There is no question a considerable amount of hype - as well as potential - from Internet of Things (IoT) technology, sometimes referred to as the Internet of Everything. (See Internet of Things Sits Atop Gartner's Emerging Technology Hype Cycle Curve.)
The basic idea is this: nearly anything, from machinery (literally) in the field to pallets of inventory to potentially a refrigerator in a consumer's home can communicates about its status and/or operation over the Internet, often leveraging Cloud technology to store and make available the resulting data.
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| Hosanagar says the current lack of standardization in IoT is a key interoperability challenge. |
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In turn there will often be some type of sensor or sensors on whatever the "thing" is, and some type of unique identification number to associate information coming from the sensors with a specific item or device.
Thus, IoT technology can be considered a sort of more advanced form of automatic identification technology - bar codes, RFID and the like - that expands that concept as developed in the 1970s and evolved over time to include communication of more information and to do so proactively, rather than say waiting for a bar code to be scanned. Push instead of pull, in a sense - although with some caveats.
An easy example: rather than simply scanning a bar code on pallet to confirm that it has been placed on a given truck, the pallet will also have sensors to track what temperatures it has been exposed to on its entire journey to its final destination, valuable information for temperature sensitive goods such as food and pharmaceuticals.
With that as a quick introduction, there as an interesting article this week on IoT on the "Knowledge at Wharton" web site, which is connected to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
That article summarized a wide range of IoT-related topics discussed by Raman Sapra, Ajay Jasti, and Chethan Gorur, all of Dell digital business services, and Wharton professor Kartik Hosanagar.
How to Get Started in IoT
The discussion among the four experts included a framework for how a company can get started in IOT
The first step of the IoT journey, they said, is for companies to identify "a clear and realistic business outcome."
A hotel, for example, the aim could be improving service, such as using sensors in the hotel and connectivity through a guest's mobile phone to be able to identify when a particular guest arrives, even before he or she signs in. With that capability, hotel staff could greet the guest by name as soon as he/she enters the building, thereby offering a more personalized customer experience.
A health care provider, by contrast, might be looking for remote diagnostic capabilities. This would entail getting relevant patient information such as heart rate, blood pressure and more through a wearable device, sending this information to the doctor, and then sending an e-prescription from the doctor to the patient on a mobile device, speeding up the entire process.
In step two, Wharton experts recommend performing an IoT audit. This audit would answer such questions as:
• Does the firm already have some IoT systems, processes and technologies within the organization and how ready is it for a broader IoT implementation?
• Does it have devices that communicate?
• Can it provide real-time insights based on data?
• Is the data connected to its enterprise systems?
As an offshoot of the audit, the company then needs to map its current level of IoT maturity compare that to the level of technological skill needed to hit the business goals.
Third, the organization needs to determine how to plug the gaps identified in that audit. What is needed in terms of skilled staffing, technology, hardware, software, and integration capabilities?
Assuming these first three steps are successfully navigated, the next step would be to launch an IoT pilot, which generally should take about 8-10 weeks. Based on the outcome, the company can then of course decide whether to move on an actual deployment or not, or decide to redo the pilot to address issues the first effort exposed.
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Biggest IoT Challenges
As with any new technology, there are a number of IoT challenges. For starters, IoT implementations can be complex, requiring skilled staff and significant integration of computer systems, software applications, networks, operating systems and more.
 "IoT starts with sensors and ends with engaging either an enterprise, consumer or a commercial-consumer, and appears to be simple," says Jasti. But it requires coordinating "different service providers, different manufacturers, all of whom have their own standards. There is a lot of complex architecture and technology involved."
Hosanagar says the current lack of standardization in IoT is a key interoperability challenge.
"Different vendors have their own proprietary platforms and solutions and these are usually not interoperable. This means that the costs are higher, and the buyers and users bear a lot of risk," he says, warning of the risk of obsolescence. "You might adopt a technology that eventually loses to an alternative" and have to "redo everything," he says.
Jasti noted that "IoT is basically information technology, comprising anything from the Cloud and beyond, plus operational technology, which is everything before the Cloud, for example, the manufacturing process. These two are entirely different animals; they have their own, different, standards and they don't talk to each other. Integrating them is a huge challenge."
But the biggest risk of all may be IoT security, In manufacturing, for example, if the process control systems are hacked, entire factories could be shut down. In July 2015, Fiat Chrysler recalled 1.4 million vehicles in the U.S. after security researchers hacked a Jeep Cherokee through its entertainment system, which was connected to the Internet.
In another incident in 2014, cyber criminals hacked more than 100,000 Internet-connected consumer gadgets, including home-networking routers, TVs and a refrigerator to send out 750,000 malicious emails.
The more devices are connected to the Internet, "the more vulnerable one is to these devices and the associated data being hacked or sabotaged," Hosanagar points out.
As we have reported before, there are also many isSues around data management. For instance, what data is actually relevant? How can it be used most effectively? Who does the data belong to? How can its misuse be prevented? (See The Internet of Things - It Won't be Easy.)
"The value from IoT is very much there but [one needs to] understand all the risks before adopting it. It is important for companies to tread the waters cautiously and not get caught up in a hype cycle," Hosanager adds.
But in the end, potential IoT users need to get pass the technology weeds to focus on business and customer value, Gorur noted.
"A lot of the conversation at present is on the plumbing side, around the IoT infrastructure and how it can be implemented," Gorur says. "This is important in order to layout the framework, but going forward, we need to move the conversation upstream to business benefits and return on investment."
Anything to add to this discussion of IoT?Is lack of standardization a big issue? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback section below.
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