In the years since it emerged, the concept of The Internet of Things (IoT) has travelled from connecting several daily wearables with smartphones to big-scale industrial IoT ecosystems. Small and hidden, IoT devices and sensors are always out of sight, but they are the means to collect Big Data and drive impactful, enterprise-wide decision making.
Jeremy Rifkin, an American economic and social theorist, who has been advising the European Union and Chancellor Angela Merkel, goes as far as to brand IoT as the universal platform for for the Third Industrial Revolution.
According to Rifkin, humanity is currently transitioning to new forms of communication, energy, and transportation that will operate on the Internet of Things infrastructure globally.
Leading the way are long-established large enterprises across industries that test and implement IoT solutions successfully.
Let’s see how Amazon, Bosch, Hewlett Packard, and other big brands use enterprise IoT in our selection.
IoT Technology Solutions: Bosch and Connected Housing
Bosch is one of Europe’s largest electrotechnical and engineering firms. The company is based in Germany and produces various automotive components, manufacturing tools, diagnostics and control mechanisms, and a great many other products.
Bosch’s recent take on house appliances includes smart connectivity that lets gadgets “talk” to each other and exchange information fast, or machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. For example, smart devices notify house owners, suppliers, or maintenance office about food shortage, electricity overuse, malfunctioning, as well as other information. In some cases, M2M devices can solve an issue on their own.
Cisco and IoT Development For Enterprise
Cisco Systems, the world’s largest network equipment producer for remote access, security services, and storage networks, also didn’t miss the opportunity to leverage the Internet of Things. The company sets forth the IoT benefits for business, and offers broad-scale industrial IoT solutions that help monitor operations, gather Big Data, and optimise overarching business processes.
See the video:
Cisco also focuses on fog technologies, which operate between cloud services and the end user. Fog tech significantly speeds up the connection and widens the range of transmitted data. Fog tech will facilitate the adoption of IoT solutions, with 50 billion smart devices connected by 2020, according to McKinsey research. More so, fog technologies will allow for converging IT and operational technologies across organizations.
See Cisco’s panel discussion on IoT system deployments using fog applications:
IoT Solutions in Shopping: Amazon Go
With their Go shops, Amazon has reimagined grocery shopping by allowing customers to simply walk into the store, take the products they need, and walk out. The shops’ IoT ecosystem relies on many RFID chips, CCTV cameras, and customers’ smartphones connected to their Amazon accounts via a dedicated app, as well as computer vision and deep learning.
The system analyzes what a customer takes and automatically adds it to their virtual cart, processing the payments for the products after they leave the store. The system is also highly responsive. For example, it can identify when a shopper took an item, but decided to put it back.
As a result, there are no queues, and the shopping experience is more pleasant, smooth, and efficient.
See the video:
Amazon Go launched to general public at the start of 2018. There are currently two stores in Seattle, WA.
Enterprise Internet of Things: Azure IoT Suite (Microsoft), IoT Hub for Developers
Microsoft’s Azure IoT suite converges IoT, machine learning, business intelligence, and notifications systems to help gather Big Data with IoT devices, as well as drive IoT software and application development.
Azure IoT suite allows enterprises to:
- Collect data from devices
- Carry out real-time data analysis
- Store and query large data sets
- Visualise data in real time
- Manage device fleet
Azure IoT suite also includes user templates that allow for creating fully customizable solutions for typical IoT scenarios.
With the help of Azure IoT Suite, Internet of Things for enterprise solutions can increase equipment reliability with predictive maintenance, connect and monitor devices remotely, improve tracking the operation of devices, assets, and sensors, as well as develop and test IoT solutions with device simulation.
IoT in Business: Daimler’s Autonomous Truck-Based Logistics
In 2016, Daimler unveiled their Highway Pilot Connect, a truck platooning system of semi-autonomous Mercedes-Benz trucks. The platoon can consist of up to ten vehicle driving in liniar formation and connected by onboard telematics platform using Wi-Fi.
The solution allows enterprises to drastically optimise their logistics, improve productivity, as well as reduce costs and ecological footprint. In the future, Highway Pilot Connect and similar solutions would help build big, reliable logistics ecosystems that require low human involvement level.
IoT Solutions for Sports: Hewlett Packard
HP also appears among IoT solutions providers, specifically for football and baseball sports businesses. The company’s solutions allow teams to track athlete performance to prevent injuries and improve team strategy, whether it is a game or the entire season. In addition, coaches can also use the IoT solution from HP to perfect their players’ game during practice, an advantage that FC Arsenal has enjoyed.
Google and IoT Software & Application Development
The Internet giant from the FANG group (Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and Google) offers a number of IoT technology solutions, both for enterprises and IoT developers. As usual, Google has something for everyone, as their Cloud IoT platform also caters to IoT for small business solutions.
Developers have enjoyed Google products for years and now a wave of IoT app development is on the way.
Enterprise IoT — Summary
From automotive to computer networks, from home devices to shopping and healthcare, enterprises around the world have discovered the major benefits of the Internet of Things. According to Kaleido Insights, the spectrum of IoT technology solutions will improve efficiency, safety and profitability, and unleash a new era of economic productivity in the enterprise in the next decade.
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