-IoT endpoint market; with forecasts underlining 19 million Internet of Things endpoints by 2023.
  7. Statistics expect the global IoT market for agricultural industries to reach around $30 billion by 2023.
  8. Forecasts show that the Industrial Internet of Things Market Size will reach 67740 million by 2025.
  9. The forecasted Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) technology connections will go beyond 123.3 million by 2023.
  10. Overall, the 5G IoT endpoints forecast will soar to around 49 million in 2023 worldwide.
  11. The forecast market size for IoT analytics is $18 billion by 2022 and $109.81 Billion by 2028.
  12. Predictive analytics forecasts show that the industry will hold 50.6% of the market share by 2026.
  13. Cloud computing will grasp 60.4% of the market share by the year 2026. Mainly because of the high intensity and flexibility to handle sophisticated data in large amounts.
  14. The retail industry is generating serious traction for IoT analytics. Especially with the tremendous growth of e-commerce and increased supermarkets and hypermarkets.
  15. Predictions highlight North America to account for the larger share of the IoT analytics market as activities consistently increase across various industries.
    Although the Asia-Pacific market will register a higher CAGR of revenue over the same period.
  16. Forecasts predict the market revenue for IoT managed services to shoot to $135 billion by 2027.
  17. Industrial IoT predictions show it will reach an estimated market size of $77.3 billion in 2020.
    The revenues from the IoT-sensors market will rise to about 43 billion by 2025.
  18. Market forecasts highlight the RFID tag market share soaring to $4460 Million by 2025. It has a predicted CAGR of 14.7% during this period.
  19. McKinsey Global Institute estimates that the Internet of Things will have an overall economic flow of around $11 trillion by 2025.
  20. An IoT-connected kitchen in your home can save the food and beverage industry’s annual costs of 15% and more.

Business leaders across all industries, including financial services, energy, and mining, have acknowledged how critical IoT is within their various organizations. Industrial Internet of Things and Smart Cities are now driving the largest flows of revenue across IoT.

What is the Internet of Things? Understand How Tech Is Making Life Easy in 2022

IoT has fortified itself as one of the essential technologies driving human-tech interactions in the 21st century. IoT-connected devices have made the world’s daily interactions more innovative and timely by increasing response rates.

It has simply merged the physical universe with the digital ecosystem.

How does IoT work?

IoT enables interrelated computing devices to interact across different network types to create a more connected world. The primary communication channels of IoT are the Cloud, big data, analytics, and mobile technologies collecting and sharing data.

Digital systems can adjust, monitor, and record interactions between IoT-connected devices.

Affordable computer chips extend the provision to add sensors to different IoT devices and enhance their digital capabilities to collect and distribute data in real-time. The Internet of Things refers to the multitudes of digital devices connected to the internet, purposively gathering data and sharing it in real-time.

Why Do Connected Devices Share Data?

Each IoT-connected device collects data for a particular purpose, and it can help give people an elegant user experience. Businesses can use specific IoT devices to monitor and re-structure how they deliver their products and services to customers. The data generated through the Internet of Things propagates contextualized interactions between different connected devices. It allows businesses to increase operational efficiency and save resources such as time, money, and workforce.

IoT has highlighted great potential for change. In industrial applications, adding sensors to product lines helps reduce wastage and increases efficiency. Studies underline that over 30 percent of US manufacturers are already using IoT sensors to gather data and improve their value chains.

Technologies Making IoT Possible

The concept of the Internet of Things has existed for a long while. Still, its practicality got more established with recent breakthroughs and investments in different technologies. To get a complete understanding of the relevance of IoT, let’s highlight the technologies that have made IoT possible:

Cheap Low-Power Sensor Technology
Many Internet of Things (IoT) devices require a battery and maintenance-free terminus to work effectively. Smart wireless components enable the use of IoT in any environment. Combining power-optimized wireless networks with low-cost sensor technology has opened doors for the development of many IoT applications.

Connectivity
The Internet of Things comprises interrelated computing devices that require smooth and uninterrupted connectivity to work. Network protocols developed over the internet make it easier to connect sensors and data IoT devices to the Cloud and transfer data between “Things.”

Cloud Computing
Cloud computing platforms provide the infrastructure needed to exchange and analyze data smoothly between businesses and consumers without overall human mediation. The Cloud uses a centralized server to provide IoT data storage and transfer of large data packets through the internet. The IoT data generated can get accessed when the need arises.

Machine learning and Data Analytics
Mountains of data get generated by the Internet of Things every second using various IoT-connected devices. Machine learning provides the analytical power needed to create insight from the data. Predictability gets enhanced by highlighting data patterns and behavior in unique events. Businesses generate insights quicker and with high efficiency.

Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence IoT devices, combined with neural networks, propel intelligent machines that use natural-language processing technology to process and analyze large amounts of data. IoT focuses on the interactions of devices using the internet. Artificial Intelligence IoT devices learn from the data and analyze it to simulate smart behavior in decision-making.

The Future of IoT

The future of the Internet of Things highlights an unlimited potential, with its value stretching from connecting billions of IoT devices simultaneously to making enormous data actionable. IoT platforms and Artificial Intelligence are increasing business capacity by constantly highlighting additional streams of revenue.

IoT enables quick automation and diverse business processes.

There are many IoT services and applications under production. Some have already filled the market; smart home products, including smart switches and motion sensors. However, most IoT products and services are still under trial. The primary reason is that IoT components such as sensor technology, 5G, machine learning, and big data analytics are also at an early development stage.

IoT is still in its infancy stages of development.

The prices of sensors and IoT communication devices continue to decline. Thus it’s more cost-efficient to connect multiple devices to cloud platforms. Some products may not always connect smoothly to each other because significant IoT-Technologies are still in the infancy development stages.

IoT investments’ growth drives an exciting wave of IoT applications and consumer IoT devices that provide real-time intuitive interactions between humans and machines. There are many IoT device makers, application builders, and network operators.

IoT Security Concerns and Measures

IoT-connected devices have increased, and people’s lives and work environments are more integrated with smart IoT applications. The growing interdependence between humans and technology has made apparent many dangers of the Internet of Things. Many risks are getting highlighted as tech grows to run various activities in people’s lives.

The security risks and levels regarding IoT devices often get overlooked.

IoT solves business problems across multiple industries. The early adopters of IoT applications such as healthcare, smart cities, transportation, and different manufacturers are already enjoying IoT’s many benefits.

Don’t get excited just yet,

Despite having many benefits, IoT and its unlimited interconnectivity present substantial challenges regarding security risks spawning from unsecured devices and applications connected to the internet network, increasing attack targets.

Absolute security and privacy for every device connected to the Internet of Things remains critical.

The first reason focuses on how regular cybersecurity applications struggle to recognize specific IoT devices and their expected behaviors. Second, any business center can deploy IoT devices. They rarely get viewed in correspondence with IT, which leaves room for bypassing typical IT security protocols like asset management and security patches.

How to improve IoT Security?

Anything that’s connected to the internet is prone to hacking. Hence, manufacturers must ensure that all consumer IoT devices are secure before releasing them onto the market.

IoT-connected devices are used to monitor and control many processes, making them attractive network targets for hackers. The devices often remain as unmanaged endpoints within the network, prone to malware invasions and password-targeted hacks.

Surveillance also rises to a dominant security concern when almost every product people own has connectivity to the IoT. There are substantial risks of unwarranted observation of users. Also, intelligence services and hackers can use IoT for target identification, monitoring, and location tracking to infiltrate networks.

What Industries Benefit from IoT?

IoT suits any business or industry that wants to increase its efficiency and ROI by installing sensors on their business process devices. Here is a quick list of different industries that are taking advantage of IoT to leverage better customer service and generate more business:

Smart homes & buildings
The residential and commercial real estate industry has enjoyed massive investments and infusions of IoT devices and innovative technologies. Households now have access to home automation systems like smart doors, heating systems, security cameras, and smart lighting systems.

Manufacturing
Manufacturers may quickly increase their competitive advantage by using production-line monitoring systems and ensuring equipment maintenance when sensors detect a probable failure. Sensors measure and alert any compromise in production output manufacturers can quickly respond to equipment inefficiencies and improve accuracy as soon as sensors point out upcoming repairs and machine servicing. Companies using IoT can minimize operational costs by improving asset performance management and increasing up-time.

Automotives
The aggregated information collected using IoT-based applications enables automotive manufacturers and suppliers to learn more about car maintenance and inform car owners. Besides fusing IoT in production lines, the sensors can detect equipment failures in vehicles already on the road and alert drivers with details.

Energy & Utilities
Data IoT devices continuously help gas and oil companies track their drilling lines and monitor rigs with increased efficiency. IoT sensors and devices help with process optimization, reducing costs of production and service costs. IoT is improving efficiency in the Energy and utility sectors using IoT technology to run the energy sector promotes efficient energy use and saves resources by eliminating.

The Smart Energy Grid supplements electricity networks by enabling bi-directional digital communications regarding electricity and all data involved. Smart grid technology enables quick detection of misuse and faults as they emerge. Smart grids also contain self-healing provisions that allow electricity consumers to take part in service provision and information exchange.

Transportation and Logistics
IoT data sensors enable fleets of trucks, ships, and trains that carry inventory to receive routing tips based on weather data, driver availability, or vehicle availability. Businesses can also equip their inventory with sensors to track, trace, and monitor temperature control. For example, food and pharmaceutical industries transport temperature-sensitive cargo and benefit from receiving alerts whenever temperatures rise or fall to levels that may endanger the products.

Retail
Retail companies can benefit from IoT applications by using the data to identify the best ways to optimize the supply chain and improve customer service and experience. The Internet of Things in retail also propels reduction in operational costs and easier inventory management. Businesses can increase customer engagement and improve the experience.

Let’s look at smart shelves, for example. Businesses can install weight sensors on their store shelves and send data to the IoT monitoring platform to trigger inventory alerts when items are below the standard quantity.

Public Sector
Government institutions or Public Offices may use IoT applications when notifying the public about power outages or even interruptions of water and sanitation services. IoT-based systems can collect data regarding outages and deploy necessary resources to promote efficiency and timely recovery.

Finance
Security between banks and customers has experienced significant increments since combining with IoT. IoT in banking has propelled the development of many IoT-based applications like mobile banking services, and Smart Cash points, and ATMs. Customers can easily transfer, deposit, and perform many financial transactions over the internet using their mobile phones or personal computer.

Healthcare
Health institutions and all related staff often need various specific IoT devices to track patient-help utilities’ availability and usability. Think about how equipping a hospital’s wheelchairs with IoT sensors enables tracking and monitoring the inventory. Anyone can quickly find the nearest usable wheelchair and healthcare equipment alike. Tracking hospital assets this way ensures proper usage and financial accountability for every investment in different departments.

IoT and Industrial Safety

The growing industrial and commercial world continues to highlight rising expectations of consumers regarding services. Environmental safety must remain upheld to minimize operational efficiencies.

People working in risky environments like chemical plants, oil and gas fields need real-time information regarding events affecting their surroundings. IoT sensor-based applications ensure people receive notifications regarding accidents and other misfortunes to enable them the swiftest escape.

Iot Improves Worker’s Safety

Connection IoT- applications with wearable equipment help precise monitoring of health and changes in environmental conditions. People can understand their health better, and patients can also receive remote monitoring by their physicians.

What Are IoT Applications?

IoT applications are software-as-a-service (SaaS) programs that access cloud computing platforms with machine learning algorithms to collect, process, and make data usable. IoT applications use sensors and IoT-connected devices to supply businesses with the data needed to plan exponential growth. Avoid recreation of business processes.

Machine learning algorithms identify anomalies in equipment and alert users; sometimes, they even trigger automated fixing and other proactive countermeasures. Businesses can use IoT applications to enhance existing processes within supply chains and improve customer experience, human resources, and financial management. IoT dashboards and alerts provide access to key performance indicators and statistical information.

Make Better Business decisions with Enterprise Engineering Solutions IoT

IoT is becoming more widespread across the marketplace. You must capitalize quickly on the tremendous value it can bring to your business. Have a chat with a seasoned IoT professional here at Enterprise Engineering Solutions.

Receive the only knowledge you need to understand the business application on IoT and get the most out of your supply chain with meaningful IoT solutions. Leverage the digital world to achieve intelligent operational efficiency and worker productivity.

Top 10 Applications of Internet of Things. Practical Benefits

Overall applications of Internet of Things technologies are broad because they can remotely integrate with any technology to collect and distribute relevant data regarding operations and monitor environmental conditions.

What is the Internet of Things

The Internet of things refers to how technology uses the Internet to combine different objects, devices, and sensors to make peoples’ lives more manageable, efficient, and effective.

Most Internet of Things technology is still in the infant development stages. However, many businesses across different industries are rapidly adopting applications of Internet of Things -connected devices to control and automate business processes and increase efficiency.

This article will underline some of the leading applications of the Internet of Things.

Industrial Automation

In industrial automation, timely development aligns with product quality as critical determinants of the Return on Investment in any business. IoT Applications allow businesses to re-engineer products and services to improve customer experience and reduce performance costs.

Automation currently focuses on improving quality and flexibility during the manufacturing process.

For example, the automobile industry used to have pistons installed manually with an error rate of 1-1.5%. Now the task uses automated artificial intelligence IoT devices, and the error rate has reduced to 0.00001%.

Wearables

People’s accessories have developed in an energy-efficient manner that allows them to get equipped with IoT sensors and enable data collection, measurements, and readings regarding users.

Consider upright Go, a small wearable device, which revolutionized spinal health by helping patients train themselves to employ a healthier posture by providing biofeedback. It produces a slight vibration when the person wearing the device slouches.

Applications of Internet of Things in Healthcare

Medical practitioners can use various sensors connected to particular patients and effectively monitor real-time changes in patient’s conditions, regardless of where they are. IoT has made it possible to monitor specific patient variables, remotely improving patient care and reducing health risks.

Some healthcare facilities have already employed mobile applications, including social media, text, and calls, to communicate with clients and generate leads. A trend that’s on the verge of exploding within the next few years.

Applications of IoT in Predictive Maintenance Management

IoT technology is seeing extensive software developments and sensors specialized in predictive maintenance. It is purposively helping the extension of the life of machinery and increasing the reliability and availability of assets.

IoT application is technically unlimited, and the software and sensors underline real-time maintenance needs and management of assets.

Traffic Monitoring

The world economies are continuously expanding, and more cities are experiencing excessive traffic. Many Internet of things applications are on the market to promote efficient road use and reduce traffic in growing cities.

IoT is fueling the concept of smart cities with smart navigation.

Business Asset Management

Provisions for fleet managers to install IoT sensors on their fleet vehicles help propagate interconnectivity between fleet assets, drivers, and fleet managers.

Everyone concerned about the fleet in an official capacity can use the Internet of Things software to collect and process data regarding the vehicle’s operation, activities, and health.

Hospitality

Tremendous competition within the hospitality industry drives hotel and accommodation businesses to make significant investments in many emerging applications of internet of things as they work towards upgrading service quality and improving hospitality.

Artificial intelligence IoT devices promote quicker and efficient customer service

IoT connected devices facilitate automation to enhance customer services and customer experience. Hotels use inventions such as electronic keys, which guests can receive on their mobile devices. Guests also get personalized services about their interests and room service requirements.

Water Supply and Sanitation

Like intelligent grids, water and sanitation businesses can install specific IoT devices and sensors on water meters and use software to connect them to the Internet for real-time data collection and analysis.

You can discover leakages before they get out of hand.

Real-time data collection and analysis using IoT enables easy detection of faults and changes in customer needs. Consumers can also monitor their consumption in real-time, receiving automatic alerts when misuse gets detected.

Agriculture

The need for farmers to keep track of essential data such as moisture levels and soil acidity, and plant nutrients’ availability has fueled smart farms. IoT facilitates farmers’ capacity to use devices and sensors to record and report the information needed to avoid losses and make the most profitable decisions regarding their crops and livestock.

There are now vertical farms made to enhance plant growth using 90% less water than traditional farming methods. Plants can grow without using pesticides, herbicides, fungicides. Food that’s grown this way maintains a rich fresh taste.

Smart farms shorten the growth cycle of plants, up to half the time spent using traditional farming. Also, they use vertically stacked beds, a method that enables farmers to produce products in larger quantities per square foot.

Energy Saving and Smart Grids

Energy companies use IoT to equip meters with sensor technology at strategic points and make provisions for effective grid control and monitoring of their electrical networks.

The consumption data collected and distributed between clients and businesses drive valuable decision-making and efficient service provision.

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Why You Should Choose Google Cloud Computing Services vs AWS

What is Google Cloud?

Google Cloud is essentially Google’s method of providing computing services for developing, deploying, and running applications over the internet. Its cloud infrastructure initially serves as a host for applications such as Google Workplace (G Suite/ Google Apps).

Google Cloud is soaring through the infrastructure as a service ranks, especially with its investments in service, analytics capabilities, and the many acquisitions helping build its portfolio. This article is going to highlight Google Cloud, and contrast its advantages vs its largest competitor: Amazon web services.

The Simplest Definition of Cloud Computing

Simply put, cloud computing comprises all computing services; applications, storage, and processing power that get provided remotely using the internet on a pay-as-you-go basis.

How Does Google Cloud Work?

Google cloud computing services simply facilitate the building and maintaining of original applications that you can deploy through the Web using google’s data center facilities.

Google cloud computing services help you avoid all the costs of owning and maintaining your own data centers and computing infrastructure by giving you the flexibility of accessing everything from applications to storage through the cloud platform.

You get significant benefits from using Google Cloud Services because it helps you avoid paying upfront costs and the complication of maintaining your computing infrastructure.

You pay for what you use, and only when you use it.

Extremely friendly for first-time users

You can agree that digesting the use of cloud services for the first time can be pretty overwhelming for a newbie. Cloud platforms are still new and foreign to people accustomed to physically interacting with servers they use.

Thankfully,

Google Cloud Services come with step-by-step instructions on how to go about running many of the everyday tasks, including how to set up a Linux-based virtual machine.

Google Cloud teaches you how to set up your computer from thin air.

Google Cloud Services VS. Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Contrasting Google Cloud Computing Services and Amazon Web Services is amazing, especially with the fact that they both based their establishments on different business models:

Amazon focuses on AWS (including its ads business) to optimize its e-commerce profit margins. Google Cloud instead takes its renowned ad business and is leveraging it to penetrate the Cloud.

Keep in mind,

Virtual Machines are quite an ancient deployment model for the world of software. Yet, none of these cloud solutions providers can release the throttle on providing this service and expect to get acknowledged as a cloud service “go-to-guy.” Amazon web services currently lead the race as bigger hosts for virtual machines. Still, Google Cloud Services offers some beautiful alternatives, including custom instances and pricing models that provide you with a real business advantage.

Consider this too,

Amazon waited until the last moment to develop a Kubernetes engine of its own. They were also reluctant to deploy and implement a model that cuts into their mainstream business. Meanwhile, Google has been enjoying its victory lap as the developer and influencer of Kubernetes engines.

A powerful argument in favor of Google Cloud Services is that Amazon’s Kubernetes system solely focuses on Amazon. Google Cloud Services, however, avoid vendor lock-ins and provide enterprise solutions to address varying customer requirements.

Some cloud computing enthusiasts argue that Amazon’s enormous size and the large variety of service alternatives can develop a disadvantage. Mainly because determining a starting point for AWS customers remains a challenge.

Google, however, leverages this to focus on delivering viable cloud services that customers demand. As opposed to beta tests and experiments that risk the company’s posture if they were to fail.

Google Cloud Computing Services: Competitive Advantages

As you have probably heard, Google is the originator of Kubernetes, a powerful transcriber for applications and deployment automation incorporated by many elements.

Google was early and agile in approaching the avenue for automating cloud deployment of multifaceted apps. A significant move made to fuel Google Cloud Services is its partnership with Kubo. This renowned automation platform helps developers leverage the Cloud to deploy applications from development platforms with minimal effort.

Google has a robust cloud services strategy that focuses on enabling cost competitiveness in particular customer service cases. Instead of fighting to be the low-cost leader.

For instance,

Google offers life-cycle management regarding object data storage. A feature that enables the platform to delete any objects that remain dormant for at least 30 days.

What’s the Cost of Google Cloud Services Vs. Amazon Web Services?

Google offers its general Cloud users extremely flexible pricing, calculated using formulas that get updated every minute. However, the calculator requires that the resources you plan to consume must remain within a narrow approximate range.

Google’s Kubernetes will need you to pre-determine the storage space required to run your application. You will also need to determine which data center availability zone will be most effective for your business’ load balancing.

On the Other Hand,

Amazon AWS has a set standard for its pricing model regarding virtual machine instances. Amazon’s virtual machine instances have structures like real servers, with a base tier capacity for file storage with a fixed RAM capacity and fixed virtual CPUs.

Google Cloud Computing Services also have Virtual Machine Instances structured similarly.

Why Should you pick Google Cloud over Amazon?

Google Cloud Services applies discounts regarding your usage trends. By doing this, Google significantly reduces your average Cloud Service expenditures over Amazon Web Services. Google’s Computing Engines allows you to choose virtual machine instances that can get pre-empted whenever their usage becomes dormant.

Google consistently recalculates your billings each second, with a minimum time interval of one minute, with usage rounded up to the nearest minute.

Instead of getting a pricing plan where you pay for both the instance and resources used, Google Cloud Platform lets you pay only your instance’s availability. Then, as if that’s not enough, you can receive a discount of even 70 percent when your resources do not get used up.

It doesn’t end there

You get to custom your usage and build a virtual machine that fits your usage or business needs. Note that uploading custom disk images to virtual machine instances may incur a surcharge.

Google permits “sustained-usage” discounts if your workload usage remains consistent over 25 percent of the time during a month. For example, you can receive a discount reaching 30 percent if your workload usage runs every minute of your billing period.

Google may also give you a discount of up to 57 percent if you make an up-front commitment between 1 to 3 years sustained Cloud Service resource subscription.

If you are an enterprise customer planning to break the limits of data usage, you must sign up for Google’s Storage Growth Plan. This plan will make you entitled to massive discounts, especially when making a 12-month commitment to a minimum price.

But take note that this is for massive data consumers, not small businesses.

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