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.

Almost 70% of organizations globally have dealt with an IoT cyberattack in the past few years. These worrying numbers are expected to grow as IoT increases in growth and popularity. Here are some ways to secure your IoT devices, ranging from complex to simple adjustments you can make in your home or office.

Strengthen All Passwords

This is the easiest thing you can do, so do it first. Set strong passwords and use a variety of usernames (other than ‘admin’) to secure your IoT network and devices. It’s difficult enough to remember passwords as it is, but try to change your passwords every 1 to 3 months. To help maintain a single source of truth for all of your username and password combinations, use a password manager to organize them.

The password manager also helps you ensure that none of your passwords are too similar or too easy to guess. Sharing passwords and usernames puts you at a higher risk for a successful hack, so do your best to avoid patterns across your passwords. It’s also important that, when you first add a new device to your existing network, you go into its settings and customize the device and its entry points to use different usernames and passwords.

Many hackers traditionally try ‘admin’ first to get into the network or device, and eliminating that possibility makes the hacker’s job much more difficult. Customize the device’s settings to enable only what you need.

Secure Your Connection

Look into boosting your router’s security. It connects your IoT devices and network to the Internet, and it’s vulnerable to exploitation and hacking by bad actors. Replace the default network name, admin username, and admin password with stronger alternatives. And like we mentioned in the previous section, make sure you change the username and password regularly.

Next, investigate whether you’re using the highest level of encryption on your router. If your router doesn’t support WPA2, you should highly consider upgrading to a new router that does. You can also consider further fortifying your internet security by separating networks for IoT devices and personal devices.

Don’t Forget Multi-Factor Authentication

Multi-factor authentication (MFA) can be a pain to go through every time you need to sign into an IoT application. On the other hand, it serves as a lifesaving tool when you forget your password or if someone changed your password without your permission or knowledge. Depending on how strong you want your security to be and what types of data your IoT devices store (a baby monitor versus a refrigerator), you may want to add more authentication devices and steps to increase the complexity of your security setup.

MFA can include something simple like adding your smartphone into the authentication chain or something more complex like a physical authentication which involves inserting a physical key into a device to log in. Sometimes, physical authentication could include verifying the time and location or verifying biometrics before logging in.

Update and Upgrade Software

Software is always improving and changing, and even if the fundamental code of the software doesn’t undergo extreme change, it’s important to keep software updated, patched, and upgraded as soon as these fixes are available to apply. Updating software can result in a nicer user experience, but more often, it involves fixing newfound bugs and patching up vulnerabilities in the code. If you fail to keep your devices updated, you can leave your entire network susceptible to attack.

Encrypt Your Connection

You can further secure your Internet connection by encrypting the data that goes through data transfer within your network. This can mask sensitive information and disguise any vulnerabilities in your network infrastructure and setup. A VPN is a great tool to obfuscate what’s going on within your network: VPN changes your devices’ IP addresses, encrypts data within and leaving it, and it often comes with a kill switch to shut off your Internet connection if the VPN connection is interrupted or stopped.

Monitor Your System

Further strengthening your Internet security may be worth the investment of a network monitoring tool. If your IoT system has a complex and elaborate network of IoT devices used for business-critical operations, it’s imperative to have an eye on all devices and data flow 24/7. A monitoring system tracks the health of your devices and sends out notifications if anything abnormal is detected, whether that’s a problem with the data flow, an interruption in the Internet connection, or access by an unauthorized party.

Try Segmenting Your Network

As we mentioned earlier, separating your network might be a good idea if some of your devices put your network at more security risk than the others. In segmenting your network, you’re splitting it into separate sub-networks that are mostly independent and isolated from each other. Don’t worry: you can still have the networks communicate if you need them to.

In comparison, a singular network that contains all connected devices, employee devices, and sensitive data transmission is instead protected with a firewall or endpoint protection. But if that firewall or endpoint protection fails, the entire network is at the mercy of the hacker. Thus, it is more prudent to segment your networks and prioritize the security of each network differently, based on the devices and data transfer involved in each network.

Staying Safe Moving Forward

To protect yourself, take any and all measures, even if they involve more investment and time on your part. If you experience a security breach, it can cost more in time and money than if you’d slowly and steadily worked on securing your network all along. At Dogtown Media, we prioritize cybersecurity in our applications from Day 1, and we think that’s a great rule of thumb for your own security needs.

Do you maintain your home’s IoT security? How much time and money do you invest in it to ensure you don’t fall victim to a hacking attempt? Let us know in the comments below!

Recently, new cellular standards were established and agreed upon for all types of Internet of Things (IoT) devices while cellular module costs dropped. IoT systems, the GSM Association (GSMA), and mobile network operators (MNOs) have concurrently created a technology landscape that can take on the challenge of global roaming and local connectivity. With these recent advancements, it seems like we’re closer than ever to creating an ecosystem that is optimized for the rollout and success of cellular IoT.

But when exactly will we reach a point where cellular IoT is being adopted en-masse relative to the scale of the global IoT development market? It turns out that it is possible to predict this inflection point.

Predictive Factors

MNOs and systems integrators are working to drive monetization of IoT which has aided growth in cellular IoT. These companies have benefitted from a market growth rate of 73% recently. So we know that cellular IoT is coming soon because the market is quickly expanding towards it, but what factors can we use to predict the inflection point?

One factor we can use is the evolution of past telecommunications trends. In examining these trends, we can ultimately find other common factors to use in our predictions. A2P (application-to-person) communication is one such trend we can analyze: it enables the person to be reached at any time, and it uses ubiquitous technology and broad coverage. The eventual emergence of eSIM technology in IoT runs parallel to A2P’s wide-ranging roaming agreements.

Cloud computing is another recent trend in telecommunications (and IoT as a result). It is trusted, reliable, built into modern cellular technology, and it nicely complements the GSMA’s eSIM specification. For manufacturers involved in creating SIMs, adding eSIM provisioning and subscription management is a requirement. This two-in-one process reduces the risk of tampering and ensures trustworthiness among everyone in the supply chain.

Mobile virtual network operators have grown in supply in response to the growing demand. They’re working to fill gaps in specialized services and minority demographics within a market where MNOs have previously been unwilling or unable to provide services and invest in technology for these markets. Cellular IoT can also fill in gaps where systems integrators, MNOs, and eSIM support fall short on a global level.

Unknown Parts of the Equation

We already know much of the industry is moving towards cellular IoT, but, as with any emerging technology, we need to account for unknown factors that affect the IoT industry and its pace of cellular IoT adoption. In this case, we’re looking for parts of the market that haven’t fully matured yet. These small components of the equation are important for us to elucidate.

One of these unknown factors is the choice of technology. While hardware costs have fallen recently, they’re still not very affordable for companies and countries that want to purchase this technology at scale. For example, advancing development for LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) technology is necessary. But the cost is dampening the rate at which we’re developing infrastructure for these networks. LPWAN roaming agreements haven’t reached a global expansion yet, either.

For now, suppliers are recommending adding a 2G radio with an LPWAN radio as a fallback in case the network drops the connection or needs roaming data. Some suppliers have stepped up with eSIM deployments, but MNOs will want to expand their networks nationally and internationally in the short- and near-term.

Another factor is the realistic amount of flexibility available to support global deployments. As cellular IoT grows in popularity, the main benefit of eSIM, the ability to change eSIM platforms and connectivity providers, is more complicated and technical than it sounds. This challenge is preventing eSIM adoption from reaching a global scale, meaning that the full potential of eSIM for cellular IoT is still not realized yet.

Calculating the Tipping Point

Based on all of the known and unknown factors, we can estimate that cellular IoT will reach an inflection point within the next two or three years. According to research by London-based Kaleido Intelligence, more mature markets, like the machine-to-machine and IoT markets, will experience traction sooner. This is due to the established service providers, business models, and market knowledge.

We also know that because the COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted the current IoT landscape, the future of IoT technology adoption, which includes cellular IoT, has also been accelerated. Although many service providers reported a decrease in demand in 2020, we know that companies that did invest in IoT in 2020 helped advance the technology with new IoT applications owing to the new state of the world. As many businesses firm up their finances again over the next year or two, IoT will once again experience rapid growth in innovation and adoption.

The Years Ahead

The pandemic may have negatively impacted the IoT market in 2020, but cellular IoT will play a crucial role in reducing any negative impacts that businesses experienced during the pandemic. As a result, experts predict IoT demand to rise again in 2021 and fully accelerate in 2022 and beyond.

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!

And although this brings about more efficiency and productivity at the end of the day, we must still prioritize cybersecurity in IoT applications used by the media and entertainment industries. Without adequate and robust security protocols, there are substantial consequences. For example, major releases could lose significant amounts of revenue by hackers who publish the film ahead of its premiere.

IoT in Entertainment

IoT is being used in media and entertainment applications in a variety of interesting ways from Hollywood in Los Angeles to Bollywood in Bombay. First, the industry is using IoT to increase its customer base and profitability. By getting an idea of their customers, preferences, and household demographics, companies are building more accurate profiles of where their revenue comes from using data taken from social media, wearables, mobile devices, surveys, and more. This allows companies to develop or acquire more content that meshes well with their main audience, which in turn increases profit.

Having user profiles of customers yields incredible insights through advertising efforts. Ads can be targeted more granularly and with more focused copy and visuals. As the effectiveness of an ad campaign grows, the return on investment exponentially increases for the company by reaching other customers that have similar traits and by convincing existing customers to buy.

On the other hand, companies can include better-targeted advertisements in their media according to what their customers prefer in content and ad delivery. They can also schedule the media to run at a time when their customers are already watching something else they enjoy. Lastly, companies can run marketing campaigns and promotional offers at highly effective times as a result of knowing their customer base.

For theme parks and cruises, sensors and electronic bracelets create a new technological, hands-free experience for customers. These bracelets allow theme parks and cruises to track their customers’ movements for analysis and optimization. IoT also helps companies utilize preventative maintenance of media equipment based on sensor data.

While IoT is bringing about better customer experiences for the media and entertainment industry, it’s also opening up companies to cybersecurity incidents and hacking attempts. The industry is already being attacked frequently, especially around big releases, but we can fortify our efforts to prevent malicious attackers from successfully gaining access to sensitive and private data.

The Current State of Security

It’s crucial for media and entertainment companies to figure out what their customers want, and the data generated and collected in the search for answers to these problems are highly sought-after. Data usage is prominent in the industry, and success depends upon relationships between partners, the company and the customer, and the customers and the content. Thus, it’s imperative that a company’s reputation is known to be secure, trustworthy, and friendly.

When a company in the industry is developing and distributing a creative product, it uses outside vendors often to achieve various goals. For this purpose, IoT is a great tool. But because this creates more complexity in workflows and processes, it can become complicated to secure assets and information.

According to research by Hiscox, more than half of surveyed media and entertainment companies had three or more cyber attacks over a 12-month period. This is no small number, especially because these companies are managing extremely sensitive data like financial, consumer, and personal information. What’s worse is that outside vendors hired in the past are also being targeted, which could compromise the entire supply chain.

Strengthening Security

To reinforce a media and entertainment company’s security procedures and protocols, there are three key areas to concentrate on. First, the prevention of attacks and successful hacks is paramount. This can be accomplished by accurately assessing any and all risks and vulnerabilities to the company and its data. Cybersecurity should be prioritized from the start of any project that involves IoT technology and devices or sensors. Staff must be trained to adequately recognize when a malicious attack is occurring.

Second, detection is an important area to focus on. Track all attempted hacks and attacks and analyze the time of day, day of the week, country of origin, and other dimensions to find a pattern that you can act upon. Develop a coordinated response plan to enact if an attack is discovered. And set up a secure portal that employees can use to report any issues or intrusions.

Lastly, mitigate, mitigate, mitigate. Implementing IoT technology is no small or inexpensive feat. After you’ve worked hard to develop a plan, train employees, and analyze past attack attempts, don’t let your efforts fall to the wayside. Mitigation involves prevention, detection, containment, and assessment of cyberattacks. It also includes a continuous review of security upgrades and updates to devices and software.

Many industries, including the media and entertainment industry, overestimate security and underestimate their risk. In almost all cases, your company could always be doing more to protect your assets and information.

IoT Innovation in Entertainment Is Just Starting

Don’t delay in implementing IoT technology if it’s the right tool to take your company and profits to the next level. Cybersecurity is a major concern, but it mustn’t scare you from utilizing IoT in your business operations — the benefits far outweigh the negatives. To be safe, keep your assets well-guarded with a strong security plan and solution from the get-go.

How have you experienced IoT in entertainment? As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Another more imperative use case is telemedicine, which has exploded this year. In fact, Boston-based Forrester has forecasted that patients will schedule more than one billion virtual health visits this year alone. Where there is increased demand in data transfer, storage, and encryption, there have been major changes in how IT departments design the data storage that enables these use cases to work so smoothly for users; here are some ways the pandemic is changing and impacting IoT data storage.

Automation in Supply Chains

While many of these use cases will eventually become more automated with sophisticated software and robotics, the fact of the matter is that they remain largely manual today. The supply chain’s need for seamless distribution and fulfillment is incredibly demanding for data storage, especially during the pandemic. Pre-pandemic, data requests would enter a central data center that would handle where the request was sent to: usually to the data center closest to the consumer with the largest supply of stock. This enabled customers to receive packages with two-day shipping.

When the pandemic began, however, most retailers saw their shipping logistics become less reliable and more complex. Customers were irate at packages delivered a month and a half too late, not to mention the constant lack of toilet paper supply available to buy online. But as the pandemic has continued, online shopping has exploded, and humans have had a difficult time keeping up with technology.

Too many orders are coming through the system, and mail carriers, those who are responsible for carrying the package “the last mile” to the customer, are absolutely overwhelmed and exhausted from working overtime every day for the past eight months. With automation, robots can deliver smaller, less dangerous packages the last mile. But these new tools require more robust data storage at every step of the data journey.

Better Connectivity

Data storage is intimately connected to data connectivity. It directly impacts speed, bandwidth, and reliability across the entire network. Being able to access data whenever needed, for real-time analysis is critical and quickly becoming commonplace.

The closer to the source that the data is, the faster it moves for analysis, insights, and value. As a result, data infrastructure must meet the demand for data to be transferred, received, stored, and analyzed on demand. If your enterprise works with a variety of IoT devices, it’s important to consider using specific and specialized storage solutions so that your data is handled properly through the entire data journey. Edge computing is a great solution to look into, as it provides less latency, faster analysis, and savings on data storage solutions.

The Rollout of 5G

5G is one of the most exciting emerging technologies, and its rollout is imminent across the world. Many large cities are already benefitting from the ramped-up speeds that 5G brings, but many nations don’t have access to this technology yet. As work becomes increasingly remote across the world, reliable, high-speed, and low-latency connections are necessary, even if the person is on the road.

5G is also vital for industrial IoT needs, like autonomous manufacturing processes, factory floor machine maintenance, and more powerful processing requirements. Robots, cameras, and transportation routes are other use cases for industrial IoT enterprise data storage.

No More General-Purpose IoT Architecture

Many businesses implemented their IoT applications with general-purpose architecture. Pre-pandemic, this was the norm, and it wasn’t too bad of a solution. But these general-purpose architectures cannot meet the increased data transfer and IoT workload that each enterprise’s application has been inundated with since the start of the pandemic. General-purpose architecture fails to provide adequate enough scalability, reliability, accessibility, and capacity, all of which were impacted greatly by the pandemic.

General-purpose architecture also fails to account for the various tribulations that an IoT system can face due to external circumstances; it cannot adapt according to human-centered problems that overflow into the IoT system. On the other hand, purpose-built architecture utilized solutions, systems, devices, and platforms to maximize data storage for real-time hiccups to the IoT system. Data storage is at the heart of any emerging technology, and it’s imperative that IoT systems are designed with data storage in mind. It cannot be an afterthought. Data storage must be addressed early on and frequently during and after an IoT system’s implementation.

What’s The “New Normal”?

Data storage is the foundation of many of our new habits and hobbies, as well as an indispensable part of the “new normal” for healthcare providers and patients. Data storage impacts businesses, individuals, supply chains, human-machine interactions, machine-to-machine communications, and emerging technologies like AI, 5G, and IoT.

To stay pandemic- and future-proof, make sure you’ve got a unique data storage solution that can scale and adapt to your enterprise’s and your customers’ changing needs.

Rear view of a businessman talking on the phone in a city

The Internet of Things (IoT) encompasses a lot of devices, sensors, software, and cloud technology. It’s the perfect way to boost your business’s revenues and gain insight into your customers and their habits using accurate data. Companies who utilize IoT and other emerging technologies to operate their businesses differently, more competitively, and smarter than before are known as “digital disruptors.”

But data from New York City-based IDC shows that only 5% of companies are actually digital disruptors. This could be because IoT and other emerging technologies often require substantial investment before they allow businesses to turn a profit again. It could also be because of poor technological implementations or endeavors that haven’t gone far enough. With edge computing, your IoT system can elevate operational efficiency, business insights, and give you real-time updates on your machinery and equipment.

Why Edge Computing?

Edge computing is used in IoT and IIoT (industrial IoT) systems to shift calculations and analysis from the cloud to the device itself. This saves the company cloud server costs, extends the life of each device, removes connectivity problems, and speeds up data analysis so the company can act faster. With edge computing, businesses run faster and become more agile, efficient, and responsive. Here are five steps to take to become an industry leader and digital disruptor.

Hand holding tablet with glowing polygonal cloud on blue background. Cloud computing and data concept

#1 – Consolidate Your Internal Departments

In most enterprises, the business part of operations and the IT department are often on opposite sides in goals and responsibilities. While business operations are focused on market adaption, revenue growth, and developing new business models, the IT department is concentrated on governance, cost-reduction, and modernization. These competing departments can create a fractured business, and it can prevent you from reaching disruptor status before your competitor. To really make the best use of your IoT or IIoT system, you must fuse these departments together and have them work cohesively, collaboratively, and holistically for the good of the company.

#2: Share the Data

Once departments are working in tandem, set up your data pipelines so that everyone can access what they need and more. Integrate systems if you need to, so that your employees can analyze and generate actionable insights without hitting any roadblocks. With edge computing, real-time data will supplement the data already gathered, opening doors for new ideas, creative workarounds, and interesting projects from your employees. Just the simple act of sharing your data can ultimately improve the customer experience, inspire innovation, and transform your business.

#3: Build Solutions For Your Unique Problems

IoT applications are extremely extensible and flexible and can be applied in almost any way to solve a business’s problems. Edge computing enables enterprises to save on costs and improve business continuity by helping identify when and where repairs are needed before equipment failure occurs and costs your company thousands in lost revenue. IoT helps employees remotely control and monitor assets, which in turn increases the assets’ lifespan.

IoT also helps increase sales and revenue by transforming your products into “products-as-a-service”. This involves changing your current product to become connected, offering customers a more cohesive experience. For example, a printer company could transform their products into “smart printers” that require subscription services for ink and repair checks.

IoT can also elevate your company in your customers’ eyes. By gaining more insights into and understanding of your customers, you can optimize your business operations, marketing, and customer service. This improved customer experience drives more purchases, better word-of-mouth referrals, and lasting relationships with customers.

This is just the tip of the iceberg with IoT, however. Using edge computing and IoT, your enterprise can solve almost any problem relating to equipment, customers, revenue, and operations under the sun.

#4: Fortify Your Infrastructure

Because edge computing is itself an emerging technology, current IoT systems might need an upgraded architecture to accommodate edge computing. Edge analytics require a robust IT department and on-premises infrastructure (since the cloud isn’t utilized as much). Don’t make the mistake of leaving out your IT department in the ideation phase of a new IoT system and especially during the discussion of an upgraded IoT infrastructure.

Edge computing also requires continuous connectivity, so if your physical location has connectivity problems, be sure to fortify your Wi-Fi and have a back-up system in place. Maintain a distributed architecture that can handle problems with ease. Although these upgrades can be costly, they are worth the peace of mind and prevent massive losses in revenue and sales.

#5: Use Your Amazing Analytics

By implementing edge computing, your enterprise is going to have much better-than-average and faster-than-average analytics. It’s expensive to transmit large amounts of data to cloud servers, utilize big data and AI, and receive data back. Edge computing is extremely valuable in optimizing data transfer and analysis, but it will require another software to add to the current mix.

When you’re choosing a solution for streaming analytics, be sure to ask a few key questions to ensure the analysis is truly “real-time”:

1. How many software engineers will you need to architect and build your customized analytics solution?
2. Will you need IT to manually push firmware updates and software configurations to the edge?
3. Will analytics be accessible to whoever you want in your organization?
4. Will you be able to connect third-party products that benefit the rest of the business?
5. Can you connect to third-party products that optimize the other parts of the business?
6. Will your business have full control of the device from a management and support perspective?
7. Will there be a data capture pipeline to plug into in order to reduce the latency of actionable insights?

Now, Go Disrupt!

Using IoT and edge computing, digital disruptors are checking inventory on industrial machines, monitoring water meters, and even remotely managing conveyor belts. What will you do with these two disruptive technologies in your own business?