It’s been almost 2 months since we first launched Telecom Tuesdays. Thanks to everybody who has read the blogs and shared them on social media. We hope you have learned from them, and can use them to help you save some money. Today’s post is a relatively new term that is being used, and it’s also widely debated for obvious reasons.
The Internet of Things
Presently this is more of a concept than it is a marketable service, feature or solution. IOT is taking ALL devices, systems, services and items, including people and even animals (collectively, “things”), and equipping them with a “virtual on/off or tracking switch”. All of these “things” would be equipped with a device (possibilities include RFID or Barcodes) that are wirelessly connected to the Internet. Gartner has reported that there would be nearly 30 billion things to be “tagged” by the end of the decade.
IOT Benefits
This concept has innumerous potential benefits from both a corporate and a personal perspective. Inventory control would become automated, theft could be virtually eliminated since any item stolen could simply be disabled, copyright restrictions could be more easily and thoroughly enforced and items that are used “as a Service” could simply be active/deactivated on demand. Law enforcement, Border Patrol, violent criminal tracking and crime solving would all benefit tremendously from having fact based and geo-location data. Energy grid corrections and traffic flow patterns would be even more efficiently controlled. From an individual perspective, pantries or refrigerators can automatically alert you to needs based on diminishing quantities or approaching expiration dates, automobiles can alert you to service needs BEFORE the car breaks down, intelligent homes can be remotely controlled, and the list is endless.
Big Brother is Watching You
The potential downside is that there is an undeniable “Big Brother” aspect to being personally “tagged” and monitored. A major Internet outage would literally wreak havoc on the entire world if it were all run from the Internet. Terror threats and cyber-crime would move into an entirely more sinister and potentially devastating dimension. Another huge issue to be overcome is the sheer magnitude of how to go about tagging all the items in the world and especially, how to enforce acceptance to any people who object to being personally tagged.
In short for nearly every possible benefit of the IOT, there is an equal and possibly bigger potential setback. This is a concept that is already unfolding as more and more services have “smart” design technology and Artificial Intelligence is no longer a sci-fi concept, it is commonplace among many new items. The electrical grid, traffic lights, banking systems and many other mainstay infrastructure components are run, in whole or at least in part, over the internet. Figuring out how your business can benefit from this technology will put you ahead of the curve for the future.
[author_bio username=”Barry” name=”yes”]
