IoT blew our minds with its rapid growth within the last couple of years. What more can we expect in 2018?
Well, according to the latest HIS survey, there are 20 billion connected devices now and it is only the beginning of the year. Considering the ever-expanding popularity of IoT, we can say that 2018 will be the year of IoT. Within this article, we are introducing the biggest trends that we will witness in 2018
- The new era of security
As we have already encountered in our previous article, “IoT Security – Threats and Vulnerabilities”, IoT Security is one of the major challenges that should be addressed when adopting IoT solutions. If not addressed, the applications could lead to plenty of problems which exceed the actual value of adopting IoT applications and devices
In 2018, one of the most important trends will be to closely oversee security over connected devices which make our lives easier. Manufacturers, application designers, consumers, and operators, should be aware that multi-layered approach is a must in order to keep their devices and applications secure. Hardware equipment, firmware, codes, and sensitive information must remain secure through the whole device lifecycle - Blockchain
While we are on the topic of security, a current trend that has been in discussions regarding IoT security is leveraging the Blockchain technology. Blockchain is a transaction-recording database, which does not allow making changes to previous records and can only be further extended. Its decentralized nature helps with IoT’s problem of single point of security intelligence. This will enable devices with unusual behavior to be identified by the system and alienated if they have been compromised. A recent Market Research Report shows growth of IoT solutions based on blockchain to USD 6.08 bn by the year 2023 - Digital Twin
Do you need improvement in operations? Wondering what to do with all that data that you collected? Digital Twin is your answer! Digital Twin is going to be the new revolution in IoT. In the computerized world, DT will empower industries to create a bridge between physical and digital entities. It also serves as a hidden window to what is actually happening within the physical assets of an organization and also gives an insight into unpredictable changes within the near future
What will your company benefit from? Using a Digital Twin could increase the speed of production, reduce costs and improve efficiency. Furthermore, Digital twin will give you the opportunity to test drive your product virtually and check whether it is working properly - Edge Computing
Edge computing, also known as fog computing, refers to devices (called nodes) which work in close collaboration with IoT devices. The way in which they contribute to IoT devices is that they enable the ability to make instant decisions and take actions, feeding the cloud only after they have acquired relevant data. Example of how it can be used: For the purposes of video surveillance, the huge amount of footage will be inconvenient to upload to the cloud directly, for those purposes anomaly detection and real-time tracking can help with collecting insights from long periods of time and only the insights would be transmitted to the cloud - Collaboration between IoT, AI and Big Data
A tremendous progress is about to come in the following two years as IoT data analytics and AI will be combined for applications of smart homes. Platform and service providers are offering more and more solutions with integrated analytics which will support the AI with data. Another benefit of the marriage is the optimization and simplified adaptation of IoT devices
Additionally, responsive applications are now booming in the field of IoT and in order to build them, there is an obvious need for increased skills in Big Data and AI. What are responsive applications? Even though applications can differ drastically from one another, all of them give instant feedback on consumers, even when they can`t satisfy their demands promptly
Incorporating IoT information channels with AI has just picked up power this year and will develop exponentially in 2018. The need for Big Data and AI skills will increase
We can’t wait to see what will happen in 2018 to impact the world of IoT and if these trends are going to continue
