As you know very well, for a long time now, the Internet of Things (IoT) has been a prevalent medium for transferring data to and from cloud-connected sensors and the software which helps enterprises in performing analytics on the mentioned data. Expect that prices of IoT sensors will see a decline in 2019, empowering more companies to use them and get insights in sectors like manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and many others.
There is also a constantly nagging issue which is related not to the technology, but rather concerns the name of it. Many people feel that the term is fundamental and generic, leading to confusion as to what IoT means. It also can be perceived that terms like ‘connected product’ or ‘connected operations’ will be used frequently. Specific and descriptive terms like ‘cold chain monitoring’ and ‘predictive maintenance’ too will be used extensively.
While deciding on a new name is something which will become more evident with time, IoT technology is witnessing development at a great pace, and most of the people agree that it will keep growing all through the year of 2019 as well.
Here are 7 IoT trends which you need to look out for in 2019:
Proper security is a critical shortcoming of IoT. The issue gathered more traction when 2018 saw a potent ransomware attack which mostly affected ticket payments and also water services in the city of Atlanta.
Experts in the field believe that more such ransomware attacks have the potential to hit smart city projects. Governments will require more investment in their security for taking care of such threats. Such kinds of ransomware attacks are significant threats to amenities like bright lights, public transport, and traffic controls as well.
Solutions of mobile device management like Samsung Knox, VMware AirWatch and SOTI MobiControl can prove decisive in avoiding attacks at the end of IoT devices.
There are many cities which are focusing on developing IoT services as a part of smart city projects. The town of Cary in South Carolina utilizes IoT data for connecting the traffic lights with their CRM platform for initiating alerts if the lights get faulty. San Diego in California uses electronic street meters and intelligent lighting as well.
With such a considerable increase in the number of smart city initiatives, the further introduction of the 5G network is expected to give a significant boost for bright city facilities like parking meters and derive less battery power from such IoT devices.
IoT will also be helpful to provide insights for the improvement of food safety. Smart industrial meters and a considerable number of sensors enabled with the Internet of Things connectivity assist food companies to monitor the temperature and humidity in cold storage facilities.
Such implementations are only expected to increase in 2019. Some companies help in efficiently using energy management in the different setting of food storage. They can handle heat maps, alerts and reports to monitor and analyze data on the environment and temperature in food storage units to make sure of excellent standards of food safety.
The year of 2019 will witness companies selling more IoT data through the practice known as infonomics. Soon, this procedure of selling data will become an essential part of many IoT enabled systems.
Companies that manufacture appliances will not only sell data as a means of extra revenue but will also help to prove that their products are great. This will be made possible with the help of IoT network management data and predictive maintenance as well.
As an example, data from smart water sensors that will be able to detect problems like leaks. This data, in turn, is sold to producers and service companies for their sales and digital marketing campaigns.
Data from IoT devices will be used more prominently to automate customer service and sales efforts by customer relationship management software. Routine scenes will witness an IoT device providing information to companies when it feels like customers are facing some problem. It can work not only for appliance products but also generic utilities like cable services.
The IoT data can then be entered into the CRM software to be used in sales discussions after some time.
Beacons are devices which have been around since a pretty long time for helping companies convey targeted messages on the smartphones of customers. With falling costs of these devices; however, they can prove to be useful in workforce management as well. The beacons can also be of help for employee monitoring, and the data can also be connected to various performance management software too. 2019 will witness the use of beacons on a larger scale as they have become more economical with prices expected to fall further shortly.
Market stores are getting smarter with every passing day. This has been made possible with radio frequency identification tags which provide a lot of useful insights on the product inventory at a particular store. The use of smart lighting can help stores figure out the time where specific customers keep looking around at the products on display.
This data can be analyzed from store video footages and also foot traffic monitoring software with Wi-Fi connectivity, further paving the way for retailers to make changes in their amount of merchandise or store layouts as well.
Just in a few years, IoT has made an enormous impact on the everyday lives of people. The further coming of 5G is sure to alter IoT space in the times to come. From the management of entire cities to the transformation of industries, IoT is trusted and expected to deliver industry altering outcomes in the future.
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