Due to the fragmented nature of IoT deployments, organizations can select from a wide range of IoT connectivity standards. IoT enables the creation of new business models, and product offers as well as digital transformation. Billions of IoT devices can be connected by expanding on current cellular networks, which will help you remain relevant to your customers, generate new revenue streams, and provide your clients with a competitive edge.

Although IoT is becoming widely used and connected devices are increasing quickly, the market environment is still fragmented. In order to provide the network performance required for a wide range of evolving IoT use cases, applications, and device types, connectivity for new business models must be flexible and agile.

What is IoT connectivity?

The methods used to link IoT devices—methods such as applications, sensors, trackers, gateways, and network routers—are often referred to as IoT connectivity. The phrase “IoT connectivity” is also frequently used in the IoT sector to refer to the specific IoT network solutions that can support this form of connectivity. These include, but are not limited to, WiFi, cellular, and LPWAN.

We frequently break down IoT connectivity options into three factors when determining which one is best for you or your company: bandwidth capacity (speed), coverage area, and power consumption. Finding a connectivity option for an IoT connection that prioritizes all three elements can be challenging. Therefore it’s crucial to know your connectivity needs before choosing an IoT connectivity option.

The era of IoT devices

The Internet of Things has made it possible for the physical and digital worlds to interact and collaborate. Enabling firms to automate and streamline their regular processes, it provides them with a host of advantages.

The workplace is changing due to technology. Our daily lives already contain billions of devices. They converse with one another. They communicate with corporate data streams. Additionally, they are increasingly shaping and controlling the environment in real-time to deliver unthinkable outcomes only a few years ago.

IoT gateway: The veins of connected devices

The Internet of Things (IoT), which involves objects communicating with one another either directly or through the cloud, is quickly developing. In addition, data streams are becoming less exclusive and more open, while sensor technology is becoming smaller, more effective, and more affordable. These developments in software, data mining, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) promise to deepen our understanding of the relationship between the facility and organizational performance as well as that between the facility and human performance.

Building an IoT ecosystem

In order to shape, manage, and commercialize a mega-digital platform like IoT, digital ecosystems made up of numerous companies and technologies are required. Macro trends like IoT are not only driven by a single company or invention. IoT ecosystems and platform providers have a very synergistic connection, with new opportunities being created as a result of the overall benefits to all parties.

The massive amounts of data generated by connected devices, which are expected to number 13.7 billion by 2021, are already leaving an enduring imprint on the digital landscape and driving up demand for platforms like 5G high-speed mobile networks and real-time data management and analytics in the cloud.

A network of businesses known as an IoT ecosystem powers the development and provision of IoT goods and services. The interdependencies between IoT ecosystem players are becoming more crucial and complex as IoT systems become more complex and specialized.

The advantages of being a part of a robust IoT ecosystem are numerous:

• Collaboration enables a business to set itself apart from rivals by utilizing the skills and assets of its partners. Selling into brand-new verticals that would not otherwise be possible, for instance.
• Third-party offerings can address product portfolio gaps, enhancing a company’s ability to launch IoT systems more quickly, mitigate risk, and lower upfront Capex by spreading the investment across various market participants.
• Because each partner brings a unique set of consumer ties to the table, partnerships frequently boost market reach and adoption rate. Making the proper alliances also frees up time and funds that can be used to advance IoT innovation and value generation.

Enterprises frequently seek a full end-to-end IoT solution, necessitating the involvement and integration of technologies and/or services from numerous industry participants. To cut down on IT overhead while deploying new IoT systems, many major IoT deployments can entail interactions between more than a dozen actors across one or perhaps several ecosystems. It is significantly simpler for a business to adopt and operate comprehensive IoT systems for a stronger competitive edge when these partner ecosystems are strategically established.

Data processing in IoT

Although the data processing cycle begins in the input stage, we should first consider the desired result. What queries, in other words, ought to be addressed with the aid of IoT? What kind of data are we looking for?

One example of a use case is receiving an alert whenever the temperature of a manufacturing machine exceeds a threshold limit.

Once we are certain of the desired outcome, we must figure out how to get there. In order to be transformed into the information we need, the data gathered by the sensor devices need to be stored in a suitable format.

As an illustration, when a machine is operating, we could periodically receive data (for instance, every 10 minutes). We might wish to utilize that information to determine how many hours have passed since the last service on the machine. By seeing trends in that data, we could predict when a certain number of hours will be reached if consumption stays constant.

We should spend money on a scalable cloud service to be able to store the data due to the possibly enormous amount of data that our sensors capture. Having said that, we must also create a data retention strategy and acknowledge that it is illogical to retain all IoT data indefinitely. The cost of storing data increases as we accumulate more of it and hold it for longer. On the other hand, less data equals fewer historical allusions and insights. As a result, we must set priorities and strike a balance between the amount of data we want to store and our budget.

Before implementing data processing, it’s crucial to determine a suitable balance between resource use and update frequency (e.g., calculation capacity, power). The IoT use case dictates exactly what constitutes a “good balance.”

The history of data processing technology

In certain use scenarios, it’s crucial to understand immediately how the result is affected by the data gathered. Real-time data processing in IoT is necessary for this. However, it can be quite resource-intensive. In certain other use cases, processing the gathered data just once a day, for instance, is sufficient.

So far, we have employed sensor devices to gather the data, a network solution to transfer the data to a cloud service, and a data transformation process to turn the data into usable information. It’s now time to show the findings to the user.

IoT connectivity examples

The type of IoT connectivity a company makes will determine whether a new IoT project succeeds or fails. When an organization needs an IoT connectivity mechanism, factors like battery life, network coverage, and cost all come into play.

IoT connectivity technologies

Without connectivity, the Internet of Things (IoT) would not be possible. A device within an IoT ecosystem will only function if it is connected to other devices and IoT technologies, similar to how a sink is connected to a water line or a lamp plugged into an outlet. Fortunately, there are a variety of IoT connectivity technologies available. Understanding your needs for bandwidth, range, and power consumption will help you choose the best one.

Let’s explore the most popular IoT connectivity technologies and application cases.

Fixed connection with Ethernet

Ethernet connections were one of the earliest techniques businesses used to connect an IoT device to a network. They remain a good option for hefty devices that don’t need to move from a fixed place. The quantity of cabling used in a wired deployment can be reduced by using Power over Ethernet, a technique that transports electrical currents through data cables rather than power cords.

LPWAN’s ability to support lots of sensors

In the Internet of Things, low-power WAN IoT protocols are used to wirelessly transmit small quantities of data from specialized base stations to sensors and devices.

The LPWAN technologies LoRa, short for long range and supported by chipmaker Semtech and Sigfox, are most frequently used by businesses. Both LoRa and Sigfox support their bidirectional communications using unlicensed industrial, scientific, and medical bands, which include the 868 MHz band in Europe, the 915 MHz spectrum in North America, and the 433 MHz frequency in Asia.

In urban deployments, both LoRa and Sigfox offer a realistic range of about 10 kilometers (km), and in open rural areas with fewer skyscrapers, their range is more than twice that.

IIoT and edge computing are gaining traction in many industries

Both Sigfox and Semtech provide gateways to make the deployment of their own technologies as private networks simple and affordable. These LPWAN technologies have received a lot of attention for usage in IoT deployments in commercial buildings and industrial sites that house thousands of sensors and other IoT devices.

In terms of LPWAN technologies, LoRa is in the lead, partly because a startup named Helium has launched a DIY IoT network based on the LoRaWAN technology across North America and Europe.

IoT cellular connectivity

IoT cellular connectivity has gained significant traction globally, with 2G and 3G enabling several pioneering IoT applications. With 4G services, more devices per cell may enable more bandwidth, lower latency, and improved device density. The introduction of 5G networks, initially made possible by the 5G New Radio (NR) standard, will further improve these by enabling Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), which will support more and more crucial applications.

Therefore, cellular IoT is able to fulfill both the comparatively straightforward needs of the Massive IoT market and the highly unique, delicate requirements of complicated surroundings and applications.

In addition to mobile network operators, the cellular IoT ecosystem is quickly growing and is supported by an increasing number of device, chipset, module, and network infrastructure vendors. It is founded on world 3GPP standards. It performs better than other Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network technologies in terms of unparalleled global coverage, Quality of Service, scalability, security, and the flexibility to handle the different requirements for a wide range of use cases.

Satellite makes it possible to access inaccessible zones

For IoT devices, satellites provide genuinely omnipresent coverage since they may connect to devices with little to no ground-based IoT connectivity. A satellite link is required if a company needs IoT coverage in the middle of the ocean. IoT devices can already be connected globally using geostationary satellites, which orbit 23,000 miles above the globe. As businesses like SpaceX begin to launch enormous constellations of mini-satellites that are aimed at the IoT sector, low earth orbit satellites are likewise becoming more and more popular.

WiFi for enterprises

WiFi serves as a connection method for Internet of Things (IoT) devices such as sensors, security cameras, and IoT units for homes and businesses.

One of the most widely used wireless networking choices worldwide is WiFi. Real-world ranges in the unlicensed 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands peak at about 410 feet from the access point. 2.4 GHz connections are capable of 150 Mbps data rates and have improved throughput through solid things like walls. For IoT devices in offices or other structures, businesses would utilize 2.4 GHz. Data speeds of about 1 Gbps can be supported via 5 GHz links. The WiFi signal’s range is reduced by around 50% unless the company strengthens the signal on the 5 GHz band.

For the 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands, the typical WiFi battery life is eight to nine hours. Office computers and smartphones can use that battery lifespan, but sensors and Internet of Things (IoT) devices need weeks, months, or even years of battery life.

IoT connectivity protocols

When constructing a network to support an IoT ecosystem, technology professionals have a variety of communication protocols to choose from. The following are the most typical.

Bluetooth and BLE

Short-wavelength, ultrahigh-frequency radio waves are used in the short-range wireless technology known as Bluetooth. Although it was initially primarily used for audio streaming, it has since evolved into a crucial enabler of wireless and linked devices. As a result, both IoT installations and personal area networks frequently use this low-power, short-range IoT connectivity option.

The new form of Bluetooth that is best for Internet of Things connections is Bluetooth Low Energy, also referred to as Bluetooth LE or BLE. True to its name, BLE uses less power than standard Bluetooth, making it especially appealing in many use cases, including smart home and health and fitness trackers for consumers and in-store navigation for businesses.

LoRa and LoRaWAN

Long-range communication capabilities are provided via the noncellular wireless technology known as LoRa, also known as long-range. For M2M and Internet of Things deployments, it has low power consumption and secure data transmission. It is currently a part of Semtech’s radio frequency platform and is a proprietary technology. Semtech was a founding member of the LoRa Alliance, which today oversees LoRa technology. Additionally, the LoRa Alliance created and currently manages LoRaWAN, an open cloud-based protocol that permits LoRa communication between IoT devices.

WiFi

WiFi is a popular IoT protocol due to its widespread use in residential, commercial, and industrial facilities. It can analyze massive volumes of data and allows quick data transfer. With short- to medium-range distances, LAN situations are particularly well-suited for WiFi. In addition, WiFi has a number of standards, the most popular of which is 802.11n, which gives technicians different alternatives for deployment.

For various IoT use cases, particularly those involving low-power/battery-powered devices, many WiFi standards, including the one frequently used in houses, consume too much power. Because of this, WiFi is not an option for all deployments. WiFi’s low range and poor scalability are additional factors that make it impractical for use in many IoT deployments.

Cellular

Cellular is one of the most popular and commonly used solutions for IoT applications. It is also one of the finest deployment options where communications span greater distances. The 2G and 3G legacy cellular standards are currently being phased out, but 4G/LTE and 5G, which are newer high-speed standards, are quickly expanding their coverage areas thanks to telecommunications companies. High bandwidth and dependable communication are provided by cellular. It has the ability to send large amounts of data, which is crucial for many IoT deployments. However, these features are more expensive and use more energy than alternative options.

CoAP

Constrained Application Protocol, or CoAP, was introduced in 2013 by the Internet Engineering Task Force Constrained RESTful Environments Working Group after it was developed to function with HTTP-based IoT systems. User Datagram Protocol is used by CoAP to create secure connections and permit data transmission between numerous sites. CoAP enables constrained devices to join an IoT environment, even in the presence of low bandwidth, low availability, and/or low-energy devices, and is frequently used for machine-to-machine (M2M) applications.

AMQP

The abbreviation AMQP stands for Advanced Message Queuing Protocol, an open standard protocol used for middleware that is more message-oriented. As a result, independent of the message brokers or platforms being utilized, it facilitates messaging compatibility between systems. Even over distances or via subpar networks, it provides stability, security, and interoperability. Even when systems are not simultaneously available, it facilitates communications.

LWM2M

Lightweight M2M (LWM2M), according to OMA SpecWorks, is “a device management protocol designed for sensor networks and the demands of an M2M environment.” This communication protocol is a viable choice for low-power devices with constrained processing and storage capabilities because it was created expressly for remote device management and telemetry in IoT contexts and other M2M applications.

MQTT

Originally created in 1999 and called Message Queuing Telemetry Transport, it is now simply known as MQTT. This protocol no longer uses message queuing. A publish-subscribe architecture is used by MQTT to support M2M communication. Its straightforward messaging architecture facilitates communication between numerous devices and operates with restricted hardware.

It was created to function in low-bandwidth environments, including those where sensors and mobile devices are connected to shaky networks. Due to its ability to connect small-code devices, it is frequently chosen for wireless networks with varying levels of latency brought on by bandwidth restrictions or erratic connections. The most popular open-source protocol for tying together IoT and industrial IoT devices is MQTT, which originally existed as a proprietary protocol.

DDS

Data Distribution Service was created by the Object Management Group (OMG) for real-time systems. A middleware protocol and API standard for data-centric communication, DDS is described by OMG as “integrating the components of a system together, providing low-latency data connectivity, extreme reliability, and scalable architecture that business and mission-critical IoT applications need. Using a publish-subscribe structure, this M2M standard provides high-performance and highly scalable real-time data communication.

XMPP

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP), originally developed by the open-source Jabber community in the early 2000s for real-time human-to-human conversation, is currently utilized for M2M communication in lightweight middleware and for routing XML data. XMPP is most frequently used for consumer-focused IoT implementations, such as smart appliances, and facilitates the real-time exchange of structured yet extensible data between numerous entities on a network. The XMPP Standards Foundation supports it as being open source.

Zigbee

One of the most widely used mesh network protocols in IoT contexts, Zigbee, was created for use in building and home automation. Zigbee is a low-power, short-range protocol that can be used to spread communication over numerous devices. Although it has a lesser data rate than BLE, its range is greater than BLE’s. It offers a flexible, self-organizing mesh, ultralow power, and a selection of applications and is governed by the Zigbee Alliance.

Z-Wave

Z-Wave is a wireless mesh network communication protocol based on low-power radio frequency technology, which is another exclusive choice. Z-Wave, like Bluetooth and WiFi, enables encrypted communication between smart devices, adding a layer of security to the IoT deployment. It is frequently utilized in commercial applications, including energy management technology, home automation goods, and security systems. In the United States, it uses a radio frequency of 908.42 MHz, albeit its frequencies differ from country to country. The Z-Wave Alliance, a member consortium dedicated to improving the technology and interoperability of Z-Wave-using devices, supports Z-Wave.

IoT connectivity options

Because there are so many options and they are so varied, the constantly changing IoT connectivity landscape is currently concentrating on meeting the demands of data-intensive environments found in both consumer and industrial Internet of Things applications. The ideal universal IoT connectivity solution would have extremely low power consumption for the devices, be capable of swiftly transmitting enormous amounts of data over great distances, and be offered at costs that would allow smart businesses to continue to be profitable.

AI and big data are the driving forces behind Industry 4.0

The sad reality is that no current or near-future communication protocol will be able to accommodate all potential smart applications without granting them any compromises in terms of the aforementioned essential IoT connectivity factors, given the inherent heterogeneity of use cases within the Internet of Things.

So, in order to identify the optimum solution for a particular project, it is always necessary to compromise between the three basic connection factors of range, bandwidth, and power consumption. In order to choose the ideal connection network for your smart organization, you must be able to recognize your project’s requirements at every stage of its deployment and have a thorough understanding of your IoT use case’s details. In order to help you understand the trade-offs provided by the most common network technologies, here is a list of the most widely used connectivity solutions used in the Internet of Things.

How to choose the right IoT connectivity option?

The term “IoT connectivity” refers to the interconnection of every component of the IoT ecosystem, including sensors, gateways, routers, platforms, applications, and other systems. It often refers to various network systems classified according to their bandwidth, range, and power requirements. The requirements for IoT projects vary, and many of them use various connectivity methods depending on their requirements.

You can better define your needs, make more informed decisions, and start your smart project on the right foot with the assistance of this succinct overview of IoT connectivity options.

The importance of choosing the right IoT connectivity option

Because there is so much at stake, is the straightforward response? With its limitless potential, the Internet of Things, a massive technology that combines the digital and physical worlds to offer a smarter future, continues to draw market participants and investments. There is a growing need to look for killer market differentiators that would give an extra edge to if only slightly, get ahead of the competing crowd as the competition among commercial and industrial IoT-driven enterprises soars.

While there is always room for improvement in an Internet of Things deployment that involves the fusion of information and operational technology, it sometimes seems like connectivity is taken for granted. Many Internet of Things actors disregards the significance of having proper IoT connectivity due to the presence of widely used wireless technologies like cellular, WiFi, and Bluetooth. This can ultimately result in project failure due to the inability to control the rapidly expanding data deluge.

Therefore, carefully choosing the proper IoT connectivity solution is essential to any IoT project’s success because it lets you to control your smart data streams fully. In the end, connecting your assets through effective and interoperable IoT connectivity solutions may be the differentiating element needed to tip the scales of success in your favor.

IoT connectivity challenges

IoT has had some impact on how people live, interact, and conduct business. Billions of web-enabled devices are transforming the entire planet into a gigantic digital hub. IoT connectivity runs into a number of issues while attempting to create smarter homes, offices, cars, and other operations, including the following.

Scalability

As more devices are connected, the underlying infrastructure must be scalable. According to projections, 35.82 billion IoT devices will be installed globally in 2021 alone. As enterprises add more IoT connectivity devices, such as sensors, gateways, routers, or cameras, IoT growth also unleashes a tsunami of new types of data.

The scaling problem’s multiple facets include cost, complexity, and bandwidth effectiveness. Every second, 127 devices are connecting for the first time to the internet, according to McKinsey Digital. As a result, as the network expands, service providers, network operators, and other digital enablers need to implement an IoT connectivity solution to handle the maintenance and management workload.

Compatibility

As IoT grows, various solutions fight to become the standard, making integration challenging. Diverse operating systems, disjointed cloud services, and a dearth of standardized machine-to-machine (M2M) protocols can all cause compatibility problems.

For sustained compatibility, users must maintain their devices updated and patched. Performance problems can arise, for instance, when two IoT devices connect with each other and have various software versions. In relation to this, enabling data synchronization and interoperability between various smart devices in an IoT platform is challenging.

Security

Can you imagine an average Internet of Things device being targeted five minutes after going live? This trend is only anticipated to increase as more devices connect to the internet. According to Symantec, network routers account for the majority of cyberattacks against IoT devices, with each router receiving an average of 5,200 attacks per month.

In addition to the scalability and interoperability issues already highlighted, typical network security issues would also need to be solved for the IoT deployment to be successful. Access control, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, device identity, personal data protection, authentication, and other confidentiality concerns are some of these. In order to provide end-to-end security, it is necessary to be able to make adjustments fast so that issues can be rectified before being exploited.

IoT connectivity providers

According to Gartner, these are the top 5 IoT connectivity providers:

• Vodafone Managed IoT Connectivity Services
• Verizon Managed IoT Connectivity Services
• AT&T Managed IoT Connectivity Services
• KORE Wireless Managed IoT Connectivity Services
• Itron Managed IoT Connectivity Services

The bottom line

The fragmented nature of IoT deployments means organizations can choose from many IoT connectivity standards. How to connect to IoT is one of the most important decisions when it comes to IoT. IoT connectivity should be selected based on carefully assessing each deployment’s characteristics. For some very high speeds, ultra-low latency connectivity is required.

This may lead to the adoption of 5G or 4G cellular IoT connectivity, but this decision must be balanced against the likely cost and power usage these technologies require. Low-speed connections that are not always on can be ideal for some simpler deployments, requiring smaller batteries and delivering IoT connectivity cost-effectively.

• As of the end of June 2022, there were 17.1 connected devices and smart home appliances on average per home worldwide, up 10% over the previous year in the same period.
• The highest penetration of connected devices to date was discovered in US homes powered by Plume, with an average of 20.2 connected devices per home.
• A significant increase trend in the typical number of cyber threats that were successfully stopped was also reported by Plume.

There is increasing demand for smart home products. Businesses have been adjusting to post-pandemic hybrid working over the past year or so, with knowledge workers gradually returning to the office after working almost exclusively from home for many months. During that time, they were crucial in boosting sales of smart home devices, according to a study.

There is great interest in smart home appliances in Europe

The personalized communications services provider, which recently inked agreements with top service providers like Virgin Media, analyzed anonymized and aggregated data from a cross-section of the 41 million homes across the US, Europe, and Japan that is managed by the Plume Cloud, comparing the periods from January to June 2021 with that of January to June 2022.

The growing demand for the internet of things (IoT) and smart home technologies among consumers of home technology was one of the significant trends that emerged. According to the report, there were 17.1 connected devices on average per home worldwide as of June 2022, an increase of 10% over the same time last year.

Europe saw the most significant change with a 13% increase to 17.4 connected devices on average per Plume home. With an average of 20.2 connected devices per home, US homes powered by Plume have the highest penetration of connected devices to date.

There was an increase (11%) in data usage across the Plume Cloud, with up to 10% more devices in households using Plume. However, fitness bikes saw the highest drop in data use, down 23%, which likely indicates a shift in consumer behavior when individuals start working again and exercising outside or in the gym as they get used to the post-pandemic world of hybrid working.

“Plume’s data reflects two interesting periods – the first half of 2021, when consumers were gradually emerging from the pandemic restrictions that had kept them homebound, and the first half of 2022, when people started going back into the world. Despite the radically different circumstances, it’s evident that smart homes and IoT devices remain very much key to our connected lifestyles,” explained the CMO at Plume, Todd Grantham.

The study discovered a rise in device types and a significant growth in device volumes. With an average of more than six smartphones per household across all locations, including “guest” devices permitted to access the network, smartphones continue to be the most common device in Plume-powered homes.

AIoT: The much-needed convergence of AI and IoT

Apple goods dominated device brand loyalty, with a “presence” (defined as one or more same brand devices) in more homes and in houses that Plume believes to be “brand-devoted” (that is, have five or more same brand devices) or “brand-obsessed” (defined as having at least five same brand devices) (with 10 or more same brand devices).

Plume pointed out that the “devotion” and “obsession” categories had seen greater advances in the percentage shift between the two time periods. According to Plume, this shows the relative power of the iOS device ecosystem. Apple acquired 24% more homes with 10 or more devices, and Samsung and Amazon followed suit with 17% and 18%, respectively.

Secure by Design: Keeping IoT security in mind all down the line

Plume also noted an important upward trend in the average number of cyber threats successfully prevented. According to the report, over the first half of the year, the average number of cyber threats Plume has successfully prevented increased dramatically (by 51%) internationally. Threats against botnets were found to have increased by 84%, with malware threats increasing by 58% and spyware and adware threats increasing by 40%. Plume hypothesized that the Russo-Ukrainian War might be to blame for these tendencies.

Anatoly Lebedev is the CEO and Co-Founder of Irish company Cesanta. Together with his team, he helps define the future of embedded communication technologies. He believes that if we want to get to 20 billion connected devices by 2020, then IoT integration needs to be made simple, secure and fast. Anatoly ensures that Cesanta products match this vision. Cesanta has been named as the ‘One to Watch’ by Business & Finance Magazine and is the 2015 winner of the Web Summit’s ‘GoGlobal’ competition. Previously, Anatoly shaped strategic partnerships in Europe, Middle East and Africa in his 8-year tenure at Google. He is heavily involved in the Irish startup scene and can be found as a mentor at hackathons and startup weekends. When he’s not driving the business side of Cesanta forward, you can find the racing enthusiast driving through the Irish countryside.

A little bit about you and your company

My name is Anatoly Lebedev and I’m the CEO of Cesanta, an Irish technology startup working in the Internet of Things field. We are on a mission to bring all devices online. This means we apply connectivity and networking solutions by bringing devices and equipment to the Internet.

I spent 8 years at Google before founding this company.  I started in the tech field and then I moved to the business side and then to strategic partnerships. I was doing multimedia, hardware distribution, data acquisition and so on. And when we decided to start Cesanta, a bunch of other engineers joined us. 70% of the company is comprised of ex-Google employees. The mission itself is quite challenging. How do you bring all those devices online? How do you actually program them physically? That’s why we created Mongoose IoT Platform and made it easier for people with limited skills to actually prototype and build these connected things.

What was the reason for starting this company?

We have a different product called Mongoose Web Server Library. And, this product is widely used by companies like Intel, HP, Dell, Samsung, even NASA; Mongoose is now on the international space station. What we noticed was that Mongoose had been used as part of systems that companies built in-house to achieve IoT connectivity. While those guys I mentioned might have big pockets and a lot of resources to do that, the majority of companies developing IoT-enabled products are smaller and don’t have those budgets.  These smaller companies often stumble upon problems that will create insecurity and unstable products. So what we said was why don’t we just provide them with a platform to create simple, secure IoT connectivity? We know how to build it, and that’s how we decided to build the platform.

More and more companies are going to bring their products online, and all of them will be struggling with infrastructure. But, for most of them their core business is the device and what it does for the consumer; not the connectivity piece. That’s where we enable them. We’ve taken away a big, very specific problem in regards to infrastructure, connectivity and security and we’re giving them more time to concentrate on what they do best – product development.

What do you think is the benefit of using data science in IoT?

Big Data has been ‘the’ big topic, right? I think one of the reasons is that big data probably didn’t succeed as much as expected. There was a hype but then it dropped. There was not enough Big Data. What IoT actually creates effectively is simply a huge amount of data coming in. So in a nutshell IoT is just an enabler for Big Data. We see ourselves as being an intermediary between the business which will create tons of data and the solutions and data scientists who slice and dice the data, providing the actual intelligence for these businesses.

Why did you choose Ireland for your HQ?

We have a lot of diversity inside the company. Most of the people came to Ireland for work.  The majority of our staff worked for Google. What’s beautiful about Ireland is that it’s part of Europe, it’s a relatively inexpensive place to live, it’s in the Eurozone, it’s a 3 – 4 hours short flight from anywhere in Europe.  It’s between the US and Europe, flying to NY is 6 hours and it has a small market. What you see here in Germany [at CeBIT] is that most of the promotional material is in German. Unfortunately, I don’t speak German so I can’t understand what they’re talking about and this [CeBIT] is an international event with 200.000 people coming from all over the world. Plus, Germany is a big market in which companies can  produce mainly for Germany. The diversity that can be achieved in Ireland is not needed if you aim at one large market.

We had a chance to move to Silicon Valley for example. But, in that moment, economically it made more sense to stay in Ireland and we achieved much more. In Silicon Valley everything is more expensive. There’s a lot of talent. But, the talent is hopping from job to job because there’s a large variety of jobs.

Ireland also has pretty good conditions for startups now. It’s actually great when the government helps you as a company.

What are the other significant shifts you see in IoT?

Everyone tries to play into it [IoT]. Every week you see a huge announcement of a big company going into IoT, pouring tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars into development, saying they are going to be the next big player. And it’s great, because it creates more awareness and brings more opportunities to the market. So, we definitely see more businesses entering the market because they figured out that an existing product or a new product that is IoT-enabled will be much more sellable and actually bring more revenue to them. To businesses it’s a no-brainer that IoT is positive, it’s not a fake hype. If you’re for example in British Gas and you install a thermostat which is connected, customers are more interested and their electricity bill will decrease because you are only using heating when you need to, not according to preset timers. Or take connected cars – you won’t have to bring your car to a service station to install a new feature. It can be pushed over the air. Or in health, what we now have are simple trackers, but they will move to becoming  solutions like nano robots in your bloodstream that  tell you ‘oh this fella is about to have a heart attack’. This is not not very far away.

By bringing all devices online we create an additional value not only for businesses but for people. It’s going to be securer and safer because you can prevent a lot of things before they happen. When you have things that talk to each other it’ll be easier to prevent issues.

A lot of problems in the world right now are because people or things don’t communicate in the right manner. Apart from the golden billion, there are an additional six billion people on this planet that will leapfrog. Take parts of Africa where they never had landlines, they leap-frogged into mobile phones directly.

I told you about this chip right? It’s actually a Chinese company producing that chip, it costs about 3 dollars and has an MCU which holds enough memory to make one person feel like a WiFi antenna. It works for a distance of up to 350 meters and there is enough capability to actually embed it into pretty much anything and make that thing connected. At the price point, you can put it pretty much everywhere. Take trackable clothes. Clothes producers are already thinking about how to track shorts and trousers etc.

In five years we’re going to live in a whole different world. But, you need to have security, sensibility, data protection and privacy. Ten years ago we had no phones in our pockets. And now everyone has at least one. Actually, we do much more with them than just phone people. We share everything that’s happening in our lives with our technology.

I watched a talk from Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of Kaspersky Antivirus and he said the biggest threat to the user is himself. Because the amount of information we share about ourselves is enormous. A lot of people post so much on Facebook. They don’t even understand that people outside do have access to that. How old you are, where you live, when and where you are going to travel. So something like connecting them, sending data somewhere can be actually more sensible because you can actually create hard rules to do what you actually need to do. Security is the big issue to solve around IoT.

If you could tackle any technology solvable problem existing today what would that be and why?

One of the biggest challenges for the IoT is it’s diversity.  Companies create a lot of different things that don’t talk to one another. Ideally, I would like to see everything in our lives (which is connected) be able to talk to each other without us. And, I think it’s a long shot, but, when things start talking to each other, things will be way easier. Let’s say you arrive to your house in your smart car. By the time you approach your house, the gates are opening, you park in your driveway and you walk out and the car parks itself in the garage. You come to the door and the door opens because it knows it’s you, you don’t need keys.  Once you enter, by the way your heater knew you’re coming, your system knows that it is Thursday and usually Thursday night you have a glass of wine. The fridge already knew this but also knew that you had ran out. It ordered wine for you and it’s on the way before you even arrive home. These are small things but imagine how much time we’ll free up!

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It seems not a day goes by without an industry leader remarking that machine learning algorithms are the future of everything. Unfortunately, data scientist extraordinaire Hilary Mason is calling bullshit on the whole affair.

Mason is the CEO and founder at Fast Forward Labs, a machine intelligence research company. While speaking to Stacey Higginbotham of GigaOM regarding “new connected products” and how some of them come armed with ML algorithms can “anticipate your needs over time and behave accordingly,” she says: “That’s just a bunch of marketing bullshit.” Quite straightforward.

Mason is also the Data Scientist in Residence at Accel, has been the Chief Scientist at bitly and co-founded HackNY.

As Higginbotham points out, algorithms have gained a new popularity on account of what it is believed can be done with them. Mason, herself a veteran at writing algorithms is “quick to dismantle the cult that has been built up around algorithms and machine learning as companies try to make sense of all the data they have coming in.”

Mason believes an algorithm to be a ‘method’ or a ‘recipe’ – ‘instructions for a computer to follow.’

“It’s just a recipe you type in to get a consistent result. In some ways chocolate chip cookie recipes are my favorite algorithms. You put a bunch of bad-for-you stuff in a bowl and get a delicious result.”

Putting it in perspective, Higginbotham sums it up in the workings of a spam filter where one can build an algorithm picks out spam based on the usage of words common to such mails and then combining that with a statistical distribution of the countries that spam often comes from. What one is left with is mathematics put to good use.

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It is a truth (almost) universally acknowledged that the Internet of Things is going to revolutionise how we live, work and think. From the explosion of sensor data, to connected cars, to the smart homes and cities of the future, IoT is permeating its way into every facet of our lives. Although broaching this field can be daunting, it is certainly worth looking in to the fascinating applications and technology associated with this field- if you’re looking for the latest insights into how IoT will shape our future, this list is a great place to start.

A brief note on methodology- we discovered and ranked influencers based on Twitter activity around “#IoT” and “Internet of Things”, using Keyhole, FollowerWonk, Klout, Onalytica and a little of our own algorithmic magic to compile the sources. The result was a beguiling mix of IoT developers and founders, journalists, politicians and social media tech titans. Think our method missed a particularly stellar Internet of Things influencer? Be sure to let us know in the comments.

1. Tony Fadell
It’s no surprise that the CEO of Nest– a product whose name is synonymous with IoT and smart homes- topped this list. Nest came to prominence for their products Thermostat and Protect. Nest has been revolutionising home automation with every release. The Nest Thermostat doesn’t require programming- the user simply has to turn it up and down for a week as required, at which point Nest will learn your personalised energy usage schedule, which becomes more refined over time. Fadell himself is an insightful speaker on the future of the IoT- read his thoughts on the feasibility of one centralised home automation platform here.

2.  Vala Afshar
Vala is the CMO for Extreme Networks, a company which “designs, builds, and installs sophisticated Ethernet solutions that meet the toughest challenges in network connectivity and IP-based communications”. He’s also a published author, and regularly contributes to The Huffington Post- we recommend reading his concise introduction to the Internet of Things.

3. Kevin Ashton
Ashton was the man responsible for coining the term “Internet of Things” back in 1999, and continues to be an expert of the subject of our interconnected future and present. He is also responsible for this fantastic video, which explains the Internet of Things to the uninitiated in just two minutes. He also an author, co-founder of the Auto-ID Center at MIT (as well as several successful tech startups), and one of the masterminds behind Santiago Swallow.

4. Rob Tiffany
Rob is the Global Technology Lead, Internet of Things and Enterprise Mobility for Microsoft. His role involves overseeing the architecture, development & deployment of many of the world’s largest mobile and wireless solutions for Fortune 100 companies. In addition to his extensive work with Microsoft, is personal website describes him as an “author, mobile + IoT strategist, teacher, entrepreneur, CxO advisor, architect, developer, international speaker, Navy submarine veteran and wannabe sommelier”. As with pretty much everyone on this list, he seems hilariously busy.

5. Glen Gilmore
It’s nigh-on impossible to put together a list of social media tech influencers without Twitter titan Glen Gilmore popping up. Glen is a social business & social media expert; his tweet activity around the Internet of Things mainly focuses around connected cars, with a particular focus on Uber.
6. Timo Elliott
Timo is an Innovation Evangelist for SAP, and well-versed on all things business analytics and future-facing tech. SAP systems run more than 75% of the world’s GDP, and are committed to matching Internet of Things applications to businesses- Timo regularly shares SAP IoT applications, including connected vehicles and “washrooms of the future”, on his Twitter.

7. Simon L Porter
Simon is the VP of European Mid Market Sales for IBM, and a well-seasoned tech veteran, having undertaken 9 different jobs over nearly 30 years within IBM. His Twitter is a treasure trove of insights in cloud, analytics and the Internet of Things- including links to incisively honest literature of the current limitations of IoT.
8. Stacey Higginbotham
Stacey is a Senior Writer for Gigaom, one of Dataconomy’s preferred online media portals for all of the latest tech updates. She has 15 year’s experience in tech journalism, writing for other publications such as The Deal, the Austin Business Journal, The Bond Buyer and BusinessWeek. Stacey is the go-to writer for all things internet, and Internet of Things- if there’s an IoT application worth knowing about, she’s probably already written about it.

9. Ed Vaizey
Ed Vaizey is the UK’s current Minister of State for Culture and the Digital Economy. His Twitter mainly covers digital innovations, with an unsurprisingly UK-centric focus. Did you know, for instance, that the UK is among the largest markets outside of the US for wearable tech & IoT products, as well as being the most proactive users of ecommerce in the world? You do now.

10. Alexandra Deschamps-Sonsino
Alexandra is the Director of DesignSwarm, a design and consultancy firm focused around the Internet of Things, connected devices and physical connections to the web. Founded almost 9 years ago, DesignSwarm was in the Internet of Things game long before the hype hit. She’s also the Founder of IoTAngels, creator of The Good Night Lamp, and an all-round expert on Internet of Things.

(Image credit: Kris Krug, via Twitter)

As we enter 2015, the long hyped Internet of Things is starting to take shape. We’re starting to see intelligent devices, wearables, and connected items that aim to make our lives easier.

The name however – the Internet of Things – slightly obscures the underlying nature of this new system.

In 2012, Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google and “Father of the Internet,” clarified what the emerging IoT actually is: the internet of sensors and actuators.

And to clarify more, all of those sensors will be throwing off data. So, the IoT is an ecosystem of sensors, data-flows, analytics, and actuators. And this ecosystem of sensors, data, and computation will have a dramatic impact on our economy.

A trillion sensor world

As we talk about smart phones, tablets, watches, and connected objects, we need to understand that those “things” will be packed full of sensors.

To put some numbers on this, Gartner forecasts 25 billion connected things by 2020, a 566% increase over 2014. And, this is just the number of “objects.” The number of individual sensors could top one trillion as soon as the early 2020s according to estimates from several companies and industry groups.

This increase in sensors is being driven by falling sensor costs and new fabrication techniques. For example, the startup company mCube (a maker of microelectromechanical systems sensors, or MEMS) is using a new fabrication method to create motion sensors that are “smaller than a grain of sand.” These are said to be “the smallest accelerometers in the world.” They are now small enough and cheap enough, that mCube envisions a world where motion sensors are added to “virtually everything that moves.” mCube’s vision is a world where all moving things are ubiquitously instrumented, collecting data.

We can already see this vision of a ubiquitously instrumented world becoming reality. For instance, this year, a wide range of wearables are incorporating sensors.

The most obvious sensor-containing products are watches, like the Apple Watch and Samsung Simband. They not only contain motion sensors, but are also packed with other types of sensors that measure biometrics such as heart rate, temperature, and heart rate variability.

Moreover, the Samsung Simband not only has built-in sensors, but also room to accommodate additional sensors from third parties. So as new sensors are created, they can be “swapped in” and integrated into the device.

Of course, all of these sensors will be throwing off data, so the Apple Watch and Simband devices are being integrated into development platforms that record that data and make it available to developers.

Apple is creating HealthKit and Samsung is creating the SAMI development platform. Essentially, these development platforms gather data from the watches and other instrumented objects of the IoT. This data is then made available to developers for the creation of new applications and analyses.

The Samsung SAMI platform and Apple HealthKit are simply small-scale ecosystems that mirror the much larger IoT ecosystem: a vast network of sensors, data, and analytics.

Transforming the planet into vast streams of data

As we instrument larger numbers of objects, all of these sensors will be creating data streams. As we build out this network of sensors, we will be generating vast quantities of new data that need to be analyzed. In a way, these sensors are really the front-end for a vast data system. The sensors will instrument the planet, turning larger swaths of the physical world into data-streams. And the data is where a large amount of the value will reside in the IoT.

McKinsey and Company noted that in order to capture the full value of connected devices and the Internet of Things, organizations will need to have the infrastructure and resources to “make sense of the flood of data” produced by these connected devices. Building the IoT and back-end data processing systems will require deep investment in analytics tools and talent.

As much as “big data” has been the subject of significant amounts of hype, it is real. In fact, as we create this trillion sensor world, big data may become “astronomical.”

And that data will be very, very valuable.

The trillion dollar Internet of Things

Cisco estimates that the IoT could have an economic impact of $14 trillion by the early 2020s. The data generated by these sensors could impact almost every major industry, including healthcare, transportation, and energy.

As this array of a billion devices and trillions of sensors comes into being, skilled data scientists and developers will need to build out the underlying infrastructure. We will need to develop the systems that analyze these astronomical quantities of data and turn it into valued insight and action.

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Joshua Ebner is the founder of Sharp Sight Labs, a company that teaches data science to individuals and helps companies optimize their data strategy.

He has a degree in physics from Cornell University and has worked as a data scientist for several Fortune 500 companies, including Apple and Bank of America.

Image Credit: Eric Fischer