While IoT offers to revolutionize business, its real innovation is spurred when it is combined with cloud computing as its backbone to store and process multitudes of data. When cloud computing and IoT are welded together they present boundless possibilities and myriad opportunities.
In the enterprise space, Internet of Things projects are sprouting like mushrooms after a spring rain. According to Gartner, more than half of major new business processes and systems will incorporate some element of IoT by 2020. Ted Friedman, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, has been quoted saying, “The IoT has enormous potential to collect continuous data about our environment.”
Small wonder then, business stakeholders are pounding down the CIO’s door to deploy the technology pronto. Steps are turning into strides as more and more enterprises are looking to embed IoT capabilities into their digital strategy.
No doubt, Gartner predicts the “internet of things” will hit 26 billion devices by 2020. It translates into one straight point: as the interdependence of the newly connected devices increases in conjunction to the business impact and far-reaching possibilities of the maturing IoT technology, the reliability, and effectiveness of the platforms that make the IoT a functional reality must grow in tandem.
If organizations want to harness the power of IoT and turn the data generated from the devices and sensors into actionable insights, they need a robust platform to store, process and assimilate the huge torrents of data gathered by the connected ‘things’. Reportedly, IDC estimates that the amount of data analyzed on devices that are physically close to the Internet of Things is approaching 40 percent. This validates the pressing need for a different approach.
This change cannot occur without the cloud. That’s why we are seeing a widespread explosion in connected devices pinging and connected with cloud services. Quite understandably, cloud services drive operational efficiency for IoT platforms and play a complementary role to provide a pathway for the humongous amounts of data that IoT produces to reach fruition.
Obviously, the existing enterprise data center infrastructure without the backing of clouds cannot withstand the strain of this data deluge. Cloud platforms do help enterprises alleviate this IoT-related pressure and solve the data problem.
While IoT offers multifarious benefits, the real innovation is spurred when it is combined with cloud computing. When cloud computing and IoT are welded together they enable many scalable ways to monitor and process sensory data streams. Such sensory data streams can not only be assimilated on the cloud but can also be accessed and actioned upon by smart devices, owing to cloud’s pervasive accessibility and convenience to users.
Considering the scalability and rapid elasticity that cloud offers, it makes it prime technology suitable to filter, analyze, store and access real time IoT data. Depending on the usage, such services can effectively scale in tandem to user needs, while keeping the flow of data unchecked.
Early on, organizations have realized the importance of already aligning robust cloud services as backends to several IoT initiatives. This gives them the much-needed flexibility to rapidly upgrade when they hit the scale and relieves the end-devices from the pressure to store and process such data continuously. The innate combination of cloud and IoT will automatically spur the growth of both the IoT ecosystem and the related cloud services.
By no means would it be an overstatement to say that the cloud and IoT is a match made in heaven.
Author : Nitin Mishra, Senior Vice-President – Products and Services, Netmagic (An NTT Communications Company)
