Executive Summary
The Internet of Things is made up of four significant pillars of innovation: smarter connected products, cloud service architectures, advanced data analytics, and quicker application development technologies.
Each of these innovations has started to contribute to changes in businesses and IT processes. Brought together in one platform, the Internet of Things becomes a market-changing tool for retailers, service providers, consumer electronics OEMs and system integrators enabling new products and services, delivering new revenue streams, operational efficiencies and improved customer engagement models.
Smarter connected products
Enterprises have recognised significant opportunities in the Internet of Things. Smarter connected products are allowing (amongst others) retailers, service providers, and consumer electronics OEMs opportunities to provide customers with products and integrated services, allowing new business models, creating new and longer customer engagement and promising new revenue streams.
Machina Research forecasts close to 38 billion connected devices by the end of 2023.1 and we are already well into the growth curve. Enterprises have started to move beyond the smaller trial and proof-of-concept scenarios to exploring and launching significant networked device solutions. Service providers such as ThroughTek are also driving and enabling this rapid growth, managing more than 5 million devices with over 75 million connections per month on their platform.
As more and more devices become smarter, embedded with advanced chips and modules, opportunities to deliver new and innovative services will follow. The main challenge for platform providers in this market will be to create as open, flexible and scalable environments as possible.
Cloud service architectures
Integral to the growth of the Internet of Things are cloud service architectures. Without the ability to quickly scale services and manage growing data requirements, the Internet of Things will not meet the requirements of enterprises and customers.
Being able to deliver quicker and easier integrations, enabled through the cloud, or accessing available service modules are significant benefits. However, one of the most important contributions cloud services have made to data and applications has been the introduction of substantially more flexible and cost effective business models for the storage and processing of data, turning this entire opportunity into reality.
Advanced data analytics
The Internet of Things will not deliver on its promises without data analytics. IoT and data analytics are two sides of the same coin: devices producing the data, analytics securing the value from the data.
Retailers, service providers, consumer electronics OEMs and system integrators are definitely aware of the opportunities from smarter, connected devices and recognise that the value add and richer applications will come from data analytics.
Application development technologies
The game changer in the Internet of Things will be the combination of analytics AND the ability to develop and implement new applications quickly. IoT platforms will need to avoid becoming closed, stand-alone, and siloed solutions.
IoT platforms will need to encourage and deliver integrated and open architectures on a single platform. The openness of the platform will require an ability to address the diversity of devices and connectivity technologies as well as provide APIs and SDKs for further and future development.
This White Paper shares the significant advantages for retailers, service providers, consumer electronics OEMs and system integrators of a single flexible and scalable IoT platform. Bringing together the four innovations of smarter connected products, cloud service architectures, advanced data analytics, and quicker application development technologies in one platform delivers a cost effective, quicker and substantially easier route to market.
Download full Whitepaper here
Written by: Emil Berthelsen, principal analyst