How IoT devices affect enterprise mobility projects

In the era of mobility, it seems that acronyms are being created every day. To help interpret these terms, we recently partnered with Blue Hill Research to create a glossary of corporate mobile acronyms. Here is my conversation with Ralph Rodriguez, founder and researcher at Blue Hill, and researcher Charlotte O'Donnelly.

BI - Business Intelligence: How does the Internet of Things affect BI and business strategy/technology for big data?

Charlotte O'Donnelly: In the past, BI's challenge was to identify the most valuable corporate data and ensure that it was collected in a way that would make it easier to use it later. IoT devices generate thousands or even millions of everyday data points, bringing new challenges: data volume, data type and speed – the three big challenges of big data. For example, sensors and networked devices on an aircraft may generate 1 TB of data on a single flight.

The Internet of Things transforms each business access point into a new potential data source, thus gaining BI and insight from a wider range of data sources, a larger amount of data, and data that changes every second. Enterprise IoT strategies must be real-time, not based on historical data sources, and must contain more types and bytes of data.

Because there is no shortage of large amounts of data or metrics (GPS location, temperature, output, speed, or time), the new challenge that the Internet of Things brings to BI is how well a company can manage and analyze data that seems to be infinite in all of these areas of operations.

CoIT - IT consumerization: Does CoIT affect corporate Internet of Things behavior? Will CoIT in this industry bring dramatic corporate-level impact to other technologies like smartphones and wearables?

O'Donnelly: Surprisingly, the adoption of the Internet of Things is revolutionizing the way smartphones and wearables – initially in the industrial and enterprise worlds – and then infiltrating the consumer front. With the development of the Industrial Internet of Things, companies are investing in and developing solutions that make existing equipment and machines smarter. On the other hand, CoIT involves behavioral changes that encourage companies to buy and use new devices.

So far, the value of connected consumer devices has increased and is surprisingly new. Many of the early consumer IoT devices slowed down or completely interrupted implementation because of larger security issues.

Security is affecting the development and behavior of the consumer and business sectors. Manufacturers are increasingly focusing on comprehensive IoT security solutions that protect components, devices, applications and cloud systems. Much of it is due to consumption-level vulnerabilities that result in obsolescence and/or legal penalties for equipment. At the enterprise level, security breaches can cause a company to go bankrupt, or at least significantly affect its brand reputation and its normal operations.

IoT - Internet of Things: As the Internet of Things becomes more prominent, does the enterprise have to manage it separately or classify it as mobile and/or IT? Will this change?

O'Donnelly: Companies invest in the Internet of Things in a piecemeal manner, leading to a wide range of management projects and deployments. Some companies have classified IoT network connections as mobilization under existing mobile phone contracts. Many companies manage deployment internally and lack a clear view of costs, data, usage, and future strategies. The current management programs lack visibility and potential project coverage, especially as corporate IoT investments continue to expand.

In the future, companies may try to integrate all information technology assets (mobilization, machine-to-machine, cloud, IoT, and traditional legacy infrastructure) into IT management. To do this successfully, IT needs to include almost all decision makers in the telecommunications, supply chain, and procurement departments within the enterprise, because traditionally, the IT asset purchaser of the enterprise and the establishment of an operator account or payment of bills Not the same person. The Internet of Things will revolutionize the scope of the entire business operation (similar to mobilization, but more extensive); its management requires an all-encompassing, enterprise-wide strategy, not at the departmental or regional level.

MNO - Mobile Network Operator: What is the difference between wireless carrier IoT management and other mobile devices? What are the preparations for MNOs for the growth of global IoT devices in the next few years?

O'Donnelly: IoT devices have different connectivity needs than mobile devices. For operators, managing IoT devices is expensive on existing network spectrum because it can be used for higher revenue accounts, such as profitable smartphone contracts. From a business perspective, running devices is relatively inexpensive, they only need a basic connection, but enterprises may have hundreds or thousands of devices that want to connect, which brings bandwidth challenges to network operator support. Therefore, many operators are reluctant to develop dedicated spectrum for IoT devices.

In addition, existing cellular network coverage is not broad enough to meet the connectivity required for IoT devices. The cellular network is not yet fully covered, and there are often no connections in the remote areas.

MNO is currently upgrading existing networks or building new networks that specifically support the Internet of Things and the high volume of traffic generated by these devices. Operators also work with large global IoT companies, such as IBM to build analytics around device and network data.

M2M - Machine to Machine: What is the difference between M2M and IoT technology ? Is it better to manage separately and/or manage together?

O'Donnelly: M2M refers to an independent network device. For a specific purpose, a group of sensors directly communicate data from one machine to another, often through custom equipment without manual intervention. Unlike the Internet of Things, M2M only transfers data between machines, not to a centralized computer or network, which means that M2M interactive output is simpler. Although M2M data transfer does not require manual intervention, it typically requires high levels of data analysis, interpretation, and output operability tasks, such as repairing damaged machines.

Before an enterprise successfully manages the Internet of Things, it must be able to manage mobility and M2M devices. The standard for operating M2M connections is the same as many mobile and IoT standards, such as cellular, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Radio Frequency Identification ( RFID ). Therefore, companies should manage M2M and the Internet of Things (and mobile) under the same project, because many functions and demand outputs are similar. In the development of the Internet of Things, the goal is that devices and data can ultimately be self-managed and run independently without the need for high-level manual analysis and decision making. By locating M2M and IoT devices under the same management project, it is better to transform legacy M2M data and devices into modern IoT systems.

OEMs – Original Equipment Manufacturers: Recently, IoT devices have become the target of hackers, and some experts have accused the lack of industry-wide device manufacturer safety standards. What are manufacturers doing to enhance equipment security and prevent future attacks?

Ralph Rodriguez: IoT devices still lack industry standards because of the global competitive landscape across regions. Most of the electronic component manufacturers and assembly plants are located in Asia. However, embedded software (the operational part of the equipment) is globally procured and is very cautious in the industry, not to mention the manufacturer relationship. The standard production process is part of the problem, such as equipment manufactured in the US and Germany, and different equipment standards manufactured in Japan or China. When adding software, the same basic device will have two distinct, unique security profiles. One solution for developers of the Open Trust Protocol is to provide a secure, common architecture and code management system to protect the Internet of Things and mobile devices from malicious attacks. The question is where to start from within the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) model, but this is another topic.

The preferred method of creating a standard is to focus on their respective specific industries through collaboration between private companies and alliances. Political intervention leads to additional complexity because there is no easy way to understand the impact of lobbying, which leads to a dilution of the standard, or, worse, the standard is unfair and tends to be a single, large, and wide-ranging manufacturer. . I prefer the idea of ​​US Senator Mark Warner, who advocates industry-based agreements and programs.

Over the years, we have worked with OEMs, subject matter experts and standards teams. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has a communications technology laboratory to check the security of the Internet of Things context and telecommunications networks. In addition, other well-known institutions active in the security of the Internet of Things, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The key is to make people in the industry realize that “cooperative competition” is in their best interests. Just like the VCR industry, they have argued with each other and cannot set global standards. However, my VCR did not attack my house and cut off my power.

RFID - Radio Frequency Identification: How is the development of RFID technology in today's IoT environment? What is the difference between companies using RFID today and a few years ago?

Rodriguez: Radio frequency identification, whether passive or active, is not a new technology, it is used to help manage the global supply chain, on-site use, and the explosive Internet of Things implementation will come soon. As a CTO of a global semiconductor automation company, it is also the turn of RFID, especially the passive UHF RFID tags, which are expected to develop into a 10 billion active sensory form.

If you want to know what a hot spot is, look at where the money flows. One company worthy of attention is Qualcomm, which just acquired NXP. Although the retail industry has made a lot of progress and brought a lot of market news, sensor tags and how best to manage the emerging IoT competition, it has just begun.