A report by Markets and Markets predicts that the retail IoT market will reach $35.5 billion by 2025. Here are three ways IoT is already making waves behind the scenes in retail.

Image Recognition

Retail is a complex business with a lot of moving parts, and not all of those moving pieces involve customers directly. Many improvements that IoT offers affect the customer experience, but the customer won’t know the full extent of the role that technology played in getting their package delivered on time. For example, warehouses need to operate at maximum efficiency and output to promise customers a specific delivery date range.

But warehouse employees often become exhausted and start losing concentration after several hours of work, which causes errors and delays. With image recognition, businesses can increase employee output without interfering greatly in their workflows. For example, IoT-enabled image recognition devices use AI to identify any incorrect product placements, labeling, price tagging, and low stock issues.

Image recognition is also used to visualize the complete picture of work, allowing errors to be found in real-time and fixed before it impacts the business or customer.

Automation in Operations

Retailers can use IoT to track orders, manage delivery, keep an eye on their warehouse, and inventory items in real-time. Tracking assets helps reduce the cost and effort of manually tagging and moving them.

Automation can step in to take care of the hard work, but it won’t come without significant investment in emerging technologies like AI, augmented reality, beacons, digital signs, and more. IoT sensors and devices already exist to track assets for the purposes of automation, but they need to be added to an ecosystem that will allow them to perform at their highest potential.

Many companies have implemented beacons with a return on investment. Beacons can be used to track movements around the store, and the resulting data can be analyzed to understand how customers navigate around the store. You can also utilize beacons to send customers coupons and notifications about promotions based on their real-time location and past purchase behavior. Ultimately, when done with the right frequency, beacons can enhance the customer’s shopping experience and elevate the business’s brand image.

Order Fulfillment

Order fulfillment is a major part of the retail experience. It’s so important to e-commerce that companies like DHL, Alibaba, and Seattle-based Amazon invest massive amounts of budget into optimizing their inventory tracking and order fulfillment operations. With IoT, the complexity of pulling the correct item, packaging it up for shipping, generating the correct shipping label, and sending it off to the carrier no longer is prone to errors.

Employees often experience less physical injury, feel safer, and report more productivity when working alongside IoT technology. That alone is a great major benefit of IoT. When your employees are happy, your customers are happy.

IoT is also used in order fulfillment to provide a real-time look at inventory on the shelf. Kroger has been utilizing RFID tags, sensors, and IoT devices to create 2,000 smart shelves that accurately track inventory. Analysts at Kroger then analyze the best place for products, what products need replacement or refilling faster, and how product quality affects consumer behavior. This analysis is used across many Kroger stores, and it’s also used to directly impact the store that’s generating the data. The manager can be alerted to a wet floor or a fire that just started.

Kroger’s smart shelves also integrate with the Kroger app to send customers coupons and promotions when they’re in the right aisle. They utilize the app to highlight items on the customer’s Kroger app shopping list as they’re walking in the aisle. This is an improvement and idea that any retailer who sells a wide variety of items can employ to upgrade the customer experience.

It’s also extremely important that retailers prioritize their equipment when implementing IoT. IoT is a great technology that can help reduce equipment replacement and repair costs by tracking the performance of the equipment and identifying any anomalies in the data. By finding the issue faster, retailers can simply maintain their equipment, rather than allowing it to break down and cause multiple days’ worth of revenue loss.

Drones and GPS trackers are other technologies that can help retailers better take care of their costly equipment. For example, delivery vehicles can be tracked for wear and tear and mileage. After the vehicle has driven a set amount of miles, it should be serviced. This lifts the burden of tracking miles off of the driver, allowing them to focus on delivering the package to the correct address. IoT devices can also measure engine performance or listen for any sounds that seem abnormal.

The Next Generation of Shopping

IoT is a technology with immense potential if you know where to use it and how to use it. It provides end-to-end transparency into the supply chain, warehouses, inventory, logistics, and order fulfillment. IoT can even revive a dying retailer by offering a new unique value proposition for the customer. The future is bright for retail and e-commerce thanks to IoT.

IoT has the potential to change the customer experience for the better by prioritizing customer concerns with faster response times and adding value to products and services. Here are five ways IoT is improving marketing.

#1: Upgrading the Customer Experience

Using data generated from IoT applications, we can learn more about our customers to understand how they view our products, services, and brand. We can also optimize how we structure product displays, plan out e-commerce experiences, and advertise items to customers who have an obvious preference based on historical purchase behaviors. Amazon gives their customers “Dash buttons” so that the customer can place an order with the touch of a button when they remember they need a detergent refill or another delivery of a pre-picked grocery order.

This allows Amazon to meet their customers where they are without forcing them to find their phone, open the Amazon app, and take steps to place an order. Not only do Dash buttons save time and effort for the customer, but they also generate more revenue for Amazon through customer loyalty and repeat orders.

#2: Developing Customized Experiences

One of IoT’s biggest strengths is its usefulness in creating customized experiences and products for customers. Knowing the customer’s purchase intent, buying behaviors, and return patterns, we can use it to inform digital marketing and advertising strategies. We can also recommend more items that the customer is less likely to return. According to a significant majority of retailers surveyed, IoT has been shown to positively impact the customer experience, giving the retailers an immense advantage over competitors who don’t use IoT to glean information about their customers.

For example, McDonald’s collaborated with San Diego-based Piper, a Bluetooth beacon company, to greet customers on their smartphones when they entered the restaurant. In exchange for completing a survey, McDonald’s offered the customer a coupon to use at the counter. But the best part about the experience is that the surveys were sent to the manager while the customer was still in the restaurant, allowing the manager to quickly fix things and make amends before the customer left. This is as close to real-time customer support as it gets.

#3: Optimizing Pricing and Profits

IoT can help your business change up pricing strategies and product deelopment. Rolls-Royce has outfitted its airplane engines with integrated sensors that transmit the engine’s status and performance metrics in real-time to an IoT system. The company can watch over every engine and charge customers for replacement, repairs, and maintenance services at a fair price to both the business and the customer. This also lifts the burden off of the customer to keep a steady maintenance schedule of their own, and the business can offer an “engine-as-a-service” monthly subscription.

Rolls-Royce’s engine-as-a-service model bundles the engine’s base cost with potential repairs and maintenance fees using data analytics that tracks and monitors fuel consumption as an engine usage metric. IoT makes possible real-time monitoring of data, control over analytics, and the ability to take action quickly and on the spot. With enough creativity, IoT can unlock new products and pricing models for any company in any industry, making features like remote activation and deactivation a part of the package.

#4: Faster Transactions

Customers have shifted their views of online shopping from “Is shopping online secure?” to wanting a quick and smooth checkout experience. Marketing experts predict that the customer experience will grow so large in importance that it may leave pricing and product offering behind in determining the efficacy of a marketing strategy. IoT-enabled mobile apps can deliver the best customer experience at the right moment, and since it’s IoT, you don’t have to serve up a delayed experience; you can make an impression in real-time.

Walgreens partnered with Google Tango and Aisle411 to create an IoT-enhanced platform that offers customers a responsive customer experience. The platform offers a mobile shopping podium that allows customers to search for what they came to buy and locate it in the online and physical store for more convenience. The app allows customers to find what they’re looking for without finding an employee to ask for help. In return, the app gives customers relevant and personalized marketing offers and coupons.

Hilton Hotels use IoT as part of a high-end customer experience package for guests. It offers guests the ability to check-in to their room and get their room key by using only their smartphone. The app tracks small data metrics, like how many pillows the guests used, if they ordered room service, and much more.

#5: Connecting Products Together

Seamlessly connecting products together is the ultimate customer benefit and one of the best IoT features for customers. If your business can think how users think, you can create business relationships with seemingly unrelated companies and create an amazing customer experience. For example, for premium Spotify users, their playlists will automatically load whenever the customer boards an Uber ride. This takes away some of the interaction of asking your driver to connect the car’s Bluetooth to your phone and avoids the possibility of any technical difficulties or frustrations.

IoT Is Integral to the Future of Marketing

Marketing is increasingly becoming more data-driven, and the customer experience is growing as a priority for many businesses. With the added connectivity and tracking that IoT offers, customers will ultimately benefit from a better shopping and support experience, which should positively impact business growth and learnings. The sooner your business can figure out ways to improve your customers’ experience with product connectivity, real-time tracking and analysis, and personalization, the faster it’ll grow in the coming years.

Edge computing is growing in popularity and functionality, and it’s the perfect tool to interface with Internet of Things (IoT) applications to reduce cloud utilization and speed up analytics. As a result, edge data centers are proliferating, and they’re being used in cutting-edge 5G and distributed computing applications. In fact, by 2030, the Ericsson Mobility Report predicts that there will be 125 billion working IoT devices. Of those, 3.5 billion will need cellular IoT connectivity, and all of this connectivity will create 800 zettabytes of data.

Unifying Edge and IoT

Why is it so important to integrate edge with existing IoT systems? According to Jeffrey Fidacaro, a senior analyst at New York City-based 451 Research, edge is the “infrastructure topology that supports the IoT applications.” In other words, it offers a map of the relationship between devices and sensors and the holistic IoT application. Thus, says Fidacaro, it’s important to build a unified edge/IoT strategy that optimizes how you’re using your infrastructure and offers more options.

Without an integrated IoT solution that stores, organizes, and transforms data into actionable insights, enterprises are not spending their money wisely. They’re also leaving themselves vulnerable to critical operations issues and avoidable problems. By integrating an edge data center into an existing IoT application, we can remain “always-on” and connected.

Edge data centers also reduce response time by conducting calculations and analyses on the end device, rather than in the cloud. This can save several seconds of data transmission, and it can result in massive cost savings for the most expensive issues your business faces. For example, an edge computing sensor can let you know immediately when an important piece of equipment is starting to behave abnormally, allowing you to take action much earlier than you would have in the past.

Edge data centers are often built closer to end devices, but the data centers need their own facility and data monitoring. Because these sites can be located in remote, hard-to-reach areas, it’s best to utilize IoT to monitor, protect, and maintain the facility around the clock.

If you think integrating edge computing into your application can help solve your business needs, here are seven crucial features to look for in an edge-enabled IoT platform. With these functionalities, you’re sure to get best-in-class performance and full control over your IoT system.

#1: It’s Scalable

Make sure that the edge IoT platform you’re looking to contract with offers scalability. Not only does it need to offer the ability to scale, but it needs to allow you to scale quickly. After all, what is the point of working with cutting-edge technology if it doesn’t move fast when you need it to?

An example of this includes allowing you to collect and manage data from one location or across a number of global locations. Or maybe your portfolio size has grown immensely in the past few days, and you need more bandwidth to seamlessly take on the extra work. Your chosen edge IoT platform should allow you to continue generating critical insights without limiting your future or business’s potential.

#2: It Offers Cost-Effective Pricing

Whenever you’re working with innovative technology, it can seem expensive due to limited access and limited knowledge involved. But transparent pricing is vital to any business relationship, and edge IoT platforms are no different. When you want to upgrade or downgrade your features, there should be clear pricing for things like connecting to cloud analytics services or third-party applications without any added hassle.

#3: It’s Flexible for Integrations

The right edge IoT platform should plug into your existing systems without any major overhaul or development. It doesn’t matter if you’re using older equipment with new software or second-hand equipment with legacy software. Readily integrating into your current setup should not be a big ask from your new edge IoT partner.

#4: It Avoids Commissioning

To keep things moving quickly and seamlessly, the right edge IoT platform should be able to deploy new features or scale quickly without requiring onsite commissioning. Ideally, the platform should offer a single-source Bit API that integrates any analytics tool or feature.

#5: It’s Cloud-Based

It might not be clear from the offsite setup feature in #4, but having a cloud-based edge IoT platform is critical for those devices and sensors that need it. From there, accessibility, simplified connections and integrations, and easy setup are secondary but equally important requirements. Ultimately, the cloud reduces costs and eliminates the need for on-site programming tasks that often take up a lot of time and budget.

#6: It Allows for Ethernet Connectivity

An ideal edge IoT platform should be able to enable data access and transmission with hard-wired ethernet connectivity as a backup connection. The platform should also allow for an outbound IP port that offers a secure connection for data transmission.

#7: It’s a Comprehensive IoT Toolkit

A comprehensive toolkit can be flexible enough to be tailored to almost any business need. It should come with all of the essential tools you need to build an IoT solution without a lot of external help. IoT devices and sensors should be easy to install, and they should support a wide variety of data pipelines and transmission protocols.

Get an Edge on Your Competitors

Don’t settle for just any edge IoT platform. By performing the due diligence early on, you can save your business more in money and time. With edge integrated into your IoT system, you’re enabling true real-time analytics, monitoring of equipment and machinery, and facility management. Finding a platform that offers these seven features will set your business’s IoT system up for success.

The Internet depends on DNS to deliver webpages and allow web access, but many people are unaware of what exactly DNS is, what it entails, and how it works. Keep on reading to expand your knowledge of one of the Internet’s most important features.

What Is DNS? How Does It Work?

DNS is an Internet tool that we all use every day without explicitly seeing it working. It makes browsing the web more accessible and easier to navigate. While browsers and computers look at websites with their numerical identifiers as IP addresses, like 123.45.678, humans are unburdened with memorizing these numbers to get to their favorite retailer or social media website. Humans actually see domain names, like facebook.com or nordstrom.com.

To make the transformation from numerical IP addresses to user-friendly domain addresses, DNS is needed. DNS translates the domain names we type into the browser into IP addresses for the computer and browser to understand and access. For users, DNS saves us headaches and complications that come with memorizing a string of numbers, not to mention multiple number strings.

To understand how DNS looks up the corresponding IP address and translates it for the browser, we need to cover the process of a DNS lookup as it r0utes information through four different servers: resolving name server, root name server, TLD name server, and the authoritative name server. These four servers handle different tasks in the DNS process and work together in tandem like a well-oiled Internet browsing machine.

When you type in a domain name, the resolving name server gets the request and sends it to each subsequent server in the search for the corresponding IP address. The root name server points the resolving name server in the right direction so that it can find the corresponding TLD name server. The TLD name server handles the last part of the domain name (.com, .co.uk, .org, etc.), and there’s a TLD server for every type of TLD. The last server, the authoritative name server, returns the correct IP address to the resolving name server, closing the loop.

A Real-Life Example

To understand more about each of the four servers, let’s go through a real-life example of the DNS process with additional details about parallel processes. Say you’re searching for dogtownmedia.com. You type dogtownmedia.com into your browser’s URL bar.

What happens next is that your browser will check its cache (internal memory) to see if you’ve visited our site before. Let’s say this is your first time visiting dogtownmedia.com. Because your browser doesn’t have our site in its cache, it’ll need to fetch its IP address manually.

The computer’s operating system sends the request for the IP address lookup to the resolving name server, which starts the DNS lookup process. The resolving name server says it doesn’t know the IP address, so it asks the root name server for it. The root name server doesn’t know it either, but it can narrow down the possibilities by asking the domain name’s TLD name server (in this case, .com).

The resolving name server asks the .com TLD name server if it knows the IP address for dogtownmedia.com. The TLD name server has a master list of all .com domains and verifies that dogtownmedia.com is on the list. It then tells the resolving name server to ask the authoritative name server for the IP address.

Ultimately, the authoritative name server has the correct IP address, and it returns it to the resolving name server. The resolving name server then tells your computer what IP address it just found for dogtownmedia.com. The computer sends the IP address to the browser, and the browser loads the dogtownmedia.com home page.

You might think this entire process takes minutes to complete, but in reality, it takes less time than it takes you to blink once. Let’s jump into how DNS works so quickly.

How DNS Affords Speed

DNS works so fast that you don’t even know you’re waiting for it to work its magic when you type in a new domain name. It happens so seamlessly and quickly that it seems built-in or not even there. But DNS has several speed optimizations put into place to ensure it works extremely quickly and efficiently.

One way, as we saw earlier, to save time is to maintain a browser cache. This cache is stored on your local machine in its memory. Once you visit a site one time, the IP address is logged for faster retrieval in the event you visit the website again. Caching helps circumvent the creation of a new DNS lookup request. Your computer’s operating system may also have a caching system that stores IP addresses. When your browser doesn’t find a match for a corresponding IP address, it first checks your computer’s operating system’s cache before launching a new DNS lookup request.

Another way DNS maintains its speed and efficiency is by running different types of queries. The three main types are: recursive, iterative, and non-recursive queries. The lookup request uses a recursive query to get the correct IP address from four DNS servers.

An iterative query will work to find an answer too, whether it’s an error message or an IP address. Iterative queries are used to check the browser’s and operating system’s cache for an existing IP address, but if there’s no cached IP address, the query will keep going down the chain until it gets an answer back. Non-recursive queries are the fastest type, and they are used to look up the domain name in the browser and operating system’s cache. If there’s no cached IP address, this query won’t keep pursuing the lookup request in search for an answer, however.

It’s easy to see how DNS could work quickly with these types of queries to help a user located in London access a website hosted in Singapore with a TLD of .sg.

The Beauty of DNS

DNS works in the background so efficiently that it’s difficult to pinpoint when exactly it has been activated. As users, we are highly dependent on DNS to work quickly and correctly for us. But without DNS, navigating the Internet would be much less user-friendly, and it would create more complexity in IoT development. Thanks to DNS, our jobs as IoT developers are a little bit easier to accomplish.

For senior citizens who were able to quarantine alone or live alone throughout the pandemic, technology has taken over many aspects of senior care so that nurses and family can safely ensure their patient and loved one is staying healthy and well. Internet of Things (IoT) applications like fall detection and alert devices, behavioral monitoring sensors, and malnutrition and dehydration trackers have worked tirelessly to support caregivers and elders alike during the pandemic. The hope is that these devices will identify signs of a larger issue so that it can be stopped before becoming serious enough to require hospitalization.

Fall Detection Devices

In elderly populations, falls are a major concern. Falls become more common with age and are the second leading cause of unintentional or accidental deaths worldwide. Thus, it is important to control as much as we can for falls both at home and in senior care facilities.

IoT technology can help caregivers prevent, predict, and detect falls by helping them record falls, pinpoint risk factors in the environment and the individual, and learn preventative and corrective measures. Conventionally, fall-detection technologies have used devices that the elderly person carries or wears. When the patient falls, they have to press the button on the device. This solution is great if your loved one is living across the country in Los Angeles while you’re in Atlanta.

But this method doesn’t account for patients that didn’t fall but don’t feel well enough to get up or for patients who haven’t been feeling normal recently. IoT can detect changes in the patient’s wellbeing by monitoring for discomfort and wellness. IoT sensors can help caregivers track their patients’ progress for days or weeks at a time and compare metrics to see if their patient’s health is declining, which is a risk factor for falling. This can support caregivers to act earlier and provide more care to make up for the senior’s deteriorating wellbeing.

Staying Home Longer

Research shows there may be a link between moving out of the home and into a senior care facility and dying earlier. For many elderly patients, it’s important for them to stay somewhere familiar and accessible to their families. IoT can help families remotely keep an eye on their senior family member by sending daily information about the patient’s health and wellbeing without any action necessary from the senior. When used with tele-assistance services, IoT technology really shines for seniors.

Companies like Vitalbase and SeniorAdom are working on remote assistance technology using IoT systems. Their tools include geolocation pendants, motion detection sensors, and wrist band devices. This hardware is supposed to automatically detect changes in behavior, motion, physical strength, and cognition.

By anticipating risks, sending early notifications to family and caregivers, and acting quickly in an emergency, these companies are making it possible to protect our seniors without expending more money, time, and effort. For example, SeniorAdom uses a self-learning algorithm and a smart box connected wirelessly to sensors in the senior’s home. With these devices and software, the company can detect abnormal situations or critical problems and send a warning to relatives and caregivers. SeniorAdom also uses motion sensors and door sensors to create a general daily schedule of the senior so that abnormalities are more obvious when they occur.

A Look at the Sensor Technology

These IoT-enabled sensors work on an 0G network which is used to send small amounts of data over a larger distance. They don’t pick up any personal or private information while they detect differences from the baseline conditions and movements. 0G devices also utilize low amounts of energy, making the overall cost a lot lower for the family.

For devices that run on other networks like cellular devices, it’s possible to utilize 0G as a backup network to ensure a stable connection for around-the-clock supervision and emergency communication. Vitalbases’s Vibby OAK is an automatic fall detection device worn on the senior’s neck or wrist. It connects to a cellular device (like a smartphone) but uses a 0G network when the cellular connection is unstable or unreachable. At healthcare and senior living facilities, devices operating on the 0G network can communicate with existing nursing call systems to keep medical staff updated in the event of an emergency.

More Autonomous Living

Many seniors want to continue an independent, autonomous, and healthy lifestyle. By outfitting their home and body with several devices and sensors in an IoT system, it’s possible for relatives and caregivers to remain vigilant, proactive, and connected without having to ask their seniors to leave home for good.

The roll-out of 5G across the entire world is going to largely affect how we connect and network with each other. In business, 5G will boost the stability and connectivity of existing Internet of Things (IoT) applications while bolstering new IoT systems. It won’t take long for our cities, homes, and ways of living to adapt to all of the benefits 5G will bring, not to mention the added communication abilities, like staying in touch while traveling or connecting to the car next to you in traffic.

Ultimately, 5G will effect change in society, digitalization, and economies in almost all aspects of life and business, but for now, 5G operators are working to ensure mobile connectivity is strong and stable before expanding their focus to other industries and fields. Once that’s done, work will pivot to optimizing connectivity across consumers, businesses, and supply chains.

The Growing Need for Connectivity

Every year, the world’s data volume increases, and with more Internet-enabled devices than ever, 5G has become crucial. Soon, existing technologies won’t be able to meet IoT’s requirements unless 5G is available everywhere. As an example, in 2017, Germany doubled its data volume from 2015, reaching 1 billion gigabytes in a single year.

Experts calculated the number of connected devices and sensors reached between 50 and 500 billion in 2020. With these numbers growing every year, 5G offers unlimited possibilities for our global economy and productivity. Once we reach a certain global data volume, we will need 5G to maintain and scale up business and consumer needs.

LTE Today, 5G Tomorrow

3G made it possible for us to use our phones on a mobile connection with relative ease and speed, and it catalyzed the popularity and manufacturing of smartphones. With the roll-out of 4G LTE, data transfer rates skyrocketed, and it remains the most popular and most-used network even today. 4G LTE offers speeds up to 100 megabits per second, although many of us will experience those speeds first-hand on and off.

It’s possible to boost LTE bandwidths for download speeds up to 4,000 megabits (4 gigabits) per second, and while this is super fast, LTE was designed for smartphone use. On the other hand, 5G will be optimized from the ground-up for IoT connectivity. 5G speeds are faster than much of the Wi-Fi connections available around the world: stable speeds up to 20 gigabits per second aren’t out of the question with 5G.

In comparison, the first smartphones with 1G were eight million times slower than phones will be with 5G. When you put it that way, it seems 5G opens up all kinds of new doors. Now we can dream of transmitting data in real-time with no quality loss. We can theoretically connect 100 billion mobile devices around the world and access them all at the same time. 5G offers stable connection quality and an obvious increase in speeds (moving up to 500 kilometers per hour). That’s like driving from New York City to Los Angeles in nine hours, rather than the 41 hours it would normally take by car.

And besides smartphones, in our increasingly digital world, 5G will be a major asset in applications to many areas and industries. As a result, 5G will become the key technology for connectivity in the near future.

Unlimited Potential

In addition to IoT, the Industrial IoT, a major consumer of mobile connectivity technology, will benefit immensely from 5G. 5G will offer continuous connectivity and data transmission between robots, systems, machines, and people. And analysis will be done on-demand using edge computing, which is an emerging technology that we won’t be able to utilize fully without 5G.

The number of connected sensors and devices is expected to grow at a massive rate, and problems will be pinpointed in real-time rather than after the fact. Optimization can be done in real-time (or close to it), minimizing downtime, revenue loss, and loss of productivity. 5G will enable humanless tasks, not just in driving, but for industrial tasks like picking up and delivering goods, machine-to-machine communication, and loading and unloading materials.

Connectivity in a Digital World

Digital transformation (thanks in part to the pandemic) is driving the growth and expansion of many emerging technologies. But in the field of network connectivity, digital transformation is leading the charge for what to focus on and for use cases. High-quality connectivity is the most important end goal of 5G, especially for both large and small IoT systems. A dropped connection could lead to the factory floor production getting halted.

IoT and 5G experts know that all of the possibilities are still unmapped and unknown. As we arm ourselves with more stable and scalable emerging technologies, we will uncover more ideas, innovations, and opportunities that were previously thought of as unfeasible. Smart farming, which involves keeping an eye on all animals at any given time, crop health, soil moisture, changing weather, and much more, will finally be possible and closer to real-time observation than ever before. Accordingly, we’ll see a large increase in sustainability and efficiency in food production.

5G’s Prospects

Although we don’t know when 5G will reach market maturity, it’s obvious that it will bring about more possibilities, efficiencies, and connectivity than we’ve ever experienced before. It’s unclear what new ideas will be unlocked by the power of 5G. But one thing is certain: The world will never be the same when this next level of network connectivity is fully realized.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is extremely vast and encompasses millions of devices. By 2025, the number of IoT devices is projected to grow to 25.1 billion, according to the GSM Association. The rapid growth and expansion of IoT have cybersecurity experts worried about built-in security vulnerabilities and devices that stop getting updated at some point.

Security researchers are warning that history could be repeated if IoT developers don’t take care of a known Windows security issue that’s decades old. The vulnerability can be leveraged to manipulate millions of IoT and operational technology (OT) devices and even create a large-scale DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack across devices at multiple companies.

9 Issues To Be Aware Of

Security researchers at Forescout Research Lab have found and dug into security vulnerabilities in some TCP/IP stacks (internet protocols). They’ve named the nine new issues “Number:Jack”. The research lab has already been researching vulnerabilities in TCP/IP stacks and strategizing how to mitigate them as part of an initiative called Project MemoriaThe latest security issues stem from a foundational part of TCP communication within embedded devices, specifically the generation of the Initial Sequence Number (ISN). ISNs work to ensure every TCP connection between two computers or connected devices is unique so that third parties can’t intercept or manipulate the machine-to-machine connection. To ensure the connection is unique, ISNs are randomly generated so that the ISN isn’t predictable or known in order to take advantage of it for hacking, hijacking, or spoofing.

These are network security fundamentals that have been known and studied for decades, but the researchers found that this simple concept wasn’t executed correctly in IoT devices. The ISN is not generated randomly, and it can create patterns that create vulnerabilities for the unique machine-to-machine connection. Daniel dos Santos, a research manager at Forescout, says that Windows, Linux, and IT departments have mostly fixed these vulnerabilities, but IoT is lagging way behind.

Immense Potential for Malicious Intent

By making the TCP connections more predictable, hackers could close the connection ahead of time, creating a denial-of-service attack by preventing data transfer between the two devices. They could also just hijack the connection and add their own data into the transfer, while actively downloading sensitive information, adding file downloads as malware, or using HTTP responses to send the victim machine to a website with malware.

According to dos Santos, “It’s not difficult for us or an attacker to find this type of vulnerability because you can clearly see the way the numbers are generated by the stack is predictable.” Using these predictable connection ISNs, attackers could take things a step further and bypass authentication protocols to gain access to additional networks. For their part, Forescout disclosed the known vulnerabilities to relevant maintainers and vendors of TCP/IP stacks in October 2020.

The Attack Spread

The affected TCP/IP stacks were also found in several open-source stacks that were analyzed by Forescout. These included uIP, Nut/Net, picoTCP, FNET, cycloneTCP, and uC/TCP-IP. Additionally, the vulnerabilities were found in enterprise-level solutions like Dallas-based Texas Instruments’ NDKTCPIP, Siemens’ Nucleus NET, and Microchip’s MPLAB Net.

While the majority of vendors subsequently patched their devices with security software (or are in the middle of patching), one vendor hasn’t responded to Forescout’s report. Forescout didn’t release the name of the company. However, Forescout did say that devices at risk of cybersecurity attacks include medical devices, storage systems, and wind turbine monitoring systems are chief among the devices vulnerable to the TCP/IP stack issue. Dos Santos says that Forescout looked across multiple TCP stacks because it shows that IoT security is repeating IT history again across several stacks. Most importantly, Forescout wants people to critically look at what happened before and how such an attack could affect their IoT system and devices. Everyone should do this, “all down the IoT supply chain,” according to dos Santos.

Forescout did not publicly release information on the exact devices for each of the vulnerable nine stacks so that their manufacturer and end-user can remain protected until security patches are issued. In the meantime, Forescout released open-source software to help companies with IoT devices identify any stacks that may be vulnerable according to the research done as part of Project Memoria.

The company recommends issuing security patches if a vulnerability is detected so that attackers are prevented from gaining access into the device and/or network. If a vulnerability is found and it’s not possible to patch the IoT or OT device, Forescout recommended moving the vulnerable devices onto a segment of the network that reduces the risk of an attack or compromise.

Securing All IoT Systems Is a Must

IoT is reaching new heights as an emerging technology, but it would fare better if it took security lessons from a variety of fields, like IT, operating systems, and networking. To fail a test of fundamental network security likely means there are many more basic security issues brewing inside IoT and OT devices.

dos Santos added, “The foundations of IoT are vulnerable and not just for one vendor or specific device – it’s across several types of devices and the software components used in these devices. It’s often that they share similar types of vulnerabilities.” We cannot allow more large-scale DDoS attacks to occur, especially when they could’ve been avoided in the first place.

IoT devices interact with our environment. They observe, analyze, and understand our surroundings in real-time, and they transform this information into useful data and actions for human comfort. As IoT continues to grow and expand, IoT mobile app development will become increasingly popular because mobile allows for flexibility when transmitting data and due to the ease of developing mobile apps. And as we see the roll-out of 5G across public areas and even within our cars, mobile apps will become nearly essential.

Here’s what we know to be the benefits and challenges of IoT app development, and we’ll also cover how IoT impacts mobile app development.

The Benefits

Mobile apps allow consumers to check-in and make changes on the go. Thus, mobile apps afford accessibility for consumers, letting them access any connected device from anywhere in the world with their mobile phones. Because of this flexibility, you should seek out an IoT app developer who will factor scalability and increased bandwidth into your device’s mobile app.

Because IoT generates so much data, it enables companies to reach insightful conclusions. Most IoT devices collect data in real-time, which opens up many opportunities to enrich your customer experience, optimize your products, adjust your marketing strategy, and improve business operations. The possibilities are limitless in how data can impact your business and how your customers view your products.

For companies who are willing to risk the initial investment cost, IoT often returns much more on the investment over time. Because of the uncertainties in how to apply IoT to a business and the upfront costs involved, many businesses will not mess with an emerging technology like IoT until they’re more convinced of its benefits. As a result, companies who do make the leap gain a competitive edge over their peers.

We expect to see these benefits become entrenched in IoT development as time marches on.

The Challenges

As with anything worth doing, there are challenges abound when implementing IoT technology. One of these is data collection and processing. Because IoT generates so much data every hour, companies need adequate storage capacity, whether that’s physically or on the cloud. With so much data, it’s impossible to know what questions can be answered and how to best utilize the data for maximum return on investment. This may require hiring data analysts and data scientists with knowledge of machine learning, which is another cost.

IoT is notorious for its security and privacy issues. The nature of interconnected devices leaves IoT systems open to hacking and cybersecurity attacks. For example, in 2016, the Dyn cyberattacks affected users in Europe and North America, as it took down popular websites like Amazon, HBO, Esty, and San Francisco-headquartered Airbnb in addition to hosting providers like HostGator, Github, Imgur, and Squarespace. At Dogtown Media, application cybersecurity is one of our top priorities from the beginning of the project to the middle and the end.

IoT systems that interface with mobile apps require a balance of hardware and software. As a result, both need to be working in tandem such that updating one doesn’t cause the other to crash. The two need to be linked closely and with regard for the future to ensure the best performance, the least amount of software patching, and a regular update schedule.

IoT’s Impact on App Development

IoT systems offer a lot for mobile app development. One of these benefits is the lowered cost for developing a mobile app: because IoT already is made up of multiple integrations including emerging technologies like machine learning, AR, and VR, adding a mobile app into the mix won’t take much time. And due to the data-heavy nature of IoT, it won’t take a lot of work to find the right data for the mobile app.

IoT also opens the door for more interactivity and personalization in mobile apps. Apps can allow users to control multiple devices and get information on their uptime and performance. Businesses can also use mobile apps to optimize internal operations by allowing employees to keep an eye on machinery and equipment, data generation, and device relationships. Some companies even use IoT-connected mobile apps to reorder office supplies and schedule in-office repairs automatically when needed.

IoT’s ability to connect devices from all over the world into a single system affords it location independence. This works nicely with mobile apps which also tout location independence as a major benefit. This connecting feature has introduced IoT into homes and cars, allowing us to change the thermostat from the driveway or shut all blinds from the office. It also lets us see who’s at the door even when we’re at the grocery store.

IoT Is a Fundamental Part of the Mobile Future

We know IoT will be a major part of the future, but IoT-connected mobile apps will be present alongside IoT systems as well. IoT mobile apps give companies stronger relationships with their customers, higher decision-making power, more ways to optimize business processes, and a way to keep employees engaged. If your company is looking to level up its business value and reach more customers, consider developing a mobile app for your IoT system.

Industrial IoT (IIoT) is gaining traction quickly as the world has had to rapidly adapt to COVID-19 and all of the challenges that come along with it: reduced consumer spending, stagnating economies, and higher logistical and shipping demands. Global consumer habits may have changed for good, and these new realities necessitate a bigger push to roll out IIoT across industrial and manufacturing companies. According to research by London-based PwC, 91% of industrial companies are investing in digital factory transformations with ROI plans and outlined goals for the next 5 years.

It’s crucial now, more than ever, to implement IIoT tools for short- and long-term business health and longevity. Getting started with IIoT now is better than later and many competitors have taken the lead by investing time and effort into upgrading their technology. If you’re on the cusp of implementing IIoT technology, we’ve outlined how to address 5 of the biggest challenges when adopting IIoT. With these tips, you may be able to catch up to your competitors in no time.

#1: Outdated Data Systems

It would be ideal to find an IIoT tool that seamlessly integrates into existing data systems to save money and effort. But the reality of the situation is that most advanced manufacturers use a variety of data systems like Excel, MES systems, ERP systems, and more, to manage their data and data analysis workflows. Of course, adding IIoT into the mix can complicate the current operational processes by creating gaps between systems and requiring constant coordination of tools in the system.

But it turns out that companies don’t need to replace all of their data systems and infrastructure to implement IIoT. Many manufacturers have layered new technology on top of existing systems to enable them to continue working, effectively simplifying IIoT implementation. Often, there is no need to worry about the details of the integration as IIoT tools have become more flexible, adjustable, and innovative than ever before. They also add extra value by including intelligence, automation, and sensors on top of the existing data systems.

With added layers of technology, companies can consolidate all legacy layers, data, and functionality into a single framework. They can also add AI into their IIoT systems, allowing the implementation of state-of-the-art tools like recommendations, alerts, and predictions. Additionally, new technology layers empower companies to automate previously manual processes.

#2: The Reality of ROI of IIoT

Estimating ROI for IIoT solutions implementation can be tricky and unpredictable, which can easily shake out companies who don’t have the credit or budget for new technology. Although it would be best to know the costs and ROI of the technology, it can depend heavily on the business’s unique needs, IIoT’s future developments, and the emergence of new technologies like 5G and AI.

Calculating ROI depends on translating terms like automation and AI into numerical values like productivity and efficiency. IIoT firms are still in the process of shifting from proof of concept to proof of value, and companies should also take the lead in creating ROI estimates.

#3: Picking the Biggest Areas for Change

For large and advanced manufacturers, there is a multitude of areas and ideas for change within the company, business operations, and workflows. But in order to control the efficacy of new solutions, companies should prioritize changes by asking the following questions: What should executives be appointed for the project? What budget should be allocated? Should new solutions replace existing systems or be added on top of them? How should we measure success? And which areas should we focus on first: material management and savings, tool and inventory management, quality control and process optimization, or something else entirely?

Although it sounds like a lot of questions, the answers to these heavy-hitting queries will elucidate and uncover a lot of important information about the company’s priorities, teams to manage the changes, technology infrastructure needed, and more. Without these questions, the possibilities are endless and overwhelming. But we have to start somewhere.

Begin with the questions above and take down every single answer from your team, even if they are similar or unrealistic. Then define the main business problem you want to solve. Take your time during this initial exploration stage, and don’t be afraid to change your mind halfway through if you believe more strongly in something else. After that, seek out the best technology vendors to guide you through a successful IIoT implementation.

#4: Effectively Using Data

IoT development and IIoT technology generate more data by nature, allowing companies to optimize their processes like never before. But the amount of data can be much more than expected, so much so that companies become paralyzed when considering how exactly to start using all of the data. It’s imperative to identify which parts of your company can be improved with data analysis, and pursue the data generation while looking for a suitable IIoT systems vendor.

Whether it’s reducing errors, improving maintenance of machinery, optimizing worker schedules, or syncing with inventory to know when to slow down manufacturing processes, it’s important to take stock of the available data and predefine what you want to measure next.

#5: Knowing When to Stop

Like we mentioned above, when the possibilities for your IIoT system are endless, they are also extremely handicapping and overwhelming. Limitless possibilities also exist when choosing which vendor to collaborate with, which experts to consult with, and how to find the best use for the new IIoT system. It’s important to take recommendations from colleagues and competitors, but remember that your business is unique and may require a different team to be assembled. Know what you’re looking for first, and when you find it, make sure you completely stop looking.

Evolving Your Plan Over Time

Manufacturers have reached a significant inflection point for business, and how they successfully implement IIoT technology may be the difference between staying afloat or filing for bankruptcy in the next 5 years. Although the above 5 challenges don’t cover every single challenge that comes with implementing IIoT, it should start turning gears and generating ideas across the company. IIoT technology will continue to grow and evolve, and companies must have a plan for how to evolve with it.

What does the future of IoT applications hold for businesses and consumers in 2021? Experts say that the technology will be a pivotal tool for a variety of industries this year.

1. Medical Technology

Healthcare has transformed itself from an industry slow to adopt new technologies to one that relies on IoT, artificial intelligence, and data science during the pandemic. As the coronavirus mutates and rages on, public health officials are racing to vaccinate people starting with the highest-risk patients like the elderly and frontline workers. Experts say that IoT’s role in healthcare has just begun.

Ultimately, IoT will play a massive role in pinpointing and administering treatment, assisting with disease detection and diagnosis, and ensuring patient and provider safety. IoT will become an integral part of protecting the public as IoT devices will be widely used by public health officials and epidemiologists to track infection spread and act faster when warning signs appear that a similar pandemic could be starting again. Not only is the healthcare system overburdened by the resources and manpower that COVID-19 patients require, but they’re also responsible for continuing to treat and take care of patients with other conditions, diseases, and injuries.

The popularity of telehealth technology will continue to grow, and self-care platform technology will get better this year. And the accuracy and measurement ability of wearables will expand so that medical providers can take vitals like oxygen saturation, basal body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, and more from patients without requiring them to come into an office.

2. Smart Shopping and Retail

Retailers have been forced to transform how they reach and keep customers. Scores of physical stores shut down in 2020, and while brick-and-mortar retailers will never disappear completely, the retail industry has been hit hard by the pandemic. Even when stores have opened up again to shoppers, the number of shoppers inside the store have been limited by social distancing rules. Some stores even scan customers for fever before allowing them to enter.

The retail industry had to drastically change its infrastructure and shipping and return policies to survive the pandemic. Using IoT, retail-focused IoT devices can optimize inventory management, prevent thefts, and boost advertising and marketing returns. The result is that some stores earned high praise for their customer service and others seeing plummeting revenues from failing to adapt during the pandemic.

In 2021, contactless payments will become a necessity, rather than a nice-to-have. IoT will be used to keep employees and customers safe by constantly monitoring social distancing. In Canada, the government has released an exposure-monitoring app that tracks users’ location and notifies them if they’ve potentially come into contact with someone who is infected. The app, which works across the entire country, from Toronto to Quebec to Vancouver, has seen great success and become a case study for governments and the retail industry to follow. And these changes have the ability to stabilize, if not grow, a retailer’s bottom line.

3. Smart Homes and Offices

As much of the workforce around the world shifted to working from home during the pandemic, many began upgrading their homes and offices so that these spaces can be put to work smarter, not harder for the owner. It’s more convenient and enjoyable than ever to work and live in the same space thanks to IoT technology. There is a market opportunity for smart-home device manufacturers to drive more sales for their products since many consumers rarely leave their homes these days.

Homes can be made smarter with smart lighting, smart appliances, environmental controls, and energy management devices. These devices also lend more sustainability, convenience, and comfort for everyone in the home.

There are ideas floating around about employers using IoT to monitor their employees while they work which has been met with disdain from many employees. On the other hand are employers who are using IoT to help their employees get their work done from home. For example, manufacturing and industrial machinery businesses that are already Internet-connected can be managed partially from home. And improved mobile connections make long-distance site inspections easier with video conferencing.

4. Edge Computing

Edge computing has been the hot IoT topic of the past few years, but 2021 may be the year when it really steps up as an advanced IoT tool. Edge computing involves data transmission from an IoT device to a nearby storage device, rather than the cloud. Often, the IoT device can run simple computations on its own before data transmission. The storage device receives, processes, and filters the data before it sends some of the data to the cloud.

Edge computing allows companies to optimize their data transmission, data usage, cloud usage, and load on data servers. It requires less bandwidth than current cloud computing technology, and it speeds up applications while reducing latency. For companies that are located in areas with slow or unstable internet connectivity, edge computing devices are indispensable.

Why isn’t a bigger deal in IoT-enhanced companies? It turns out that edge computing is just getting started, and experts forecast that the technology will grow rapidly alongside the growth of satellite connectivity. Some of today’s edge computing applications include smart cars, oil and gas monitoring devices, and smart cities.

5. Securing IoT Systems

IoT may sound like a technology with limitless prospects, but one major factor inhibiting its growth and popularity is cybersecurity. As the number of IoT devices grows, so does the risk of a security attack. Most IoT devices ship with little to no built-in security, and when a hacker can gain access to many IoT devices, there is a possibility of a botnet attack.

A botnet attack, like the Mirai attack, can take control of entire IoT systems and can cause millions of dollars in revenue loss. Additionally, having an unsecured IoT system places companies at risk for major brand damage. Although pioneering companies will hire security firms or build stricter security protocols into their IoT systems and devices, many companies will take the cheaper route and open themselves up to potential bankruptcy.

The Year Ahead

Many people have high hopes that 2021 will be a better year, and for IoT technology, things are looking up. Industry experts predict IoT will drive growth in edge computing, cybersecurity, smart retailers, smart homes, and medical technology.

Are there any areas you think will be impacted by IoT in 2021? Let us know in the comments below!