The Internet of Things will require a vast range of updates
Gartner, a leading IT research and advisory group, has published a report on the “The Internet of Things,” presenting the main technological areas will need to be addressed and redeveloped for the Internet of Things (IoT).
As Nick Jones, Vice President and analyst at Gartner, points out: “The IoT demands an extensive range of new technologies and skills that many organizations have yet to master.” These include the development not only of new software, hardware, standards and ecosystems, but also new business and risk management strategies for the near future.
IoT Security
As the Internet progresses and grows more powerful, so do its security risks and challenges. Much as with identity theft, new hazards will continue to be posed by hackers, “impostor things” and attacks to block devices or drain their batteries. It will also be fundamental to protect legacy devices and other networked equipment that may not support state-of-the-art security.
IoT Analytics
While the IoT will provide businesses with troves of new data on customer behaviour, satisfaction and needs, we will be confronted with a data overload and have to develop new analytical tools and algorithms.
IoT Device Management
As more “things” join the IoT, there will be an added responsibility to manage and monitor all of these devices by developing new firmware and software, greater diagnostic potential, crash analysis and reporting capabilities.
Low-Power, Short-Range IoT Networks
It has been forecast that low-power, short-range networks will dominate wireless IoT connectivity well into 2025. Nonetheless, we will certainly see the rise of wide-area IoT networks before then. This will require ecosystems to adapt to a range of different solutions.
Low-Power, Wide-Area Networks
Current cell phone networks do not deliver technical features at an advantageous operational cost, especially for applications that require wide-area coverage, relatively low bandwidth, good battery life and high connection density.
The long-term goal of wide-area IoT networks is to deliver faster data rates, vaster coverage, greater battery life, much cheaper hardware and support for hundreds of thousands of connected devices.
IoT Processors
IoT device processors and architectures will have to provide strong security and encryption, low power consumption and support sophisticated operating systems with updatable firmware and embedded device management agents, juggling a complex trade-off between features and costs.
IoT Operating Systems
Current operating systems were not designed for IoT applications. They consume too much power, require fast processors, have a large memory footprint and often lack guaranteed real-time response. The IoT will require the development of ad hoc operating systems.
Event Stream Processing
IoT applications generate extremely high data rates requiring real-time analysis and pattern recognition, especially for telecom and telematics applications. This is addressed by distributed stream computing platforms with parallel architectures processing high-rate data streams.
IoT Standards and Ecosystems
The very nature of the IoT will require increasingly standardised ecosystems and application programming interfaces to allow connected devices to interoperate and share data.
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