The Internet of Things: IoT Solutions and its Benefits

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Look around, we are hearing a lot of buzz about IoT (Internet of Things). The world is getting reliant on the internet which is a massive global network that allows people to communicate with each other. We can send emails and messages, use websites and post on social media to communicate with other people. To do all these activities, we use devices like PC, Laptop or mobile devices [smartphones and tablet]. Internet of Things is a big science which deals with the collected data, interconnectedness and devices.

There are three things which are required in the main process of IoT –

  • People
  • Devices (with sensors)
  • Servers

The things which are using the internet to make connections and respond to other devices, people or systems are called the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT is playing a significant role in our lives and serving as an ecosystem which interconnects physical objects and systems in order to perform task smartly.

It could be a car which can be monitored to check fuel or its engine condition or an AC which can be operated remotely [like when you are not at home and you have forgotten to off it, you can make it off or operate it without specific AC remote] or any physical object with built-in sensors. These objects have been assigned with an IP address and after building a robust connection, data transfer takes place with manual assistance or computing intervention. And then actions are generated.

Consumers are demanding devices which support IoT and organizations are trying to capitalize on it. In this post, we would like to throw light on IoT to make your vision more clear towards it. Let’s get started-

What will be discussed?

  • What is IoT?
  • Why we need IoT?
  • Benefits of IoT
  • How is IoT contributing to businesses?
  • The relation between IoT and cloud computing. How their synergism is benefitting us?

What is IoT?

Things or objects that have a sensor attached for exchanging data, and with the help of internet they are used to communicate in order to make decisions are called the Internet of Things. For example, in the IoT living room, the temperature sensor can alert you about upcoming snow and will also make your living room warm before it happens. Also, if you have an IoT based refrigerator, it will let you know about your diet by monitoring your health previously and suggest your best meals with available foodstuff.

The devices are attached to a built-in sensor to send the data to a piece of software or computer to allow them to achieve meaningful tasks.
According to a report, it is estimated that by 2020, 50 million devices will be connected to the internet. The whole world will be surrounded by millions of sensors.

Why we need IoT?

why we need internet of things

Basically, IoT is an evolution for mobile, home and embedded applications that are connected to the internet, to integrate communication. By using data analytics, these devices derive meaningful information. These devices share the data on the cloud and analyze it in a secure manner and hence our businesses are getting brilliantly transformed in many ways.

Many industries are adopting Internet of Things solutions technology to improve their existing systems. Like a health care centre used IoT devices to improve their medical outcomes, revealing better products faster with low development and maintenance cost in the manufacturing industry, making shopping experiences more enjoyable by getting accurate suggestions, etc. IoT is playing a big role in today’s business system by managing internal processes smoothly and providing much convenience for every task.

Let’s consider some of the major industries to understand its needs closely.

  • Transportation Industry
  • In the transportation industry, there is much need for a smart system to manage resources in the right ways. Let’s consider a smart traffic camera, it can monitor road traffic and keep tracks of accidents, congestions, weather conditions, and communicates with other smart cameras to share this data with them. The overall recorded data is combined and gathered to the city traffic system.

    Now if this data is going to be shared with another city’s traffic system which is sharing their own data too with the help of their intelligence system, imagine how large will be the system of the system with an incredible amount of data.

  • Medical Industries
  • Medical industries need to be more advanced and hence they are already using IoT based tools. With the help of IoT tools, the doctors can monitor the patient remotely and give drugs on the basis of tracked information. For instance, there is a patient at home, he is in constant life support and all his health issues are being completely recorded in a cloud system.

    In an emergency situation, doctors could be prepared for the operation as they already have a complete record. Also, the hospital can dispatch the ambulance to the patient’s location. Doctors do not require spending much time to understand the medical condition of the patient because they are already aware of the required actions which can save a lot of time and efforts.

  • Manufacturing
  • The idea behind using IoT tools in the manufacturing industry is to attach sensors to their devices and collect data from customers. This data can be used to guide users for predictive maintenance of the assets.

    The industry can not only analyze how their products are being used but they also determine the usage patterns. Manufacturing industries are adopting IoT tools to increase their efficiency which helps them in their day to day operations and facilitate them to optimize their production quality and offers high-end safety as well.

  • Hospitality
  • To improve the travelling experience of customers with IoT hospitality industry is also optimizing IoT experiences to make their services more comfortable for guests. In hotels, face detection id is provided to the customers so that hotel staffs can recognize the customer before their arrival.

    In the near future of IoT, there are chances that hotels might get equipped their rooms with sensors and emotion recognition cameras to capture emotions of patrons e.g. if the customer is hungry, it can recommend for meals. If the guest is feeling cold, the room will become warmer on personalization.

    Not only these sectors alone but retailers, oil & gas industries, construction sectors, finance sectors are also relying on IoT to make their internal processes smooth and faster. Every business can maximize its revenue by getting quick insights into customer’s data to trigger up-sell and cross-sell alerts.
    These are just some examples of IoT and you can imagine the potential value of IoT with other systems.

    The actual need of IoT is to make smart communications with present systems and make everyone aware of the available information.

    Benefits of IoT

    IoT is considered as the biggest frontier which can improve our lives in many aspects. Those devices which have never been networked can get connected and respond just like the smart devices do, for e.g. your car, refrigerator, and home speakers. IoT is set to transform our world completely.

    Let’s have a look at the following benefits of IoT as per the business’s perspective –

    1. Efficient resource utilization
    2. Reduced human efforts
    3. Lowers the cost and bring productivity
    4. Real-time marketing
    5. Decision analytics
    6. Better customer experiences
    7. High-quality data

    How is IoT contributing to businesses?

    For any business, the customer base is an important factor to become successful. Your customers can make or break the value of your brand. If you are doing well and have good growth in business, it means your customers are already satisfied with your services. Why not you break your comfort zone and try to make them happy instead of just satisfy.

    There is stiff competition in the market, and brands are regularly making strategies based on the latest trends of the Internet of Things to stay up than their competitors. They are applying almost every trend willingly in their strategies in order to retain their customers and increase the value of their brand as well.

    IoT is serving as a great and modern platform or tool in today’s time to streamline customer’s service and engagement in an excellent way. Building real-time interactions with your customers is one of the best things in favour of brands and customers both.

    Let’s see how it is doing well.

  • Maktotter customer experience
  • With the help of IoT, customers can feel more connected with the brand. In-built sensors will collect the data and the recorded data help brands pay attention to their customers’ needs. It will make the customer experience better with that brand.

  • Interactive engagement
  • Effective data analytics enables you to interact in real time with your customers by tracking location, timing and searching inputs. Dynamic interactions can be created and displayed in different screen sizes.

  • Advanced functionalities
  • Allowing advanced features in your will deliver wow experience in your customer services just like mobile payments option with the embedded sensor.

    The relation between IoT and cloud computing. How their synergism is benefiting us?

    Cloud Computing and IoT (Internet of Things) are different technologies. Both of them are providing many facilities in various aspects.

    IoT is all about connectivity and real-time interactions whereas Cloud computing is about saving data securely on the cloud.

    Machines or physical devices can get connected with other devices, systems and people to communicate easily in a network are IoTs.
    When devices are interconnected, data is shared between them and this data is required to make decisions or actions. So you can imagine how important the data is. Talking about data security and maintenance, the first and last name that strikes in our mind is Cloud. Yes, a cloud!

    What will be the synergy if Cloud and IoT merge? Every field can be benefitted with the alliance of both technologies in many ways. Let’s peek into it –

  • Mobile App development
  • Mobile apps are the basic need of today’s business. The two most common platforms are – Android and iOS. In order to reduce the workload for developers, cross-platform app development techniques are being used frequently from past few years.

    Developers can build apps using HTML5 and hybrid frameworks. With the help of mobile cloud and IoT based tools, they can use shared resources and important data to enhance teamwork and make their practices more effective.

    Additionally, developers can view completed modules of other developers in the team to suggest changes on development tasks if required, which brings a lot of transparency and efficiency in the system.

    Moreover, they can develop mobile apps using MEAP (Mobile Enterprise Application Platform) which is an IoT tool. It allows users, to have a wide range of cross-platform development services along with cloud, better user-interface and strong authentication system.

    Smartphones have various features like GPS tracking, mobile gyroscope, adaptive brightness (could be adjusted itself by sensing light intensity), voice detection, face detection etc, all are based on IoT.

    Applications that are built on sensing abilities will definitely require inbuilt sensors in Smartphone to function well. Smartphone manufacturers are focusing on adding these types of features in their devices to attract customers. So, everything is relating directly or indirectly to IoT.

    Let’s understand it by an example –

    IoT uber service

    A cab facility has announced an app. Let’s consider ‘Uber’ mobile app, which is utilizing IoT and cloud (IoT Car) both in its all operations. Customers can book rides and available drivers will pick them from their location.

    All details about the ride are shared with the driver, customer and to the main system’s cloud database to improve services, send discount coupons and many other alerts.

  • Smart City
  • Many countries are trying to make smart cities to open a new opportunity for the citizens. The data is being stored in large data centres in order to make quality communication and to make more efficient use of Information.

    Japan and Europe are collaborated to work on a research project, trying to create smarter cities by using tools that merge cloud computing with the Internet of Things and named Clout project – which stands for Cloud of things. This project will bridge the cloud and IoT to establish a fresh platform for all data sources.

    Now, these examples clearly define the synergy of both IoT and Cloud technologies. Developers are dedicatedly focusing on learning IoT and making their apps compatible with IoT devices to benefit the users.

Let’s wrap up –

Technologies are playing a crucial part in reinventing our experience on every activity and Internet of Things shares a great part in that. People are curious to know more about the Internet of Things. The biggest irony is that some of you do not want to dive into the depth but want to enjoy the comfort it offers. No matters, if you are a technology lover or a non-techie, it is benefitting all of us in many ways.

Google has launched many IoT devices till dates like Google Duo, Smart home devices, Voice assistant, Self Driving Car and many more. Let’s hope for more in the coming years!!

If you find this post interesting, do share your feedback and ask questions you have.

Hemendra Singh
Mr. Hemendra Singh, Managing Director, also the co-founder of The NineHertz is a visionary leader who oversees the corporate direction and successful growth of the Company and its employees, alike. With a career spanning nearly 10 years and a degree in Information Technology, Hemendra is the epitome of the new-age entrepreneurship in the emerging Digital India, who has catapulted The NineHertz to be counted among one of the foremost IT Companies in India.

1 COMMENT

  1. Fast gaining attention from businesses, consumers and even governments, the “Internet of Things” (IoT) has the ability to standardize network electronics and revolutionize intelligent device control. Bringing the potential for driving efficiency, and unlocking new business opportunities, IoT also provides insights on how and when things work, along with advanced warnings when they don’t.

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