How the Internet of Things is Changing the Healthcare Industry

Internet of Things is Changing the Healthcare Industry

Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed many industries in terms of catering and management of services, especially health care industries which have shown remarkable development in treating people. From scheduling doctors appointments to advice on a diagnosis, the sector has gone a long distance in redefining the way things operate. The increasing advancements in technology are consistently applied at every stage in the development of health care industries. From big devices that monitor the health of admitted patients to microdevices that track movements of the human body, IoT has simplified the whole paradigm of health care services.

The sufficient magnitude of services required from the health care industry is also one of the reasons for inviting IoT to the rescue. Drawing facts, we see that the budget for IoT health care services has increased four times from 2017 to 2018. The large number itself is a direct representation of how largely IoT has become a trusted part of the health care industry. Let’s explore below how IoT is changing the health care industry, in more detail.

Health Data Simplified

Earlier, health care industries used to rely on first-hand data as provided by the visitor. With the help of IoT, the person is no longer constrained to produce raw, immediate data with which their prescriptions can be made. Instead, the person only has to use a device such as a wrist band, or an application which will keep track of your body behavior; this data is quantitative, transferable and first hand. Thus, doctors can look at data without the patient being present and form a better analysis of the patient’s situation due to quantifiable and transferable data. The added ease of interpreting data also reduces the gap between the doctor and the patient by connecting them through technology.

Quick Health Decisions

IoT makes it possible for a person to track his/her body behavior; this is done majorly through a wearable device which records precise data of steps, heart rate, air quality, blood flow and so on. With body behavior data, a person can be ahead of diseases by reporting them to a physician when he/she suspects an adverse change. Doing so, the person will always remain ahead of the condition and can reduce his/her chances of illness drastically. IoT devices can also bring in notice the details that are not precisely captured by other equipment. On the whole, the situations are transformed from cure to prevention.

Custom Health Services

With increased control over body behavior data, people can also control what treatment they want. Sometimes, a few conditions don’t require immediate care; in that case, they can choose what services they need immediately. Such customizability was not available in times when IoT could not provide regular data. With the help of IoT, one can decrease the financial pressure as involved in treatments. He/She can selectively opt for services that require attention and ignore that don’t.

Smart Scheduling

IoT makes things very organized when it comes to data storage. A person has to keep a record of various information if he/she wants a birds-eye view of his body behavior. However, maintaining such a tedious data requires sheer organization. With IoT, such an organization comes pre-programmed. This organization has an added benefit of managing your health schedules. You can program the device in such a way that reminds you of your medication cycle, the quantity of medicine to take, days until the next health appointment, and more.

Higher Satisfaction

Due to transparency rendered by IoT devices regarding the body behavior data, it becomes easy both for the doctor and the patient to tackle a particular disease. On the one hand, the patient knows well about his condition and can take custom treatment plans, and on the other, the doctor is better able to treat the patient due to transferable, first-hand data. As a result, both sides are better satisfied.

The importance of IoT varies from industry to industry due to the tasks that can be sanctioned. In general, IoT is needed in almost all sectors including education, municipal planning, automobiles, or even households. IoT in health care serves an altogether different purpose. In other industries, IoT serves as a tool to reach the results, in health care, IoT helps to achieve the beginning of treatments. In other words, the whole process of medication hinges on IoT devices that render actual data.

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The Future of Microservices and the Internet of Things

Future of Microservices and the Internet of Things

Microservices are very dynamic, and the platform has seen an enormous development in the last couple of years; its components complement the modern day needs that have led to its emergence as an irreplaceable part of the industry, especially in those that deliver Internet of Things (IoT). Microservices come with an architectural style that structures an application as a collection of flexible services, which can then be individually implemented according to the business’s needs. The architecture promises a continuous delivery of large, complex applications; these flexible architectures enable organizations to evolve its technology stack over time.

Microservices are increasingly being preferred to create enterprise applications due to its distinct advantages. In today’s world where possibilities are immense and ever-evolving, one cannot sit back and relax after building a single platform. It has to evolve and be ready for future needs continuously. Microservices give ample options to be progressive—this includes flexible architecture, precision, and speed; it has such a structural advancement that other platforms seem obsolete in comparison.

Drawbacks of Older Systems

Situations such as mobile app development employ unintelligent sources that used to rely on manual human interference. The lack of expertise in systems such as those used to slow down the whole process. Given the apparent drawbacks of the obsolete systems and lucrative benefits of microservices, it seems that microservices are going to become an inevitable platform for the choice of architecture for developers, in the world of IoT, shortly.

Microservices have faced several criticisms for being inappropriate for certain DevOps cultures, but, they stand very feebly against the likely benefits of the microservices; this is exhibited through the broad adoption of microservices across numerous world-leading industries. Modern-day tech-giants and large-scale online services providers such as Amazon, Netflix, and Twitter have all moved forward from their old technology to microservices-driven architecture — this allows the companies to scale to their size, make predictions and form strategies on-the-go.

Fast and Progressive

Microservices enable the IoT deployment to be fluid and to ensure that the need of the hour is met with an appropriate resolution. The IoT infrastructure generally requires immediate decisions to tackle challenges for successful deployment. Microservices allow a system to operate independently where the entire technology stack need not be disturbed to test new ideas/products.

Massive Value

Due to its scope for multiple deployments, each operation can take numerous trials at once. Earlier alternatives did not provide us with such flexibility, and, therefore, the evolution process was much slower. Microservices allow upgrades in which each step results in fine-graining of the concerned product, helping us obtain the maximum value.

Increased Flexibility

One of the main highlights of microservices is the flexibility it extends to developers. We can leverage microservices for testing and retesting without having to disturb the whole mechanism. If the checked item isn’t working, we can perform substitutions with something better. In this way, microservices not only allow ready testing but also makes the evolution process flexible – the rectification of one branch does not disturb the whole tree of the process.

Cost-Effective

In this dynamic digital world, technology is always developing and becoming superseded by more sophisticated and cost-effective alternatives. One big advantage of having microservices in IoT is that they both can adapt to these dynamics. The microservices structures tackle obsoleteness by replacing outdated nodes and introducing net structures to fill the gaps – this makes the process fluid and cost-effective. By bypassing the unnecessary tasks, microservices allow one to test innovative ventures quickly – much needed for a progressive future.

Isolated Risk

Assembling a solution through microservices allows one to adjust and iterate; this can be done even without having to re-architect the entire system. Most mobile and web application developers find it beneficial to apply agile development, and older options did not allow this scope of isolating risks. The continuous microservices will enable one to move towards the finish line and connect all the APIs needed, one by one, without having to increase risk.

All of these perks come up as we deploy microservices. The dynamic future doesn’t tolerate obsoleteness nor does it want to slow down. Microservices allow unlimited customization and overall faster operation in their environments. The lower cost and risk reduction introduced by microservices is motivating many organizations to make the upgrade.

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How Can The AWS Cloud Enhance IoT Solutions?

AWS cloud enhance IoT solutions

The Internet of Things is a technical field that has garnered some of the most significant impacts in recent time. AWS IoT provides global scale and enhances security needed to collect data across millions of devices and sensors; this, in turn, is required to build end-to-end IoT solutions and applications to create, manage, and service smart, connected products without incurring any hassles managing additional infrastructure.

As the market-leading cloud provider, AWS IoT and the AWS cloud provide a global footprint of regions and a broad set of services, which are necessary to compute data, manage databases, storage, and secure device connections; this further helps aid management and helps to procure other IT resources needed for IoT processing.

From futuristic ideas that aim to revolutionize the entire economy to facilities created to improve daily life, we show the best IoT cases through examples taken from some of the best international companies.

Closer to the Needs of Clients
Connected agents bring companies closer to their customers because they offer information that can help them understand how they use their devices, as well as what they like. In a way, it is similar to the agile methodology in software development. Companies make updates, which are further introduced into the production process to obtain feedback from users to decide on the next steps they should undertake. The same agile approach is further refined with the answers provided by the various connected products; all this information can be used in hardware development to help companies provide customers with the best possible outcomes.

Products That Evolve
Thanks to the IoT, one of the Spanish based technology company has redefined the parking experience with the use of its mobility solution. With more than 40 years of experience of parking in the streets, they developed an application to improve parking areas in cities by connecting parking meters, smartphones, parking sensors, controllers, and vehicles used to control and monitor the system. In this way, they helps citizens in their daily challenges of parking and the nuances related to it. Also they established a base for the city of the future; everything contributes towards a smarter future and helps the city remain connected to the needs of its inhabitants.

The Product is The Interface
For years, we have become accustomed to “mid” interfaces, such as a keyboard or mice for a computer, or a remote control full of buttons for a television. A few years ago, “simulated” interfaces were created with the help of touch screens; this allowed new users, especially the elderly and the very young, to interact with products such as tablets and smartphones. Now, with connected devices, the interface is “direct”; the product itself is the interface that you can touch or have in your hands. With more sophisticated interfaces, such as those based on speech recognition, communication occurs naturally.

Reinvent Yourself, Thanks to the IoT
Another sector benefiting the most from the cloud is public services. The best example is one of the largest turbine manufacturers, who is responsible for the generation of 30% of electricity worldwide. The company uses the IoT to reinvent itself and, in this process, also reinvents the economic principles of the sector. The company employs hundreds of sensors and advanced analytics to improve the efficiency of its gas turbine fleet and estimates that, due to the enormous scale of its products, with the improvement of productivity by only 1%, the company can save hundreds of billions of dollars.

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AWS IoT Analytics Provides Intelligence Data For Businesses

AWS IoT Analytics Provides Intelligence Data For Businesses

One of the significant highlights of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) re:Invent 2017 conference is the company’s IoT Analytics; a fully-managed service that makes the experience of running sophisticated analytics on massive volumes of IoT data flawless. The new AWS system eliminates the worry of cost and complexity typically incurred during the build and deployment of a personal IoT analytics platform. AWS IoT Analytics has rendered an effortless way to run analytics on IoT data, along with gathering ongoing insights to better the experience of decision making for IoT applications and machine learning.

The Complexities of Unstructured Data

Since IoT data is highly unstructured, it became a mission for AWS to simplify data structures so that it would become easier for cognitive computing solutions to analyze the IoT database. This idea is executed through business intelligence tools that are designed to process large unstructured data. IoT data is procured mainly through reasonably noisy processes, which in turn produces extensive and complex data with gaps, corruption, false reading and so on; this data needs to be taken care of before any analysis can occur. Besides, IoT data is often integrated into the context of other data from external sources and must be managed appropriately.

Are you utilizing analytics and the existing information provided by your system to increase problem solving and overcome the obstacles to processing big data? Amazon’s AWS IoT Analytics allows for customers to solve complex problems without complex solutions. Our team here at Idexcel is at the ready and available to work with those who want to ensure they are getting the most out of their AWS setup. Be sure to reach out for our cloud advisory services and accelerate your journey to the cloud.

Analyzing Problems and Providing Solutions

AWS IoT Analytics automates each of these problematic steps that are required to analyze data from IoT devices. IoT Analytics acts as a catalyst that filters, transforms, and enriches information before storing it in a time-series data storage for analysis. The service can then be customized according to the business: which, how much, and when to use appropriate data. AWS IoT Analytics applies mathematical equations to process and then enrich the data with device-specific metadata. Data is then analyzed by running queries using the built-in SQL query engine. IoT Analytics kick starts the process and provides better scope for outputting high accuracy information. IoT Analytics also exhibits the ability to facilitate machine learning through employing pre-built models of common IoT use cases; it can then quickly respond to probable system failure or system incompatibility and suggest replacement of hardware.

AWS IoT Analytics can keenly examine and scale automatically to support up to petabytes of IoT data; it helps analyze data from millions of devices and build fast, responsive IoT applications without managing different hardware or infrastructures. The service complements the driving forces of current IoT infrastructure with differing advancements.

It is worth noting some of the most important benefits of IoT Analytics include:

Quick and Easy Queries on Massive IoT Data – With the help of a built-in IoT Analytics SQL query engine, it becomes effortless to run ad-hoc queries; this service enables the user to use standard SQL queries to extract data directly from the data store to answer potential questions.

Time-Series Analytics – AWS IoT Analytics also supports time-series interpretations to analyze the performance of devices over time in a recurring pattern, and understand their place and manner as they are being employed. Analytics can continuously monitor device data and suggest maintenance actions as needed. The system can also observe sensors to analyze and react to environmental conditions.

Data Storage Optimized for IoT – AWS IoT Analytics stores processed device data and can deliver fast response times on IoT queries. The source data is automatically stored for later processing or to reprocess it for another use case, creating a more intelligent dataset.

Prepare IoT Data for Analysis – AWS IoT Analytics also performs data preparation that makes it easy to prepare and process your data for analysis. Integrated with AWS IoT Core, the service makes it easier to ingest device data directly from connected devices. IoT Analytics filters the data apart from corruption, false readings, and errors, and then the system performs mathematical transformations of message data. Using conditional statements the analytical service filters data, and then collects specific data required for analysis; it also gives the option of using AWS Lambda functions to enrich device data from external sources.

Tools for Machine Learning – AWS IoT Analytics is well suited for machine learning on IoT data as it has the ability hosts Jupyter notebooks. The administrator can directly connect IoT data to the notebook to build, train, and execute models right from the IoT Analytics console. Machine learning algorithms are applied to data all the more readily, which produces a health score for each device in the fleet.

Automated Scaling with Pay-As-You-Go Pricing – AWS IoT Analytics follows a pay-as-you-go service, with which one can analyze an entire fleet of connected devices without managing hardware or infrastructure. As the administrator’s needs change, they can expand or contract computation power. The data store will also automatically scale up or down, which results in the billing of only employed resources.

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IoT Announcements from AWS re:Invent 2017

IoT Announcements from AWS re:Invent 2017

IoT announcements
Amidst primitive turmoil in the IoT world, AWS unveiled its various solutions for IoT spreading over a large range of usage. The directionless forces of IoT will now meet the technologically advanced solutions through the hands of AWS which has offered a wide range of solutions in the arena.

AWS IoT Device Management
This product allows the user to securely onboard, organize, monitor, and remotely manage their IoT devices at scale throughout their lifecycle. The advanced features allow configuring, organizing the device inventory, monitoring the fleet of devices, and remotely managing devices deployed across many locations including updating device software over-the-air (OTA). This automatically results in reduction of the cost and effort of managing large IoT device infrastructure. It further lets the customer provision devices in bulk to register device information such as metadata, identity, and policies.

A new search capability has been added for querying against both the device attribute and device state for quickly finding devices in near real-time. Device logging levels for more granular control and remotely updating device software are also added in view of improving the device functionality.

AWS IoT Analytics
A new brain that will assist the IoT world in cleansing, processing, storing and analyzing IoT data at scale, IoT Analytics is also the easiest way to run analytics on IoT data and get insights that help project better resolutions for future acts.

IoT Analytics includes data preparation capabilities for common IoT use cases like predictive maintenance, asset usage patterns, and failure profiling etc. It also captures data from devices connected to AWS IoT Core, and filters, transforms, and enriches it before storing it in a time-series database for analysis.

The service can be set up to collect specific data for particular devices, apply mathematical transforms to process the data, and enrich the data with device-specific metadata such as device type and location before storing the processed data. IoT Analytics is used to run ad hoc queries using the built-in SQL query engine, or perform more complex processing and analytics like statistical inference and time series analysis.

AWS IoT Device Defender
The product is a fully managed service that allows the user to secure fleet of IoT devices on an ongoing basis. It audits your fleet to ensure it adheres to security best practices, detects abnormal device behavior, alerts you to security issues, and recommends mitigation actions for these security issues. AWS IoT Device Defender is currently not generally available.

Amazon FreeRTOS
Amazon FreeRTOS is an IoT operating system for microcontrollers that enables small, low-powered devices to be easily programed, deployed, secured, connected, and maintained. Amazon FreeRTOS provides the FreeRTOS kernel, a popular open source real-time operating system for microcontrollers, and includes various software libraries for security and connectivity. Amazon FreeRTOS enables the user to easily program connected microcontroller-based devices and collect data from them for IoT applications, along with scaling those applications across millions of devices. Amazon FreeRTOS is free of charge, open source, and available to all.

AWS Greengrass
AWS Greengrass Machine Learning (ML) Inference allows to perform ML inference locally on AWS Greengrass devices using models of machine learning. Formerly, building and training ML models and running ML inference was done almost exclusively in the cloud. Training ML models requires massive computing resources to naturally fit in the cloud. With AWS Greengrass ML Inference, AWS Greengrass devices can make smart decisions quickly as data is being generated, even when they are disconnected.

The product aims at simplifying each step of ML deployment. For example, with its help, the user can access a deep learning model built and trained in Amazon SageMaker directly from the AWS Greengrass console and then download it to the concerned device. AWS Greengrass ML Inference includes a prebuilt Apache MXNet framework to install on AWS Greengrass devices.

It also includes prebuilt AWS Lambda templates that is used to create an inference app. The Lambda blueprint shows common tasks such as loading models, importing Apache MXNet, and taking actions based on predictions.

AWS IoT Core
AWS IoT Core is providing new enhanced authentication mechanisms. Using the custom authentication feature, users will be able to utilize bearer token authentication strategies, such as OAuth, to connect to AWS without using a X.509 certificate on their devices. With this, they can reuse their existing authentication mechanism that they have already invested in.

AWS IoT Core also now makes it easier for devices to access other AWS services, such as to upload an image to S3. This feature removes the need for customers to store multiple credentials on their devices.

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Top 10 Must-Read Articles on Internet of Things – IoT 2016

1. What are the five main markets for IoT?

The Internet of Things (IoT) is accelerating at an impressive speed, forecasters predict 25 billion devices will be online by 2020, creating over $300 billion in opportunities for companies involved1.

Even with this considerable growth coming in the next five years, most enterprise folks still don’t understand or aren’t invested in the IoT revolution. Management consulting firm Bain & Company believe that’s due to misrepresentation on the definition of IoT. [Continue reading..]

2. What’s trending in the IoT space

Our team has been active as investors in the Internet of Things and hardware space over the past two years. We have read pitches from hundreds of companies, met with dozens, read hundreds of research reports and spoken with various experts. We have invested in six IoT/hardware companies from our global seed fund and seven from our startup accelerator.

With this accumulated knowledge, we decided to create an easy to read overview for others to get up to speed on this trending space of IoT. Here is our full report; the following is a summary of what we learned. [Continue reading..]

3. Here’s how the Internet of Things will explode by 2020

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been labeled as “the next Industrial Revolution” because of the way it will change the way people live, work, entertain, and travel, as well as how governments and businesses interact with the world.

In fact, the revolution is already starting.

That brand new car that comes preloaded with a bunch of apps? Internet of Things. Those smart home devices that let you control the thermostat and play music with a few words? Internet of Things. That fitness tracker on your wrist that lets you tell your friends and family how your exercise is going? You get the point.

But this is just the beginning. [Continue reading..]

4. Eight Data And Analytics Capabilities You’ll Need For The IoT

There is widespread agreement that the Internet of Things will be a transformative factor in the business use of information. The prospect of billions of connected devices promises to transform home activities, transportation, industrial operations, and many other aspects of our lives.

The bad news about the IoT is that we have a lot of work to do before we are ready for it. We’ve got to up our games considerably with regard to data management and analytics if we’re going to capture, store, access and analyze all the IoT data that will be flowing around the Internet. The good news (in addition to its potential) is that most organizations have a few years to get better at these capabilities before the real onslaught hits. The sensor devices, IoT data standards, and data management platforms are still in their relatively early stages, and no customer, business partner, or CEO could reasonably expect that you could tame all that IoT data today. [Continue reading..]

5. How does the IoT Evolve? In Fits and Starts

It has been quite a week for IoT in the news. The shutting down of Revolv by Nest became a major news item, covered by everyone from Fortune, CNET, Computerworld, NBC, and Yahoo just to name a few.

As usual, Stacy Higginbotham did a nice job in writing about what could have been done instead to make this all easier.

As background – Revolv was a small start-up in Boulder, Colorado. I know a lot about the team there, and like them a lot, so I admit to some bias up front. They built a smart home hub with seven radios to speak to 10 of the most popular smart home protocols. [Continue reading..]

6. What’s the Connection Between IoT and DevOps?

DevOps is the automation of Agile, using tools and processes that remove the traditional latency from application development. DevOps transformations are systemic to both enterprises and ISVs that I work with these days. Everyone now knows that it’s critical to make the best use of cloud computing, big data, and, now, the Internet of Things (IoT). [Continue reading..]

7. Will IoT Lock Down Your House Or Open The Door To Hackers?

Imagine a time when the transfer of data is fast and seamless, or a world where you control your devices without moving a finger. IoT, or the Internet of Things, looks to push that envelope of convenience and efficiency. IoT devices are becoming increasingly popular among homeowners seeking to make their homes automated and their day-to-day tasks easier. [Continue reading..]

8. New Business Drives Hitachi’s Internet of Things Strategy

We can now count Hitachi among the list of companies that has formed a division to specifically target the Internet of Things (IoT). This is a move that many automation suppliers are finding necessary as they try to better manage the technologies and expertise needed to capture this important market. [Continue reading..]

9. How Internet of Things Customer Data Will Forever Change Marketers’ Jobs

When a mobile app asks you to share personal data with a company, what do you do?
It probably depends on what you expect to get in return. That’s the new data economy consumers and brands are dealing with today: Companies want good user data, and users want good products and experiences. [Continue reading..]

10. How Silicon Valley is botching IoT

The “Internet of things” has been a Silicon Valley buzzword for the last few years, so it’s ironic that we seem to read almost as much tech news coverage about Internet of things hacking. In recent months, for example, VentureBeat has reported that the FBI is warning car makers and owners about vehicle hacking risks, and that IoT devices may be exploited as Trojan horses. And just a few days ago, we heard about a glitch at smart doorbell company Ring that exposed videos of users’ homes to other users. [Continue reading..]

Has the Internet of Things gone too far?

The Internet of Things (IoT) – with its network of objects and computers that collect and distribute data on our lives – has all the promise of making those lives easier. But are we in danger of IoT overload?

We live in an interesting age where virtually everything we own can be connected to the Internet. Your phone, television, security system, and car are just the start. These devices may connect directly – through your home Wi-Fi router or via Internet-connected devices such as your smartphone or even your home thermostat. Continue reading

Challenges in Developing IoT Services

After Big Data and Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) has now arrived as a buzzword, showing the promising future of completely interconnected world with self-driving cars, connected home appliances and real-time collection and analysis of data for instant results. Internet, PCs and Smartphones changed the way we live and work, on the same lines, IoT will change the way we interact with each other and our eco system

To understand the features and connotations of the IoT, it has been structured into a five-layered architecture format. At the bottom is the Device layer which is the main data source and includes sensing devices that are capable of sensing the surrounding environment, collect data, and transmit it on regular intervals. These sensors need to interact with the intelligent gateway which provides data aggregator and device level data processing capabilities. Data is transmitted over the network through a service provider. The next layer enables the seamless connectivity with different Machine to Machine (M2M) devices, and offers remote monitoring and managing of device connectivity.

This layered architecture helps understand the essence of the IoT, which offers great business opportunities and holds a great potential to integrate everything in this world. It is not just a simple extension of the Telecommunications Network or the Internet. It has the feature of both, in addition to its own unique features. This technical revolution represents the future of communications and computing, however we must acknowledge the fact that IoT brings unique set of challenges from technology side as well as from the business side. Some of the major challenges of IoT development have been discussed below:

IoT Protocols– The next wave of Internet, or IoT is about intelligent, connected devices, supporting hundreds of protocols for successful interaction. These devices communicate with each other (D2D) and data collected from this communication is sent to the server infrastructure (D2S), which then shares the device data (S2S). The data can be provided back to the devices, people, or analysis programs. IoT system can be built on familiar Web technologies, however, the result will not be as efficient as with the new protocols as IoT protocols must produce smaller data overheads, and should be optimized for constrained devices and networks. MQTT, DDS, XMPP and AMQP protocols are gaining popularity, however, there are at least 10 implementations of each, and hence confusion is inevitable. As a result, despite set standards, adoptability has been slow, and many different protocols are being used due to business and technological limitations. There are however several standardization groups and bodies that are actively working to create more inter-operable protocol stacks and open standards for IoT.

Security– When millions of smart devices are inter-connected, there is a continuous flow of data, travelling between devices, networks, and gateways. IoT is opening the networks that were previously closed, making them more vulnerable to the hackers. Whether in motion, or at rest, data security must be ensured. Most gadgets these days lack the basic protection against hacking, and vendors need to come up with smart solutions. Operators can employ stricter encryption standards that are scalable, efficient and affordable.

Another challenge is to educate consumers to utilize security features built into their devices, and users need to keep updating their devices regularly. For end users, security procedures cannot be too complicated, yet they should provide sufficient privacy and protection.

Privacy– With growing number of connected devices, IoT will generate and store more and more personal information, which will be very attractive for the hackers, leading to more security breaches. Due to the recent NSA revelations, people and organizations are becoming more conscious about maintaining their privacy, and this is affecting the way they are storing the information. To enable development of IoT, international alignment on privacy rules is required. Different countries have different privacy policies when it comes to grasping personal data, and if this alignment is not made, companies will have to choose their selective markets, instead of providing their services all around the world.

Data Flood-Undoubtedly, IoT will be generating unimaginable amount of data, and existing infrastructure in terms of wireless carriers to the data-centre is inadequate to handle such enormous data volumes. Additionally, this data needs to be processed and stored, resulting in huge infrastructure and maintenance cost. To facilitate data storage, bigger data centers and data farms need to be established, and this will require large investments.

IPv6 adoption– IoT involves billions of devices, and hence requires billions of new IP addresses. Although we will run out of IPv4 addresses soon, still the adoption of IPv6 is not growing as fast as required and 2013 saw a decline of IPv6 traffic.

Analytics– To deal with the data, enterprises will have to think beyond conventional business intelligence tools. As an example, in case of medical emergency, the data received from the monitoring devices needs to be analyzed real-time. This data then needs to be stored and reused so that patient care can be improved based on his or her medical history over the past few months. In IoT, data will come in smaller pieces which will not overload the bandwidth, and we can throw away the data which is not required. However, we need to have mechanisms in place to collect only relevant data that is useful for analytics and semantics, and filter the irrelevant data.

Fragmentation– IoT is a complex interconnection of software and hardware working together, creating a platform of the developers and organizations. Due to this vertical platform, the existing M2M related standards and technological landscape have become highly fragmented, which can be seen across several applied domains with almost no re-use of technologies. Each IoT device is installed in its own platform and ecosystem, and companies have become more interested in owning the vertical stack rather than developing products and services to benefit developers and consumers. Open source platform will encourage the collaboration and creativity, and will also help reduce the cost of product development. The entire ecosystem of users and solution providers will benefit by striving towards use of common set of tools, leading to less fragmentation.

Interoperability– IoT requires connecting heterogeneous objects amongst themselves and also with the Internet. The people have been connected anywhere, anytime, and now the next step is to interconnect heterogeneous applications and services that can be integrated with existing and new processes. Interoperability is extremely important and challenging in IoT which requires effective and efficient management of resources. The future networks of IoT will continue to be multi-services, multi-vendors and largely distributed, which will increase the risk of interoperability. The lack of such interoperability could lead to loss of some key information or unavailability of some services for the users, unless standards are set both between and within domains.

Quality of Service (QoS)– Quality of the service is the idea that error rates, transmission rates and other factors can be captured and improved. As IoT is inherently a complex shared system with integrated plethora of network components, applications and resources, there are many dynamic and heterogeneous constraints in terms of communication, computation and energy. IoT applications must have a robust and expressive set of abstractions to consider these multiple dimensions of QoS. In the network, the applications interact, and multi-dimensional QoS requires active compliance with both sides of communication and the network There must be a balance in the demands of different parties (resources, applications, intermediate network) in a highly dynamic, unpredictable and diverse network of IoT.

Deployment challenges –IoT encompasses a wide range of devices, wearables and embedded technologies. There are staggering possibilities with numerous algorithms and schemes that can possibly create a mesh of deployment complexities. This poses significant challenge to the application developers, as they have to cope with the exceptionally large number of supported devices and form factors, and extensive network compatibility issues in order to make front and backend more responsive. Developers also have to deal with the highly capable edge devices. Additionally, they have to capture, process and support business requirements from the data generated by all these devices.

Lack of Common Standards– Within the IoT space, the lack of open standards is manifested at the institutional level. As an example, Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) involves multiple stakeholders and policy makers including engineers who help formulate framework for the development of Internet. However, there is no such establishment for IoT. Such standards are required for IoT growth, and first step towards open standards could be well-documented APIs.

Complexity-IoT technology will connect equipment and devices that have never been connected before, and hence, there must be ease in the design and development to have more connections. The technologies required to create intelligent systems can get extremely complex and broad, and to provide seamless experience, the solutions need to be customized to some extent.

Power Management– The things in IoT will have to be portable and self-sustaining to be more energy efficient, and hence adding power management to these equipment needs to be made easier. For future development of IoT, unconventional power sources must be tapped.

Devices in IoT have to handle several different tasks. The biggest question however still remains: Do we really need or want all these connected devices? Would we buy more devices because they connect? And discard the existing devices? Do people really need self-driving car, or a connected tennis racket to improve the game? Some people feel that IoT is much hyped at this stage by the companies who are designing services and equipment for it. Only future will tell how different devices connect, and if they hold the potential as promised. IoT comes with technological, business and societal challenges, and we need to ensure that this internet wave breaks smoothly on our beaches.