PETER REID The main benefit of the Internet of Things (IoT) will arise once data from sensors and devices can be processed efficiently
Barriers to entering many industries and professions are rapidly changing and decreasing, as devices connected to and pay-per-use services over the Internet provide lower-cost access for start-ups and individuals, says T-Systems South Africa Intervate Sharepoint division head Peter Reid.
Expensive industrial software and systems, such as computer-aided design and prototyping, are now accessible even to start-ups and individuals through pay-per-use Internet-based design software, powerful consumer design tools, such as the virtual reality Hololens and three-dimensional printing.
Further, crowd-sourced funding and peer-to-peer funding aggregation systems are significantly lowering the initial capital requirements for new entrants.
“This means that all anyone needs these days to disrupt your industry is a good idea,” he explains.
While innovation over the past four decades has mainly been driven by large, well-funded corporate laboratories and research teams, new innovations can arise from individuals and small teams using the plethora of low-cost services available, including cloud-based services that enable start-ups to require only consumer-grade hardware.
Even large-scale computing is now accessible to individuals. For example, software giant Microsoft now enables users to upload data for processing, and the Azure cloud system then uses distributed computing to do large-scale processing, says Reid.
“In the past, you would have needed access to a mainframe or supercomputer. These days, you can do it on a pay-per-use case,” he emphasises.
Even nonindustrial sectors are being disrupted by the proliferation of connected devices, such as connected cars influencing insurance premiums and wearable devices that collect information about people’s health and sleep patterns.
T-Systems, in demonstrating potentially disruptive technology, has developed the Robit – a robotic customer service program. This artificial intelligence (AI) program responds to customers’ queries and understands natural language queries to provide answers for customers. It is programmed to respond to a customer within minutes and, if the AI cannot provide a direct answer, provides the customer with a list of potential contacts or actions to get a desired result.
However, the main benefit of the Internet of Things (IoT) will arise only if all the data from a multitude of sensors and devices can be processed efficiently enough to provide good and timely information.
For this purpose, cloud systems are ideally placed to provide the broad cost effectiveness and capability required to manage, aggregate and process the significant volumes of basic data.
“The IoT will change the way we work, live our daily lives and even how we source information. For example, wearable devices, the most common currently are wristbands that monitor basic health information, will provide lots of basic information from a growing portion of the population, changing the way public health and wellness can be monitored, as well as reducing the costs of healthcare studies and research.”
However, there will also be much more automation and remote management of equipment and systems in the IoT in response to changes in sensor data, as well as input from users.
Devices can also be used to provide inputs, such as for facility management purposes, where any person in a facility can report problems directly using his or her device. This will change the way facilities are managed and infrastructure maintained.
The final component required for IoT is data-sharing protocols and best practices. However, this can effectively be overcome through a mixture of public- and private-cloud systems to process and provide protection for data that can then be shared between the systems to provide an information-rich ecosystem that will typify the future, concludes Reid.