Increase in the internet penetration rate, growing interconnected devices and BYOD trend in the organizations along with an increase in the new technologies is leading to growth in the Internet of Things (IoT). The term IoT is used for representing a system of interconnectedness of machines, computing devices via internet, allowing easy exchange of data.
As per the data released by Microsoft in the Hosting and Cloud summit 2017, IoT is impacting all sizes of businesses from manufacturing, infrastructure, logistics, transportation to government and is helping organizations with insightful data and analytics. It also promotes asset management and remote monitoring. The coming years can see several inventions around IoT, like smart lighting to take control over energy consumption, smart parking and more.
Overall, it has a wide use cases around plethora of industries who are using big data to better manage their operations, reduce cost and increase efficiency. As per a study by 451 Research, technologies that are going to change the business landscape in the next 5 years include the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, robotics, wearables, nanotechnology and 3D printing.
Although there are no major players in the IoT landscape at present but few mention worthy names include Microsoft, IBM, Cisco, At&T, Oracle and more. There are enough opportunities for the cloud service providers to capitalize IoT by providing low cost solutions and eliminating customer bottlenecks. However, concerns for security will continue to revolve around IoT applications and platforms and, organizations will spend considerable time in choosing the right IoT provider.
