Published on 09/11/2017 | Technology
As the prevalence of Internet of Things(IoT), either concept or implementation, people may confuse sometimes for its scope and how it affects the conventional tech. I try to clarify for the several different layers in IoT bottom to up way, related with AI, Big Data and Cloud.
The Device. IoT is the trigger for device to be smart, to have intelligence, to act as human. The devices range from the wearable, home, auto, city to industry, because of IoT, dumb devices can "speak and communicate" with their own languages. So, the machine data is generated continuously and brings great challenge to the receiver and the repository, the backend. With the replacement and upgrade of the dumb devices/machines, there will be less obstacles for IoT progress forward. The smart devices will boost the development of IoT upper layers.
The Network. IoT brings the revolutionary of the network. My opinion is that IoT needs the network to have superb bandwidth, high available and price/performance ratio. Although NB-IoT and Lora seem touchable, please stay tuned for 5G or 6G.The philosophy behind is that: two people whisper is quite rare, but crowed talking with each other seems much common.It is the reason why network should be upgraded instead of reuse the legacy network assets.
The Cloud. As the increasing of IoT devices, 21 billion devices till Year 2020 (by Gartner), IoT cloud service is the only selection for its scalability, high-performance, out-of-the-box.
The Big Data. IoT is the driven force for the big data tech stack. Before the IoT era, big data is the data generated by e-commerce, carriers and mobiles, all related with people, now machine/device streaming data join in. Device, people and business make the triangle for big data. The data acquisition, storage, analysis, visualization, all and all need re-consideration and enhancement for the machine data, for example, the streaming and event processing, the timeline analysis, the predictive maintenance and etc.The hybrid of IoT with big data will lead to the IoT PaaS (Platform as a Service) which is mentioned in Gartner Hype Cycle for quite a long time.
The IoT Applications. Assets Performance Management(APM), Predictive Maintenance(PM), Assets Optimization Service, Monitoring, Event Alert, from complex to simple, either saving cost or earning cash, are all important IoT applications. It also brings some innovative business opportunities which bridge the gap between human world and machine world.
The Artificial Intelligence (AI). Yes, device control with AI brain armed, it will replace a lot of labors with repeated routine daily work. Smart AI device then becomes the entry and control point for both work and life.
The Security. IoT encounters unprecedented security challenges as IoT devices are so close to the daily life and workplace. As the devices can be remote/reverse controlled, this leads the possibility of control your devices by someone else without proper authentication. Security is the most important module in IoT application/platform, but TBH, it is neglected at the start of IoT era and needs more emphasized from now on.
The IABC is transforming the whole world, and there will be not boundary between the physical and digital worlds, and no different between the data generated by human or machine. Only the requirement and the fulfillment of the requirement via IABC (IoT + AI + BigData + Cloud).
