Apps and Tools (175)

Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is the next big thing in the manufacturing industry that allows manufacturers to digitize their overall business. The majority of large scale manufacturers are aware of this revolutionizing technology of IIoT but do not know where to focus their efforts and what decisions to make to get started.

The end goal of introducing IIoT in manufacturing is to reduce the downtime of factories, save energy with smart power saving, and increase overall revenue. The Internet of Things can transform the manufacturing ecosystem by expanding the value chain, moving towards the agile production process, and improving customer service.

What is the Industrial Internet of Things?

Internet of Things (IoT) has extended beyond being just a buzzword. IoT capabilities implemented in the Industrial and Manufacturing space make way for the modern revolution Industrial IoT. With an amalgamation of different technologies like machine learning, big data, sensor data, M2M communication, and automation, IIoT is all set to transform the manufacturing processes. IIoT makes way for connected enterprise improving visibility, boosting operational efficiency, increases productivity as well as reducing the complexity of the process in the industry. Industrial IoT is a strategy aimed at enhancing the quality, safety, productivity in a trade.

IIoT: Optimizing Operations in Manufacturing

Let’s know the adoption plan for manufacturers to move towards smart factories. IIoT is utilized to employ the industry-best practices of device connectivity and management, synchronization of processes, and advanced analytics to get the best productivity. The following are essential dimensions that require the attention of manufacturers to prepare for the fourth industrial revolution.

Empowering Equipment to Become Smart and Intelligent

 The traditional working pattern of factories is mismanaged, for which the following factors are held responsible:

  • Range of equipment working independently of each other
  • Machinery that is fixed only in cases of break down
  • No consideration of load balance for scheduling of maintenance checks

Smart factories are built with intelligent equipment that self-manage work and collaborate with the entire manufacturing ecosystem for the synchronized workflow of processes.

Installing Sensors for Safety

Using sensors helps in increasing visibility into the functioning of equipment and get details on possible threshold violations. Manufacturers can identify problems through remote monitoring of computer where sensors are connected to other large networks for in-depth analysis.

IoT is not just about saving money and time; it is about keeping workers safe. Sensors can be used to manage and monitor workers’ locations in case of an emergency or evacuation.

Creating a Blended Workforce

 Workers operating on a pre-defined schedule and regardless of production plans result in wastage of resources, money, and efforts. The best way to making optimum use of the workforce is to align their work along with machines so that they can work collaboratively to deliver outputs as per manufacturing requirements.

Such result-orients efforts of a blended workforce allow in improving the efficiency of manufacturing processes. Train the workforce to use the emerging technologies of wearables and mobile helps in implementing the concept of enterprise mobility. This eventually results in enhanced accessibility and flexibility to undertake tasks.

Essential data such as checking of work status, work allocation details, and instructions can be accessed as well as updated in real-time by the entire workforce. Integration of human and machine, i.e. blended workforce resolves the problem of underutilized and unutilized assets, crossing of deadlines, and management of people as per the urgency of the delivery.

The Power of Prediction

IIoT can exponentially improve operating efficiencies and increase the power of prediction in the manufacturing process. Just consider if a machine stops functioning in an optimum manner, the connected sensors can identify the reason behind malfunction and generate a service request.

Predictive maintenance is the next big thing that will help a manufacturer predict when a machine might breakdown or enter a precarious operating condition even before it happens.

The process of condition monitoring is a fairly time-intensive process to analyze sound frequencies, vibrations, and temperature of a given machine to assess its reasonable condition. With the effective use of sensors, it is easy to collect and quickly analyze data points prediction becomes powerful and more comfortable.

The overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) improved with IIOT and sensors. The increased OEE reduces waste for the organization by predicting when machines would require maintenance and need to be taken out of service. By decreasing machine downtime, manufacturing companies can take better advantage of the factory’s capacity.

 Business Process

Manufacturers are defying the conventional tactics and improving business processes by abandoning manual management involving tracking people, materials, tasks, and products. Now is the era of integrated and synced systems that are intricately planned and executed in real-time, providing real-time visibility of materials and products throughout lifecycles, optimize workflow to encourage preventive actions for defective products, and optimize plant operations for effective use of resources and assets. The factories of the future will be agile, adjusting swiftly and effectively to change according to customer demand while controlling costs and quality.

IIoT has been identified as one of the most promising technologies with the power of creating economic change. There are several possibilities that have added up to the “Next Big Thing”. However not every evolving technology has the potential to break through the business and social landscape.

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That app development is popular and widely sought after endeavor is not news. However, what is news is the fact that now there’s a modern tangent to it, thanks to the many incredible resources and tools the evolution of technology has given, i.e. the Internet of Things. The fact that now one can transfer data between not only computers but also any machine or object connected to a network offers immense potential in the context of app development. Why? Because of all the value it brings — IoT in the app world has not only consumers but also resulted in a world of benefits for businesses that use and offer such apps.

3742090215?profile=RESIZE_710xSo, this much is clear — IoT apps are a widespread phenomenon now, which means a sizeable number of companies across the globe are pursuing it. However, before they can get started with it, they must choose a framework that is capable enough to deliver high-quality apps with integrated IoT. Now, this may simple enough, but when you look at the options at hand, the challenge grows exponentially. Thankfully, there’s one framework that has consistently ranked among the top choices for building IoT apps — ASP.NET 3.0. The open-source framework’s ability to facilitate the development of apps across a variety of platforms demonstrates what makes it so popular among developers. But to help you make a more sound decision, allow us to walk you through some solid reasons for why you should pick ASP.NET 3.0.

  1. Off the rack solutions: One of the most potent benefits of this framework is that fit offers a large variety of distinctive ready-made solutions, thus saving companies and developers much effort that is typically associated with building custom solutions. And then there’s also the fact that it is highly conducive for the reuse of code.
  2. Unassailable cloud support: Cloud support is critical for app development in the modern-day world. For that, you have Microsoft Azure IoT platform and accelerators, whose compact size and secure nature mean that developers can swiftly deploy their apps in the cloud and that too without a fuss. Oh, and there’s also the periodic updates, which translates into the ability to introduce handy features and functionalities easily
  3. Windows 10 IoT Core compatibility: ASP.NET 3.0 is entirely compatible with Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Core edition, which, by the way, is often cited as one of the top reasons for why developers choose the framework. Not only is t loaded with a plethora of productivity tools, but also enables integration with a variety of platforms, such as Azure Cloud-based platform, Universal Windows Platform, Visual Studio, and others.

The factors cited above, though not the frameworks only benefits are ample demonstration of what makes it such a terrific tool for IoT projects. With .NET application development, any company can quickly put together top-notch apps that are 100 percent scalable, efficacious, and secure.

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“We won't stop until we see every vehicle on the road being electric,” said Elon Musk, the person who works to revolutionize transportation both on earth and in space. “China is about to ban the internal combustion engine,” said a mining financier, Robert Friedland. Tesla Model 3 needs approximately 65 kilograms of copper per vehicle. Cities are now demanding zero-emission buses. Whether it’s electric cars, buses, trucks, solar energy or wind energy generation – as we transit to a sustainable world, we need more copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium, platinum, palladium, zinc and aluminum. That’s why, mining products will be in huge demand. Nevertheless, in the present world, these minerals and other mining products are already a backbone for most industries.

However, just because mining products are vital to run industries and build a low-carbon future, it doesn’t mean that the society should turn a blind eye to the damages caused due to mining operations.

Concerns from communities and governments regarding the environmental effects of digging up the earth to extract metals and minerals is battering the sector. Also, current investors have become restless and new investors are reluctant to finance mining activities as mining operations have not altered significantly since decades. This puts pressure on mine owners to bring a change in traditional mining practices. Such a situation drives many mine owners to bring data-driven practices into their routine mining operations.

Like most industries, the technology that disrupts the traditional ways of mining will be a significant driver of change in mining. The goal is to make mining more effective, sparing, energy intensive and environmental-friendly.

From decades, the mining industry has been deploying PLC and SCADA systems for monitoring and controlling. But these monitoring and control systems are generally proprietary systems and offer limited interoperability with other systems. This is where IoT-based systems prove to be advantageous. IoT-based systems are based on open and highly connected Internet Protocol (IP) network structure. Such open network architectures enable current mining operations to move toward the next generation of smart mining.

Let's look at how IoT implementation empowers mine owners with its ability to transform traditional mining practices and:

Say NO to carelessness

Since the advent of mining, fires and explosions are serious safety issues. Specifically, in coal mines, spontaneous coal seam combustion turns into a catastrophe mainly due to carelessness. Besides, in the biggest coal producer nation like China, approximately 25.1% of their main coal mines are extremely gaseous mines, which after burning could lead to a disaster. Also, the environment surrounding mines can be vulnerable during combustion as massive quantities of toxic gases, including CO2, CO, SO2 and H2S, are emitted when a mine catches fire. Therefore, prevention and protection from fires is important for secured mining production as well as the global environment.

The mechanism of spontaneous combustion of the coal seam is like a typical spontaneous combustion, which requires oxygen. Hence, measuring the concentration of O2 is the key. In addition to O2, other gas contents, such as CO, CO2, N2, CH4, C2H4, C2H6, Rn and so forth, can be evaluated to detect spontaneous coal combustion at the surveillance spot.

As shown in the image above, an IoT-based system continuously monitors the sensed values and displays them to remote users through a web dashboard. Besides, the system can send alerts to such users in the case of detecting abnormal values and it can activate mitigation devices (e.g., forced ventilation) to decrease gas concentrations smartly.

Say NO to waste of resources

There is an increasing demand of mining products, mining equipment and resources – such as conveyors, shearers, boring machines, hydraulic pump stations, hydraulic support stations, crushers, loaders, motor vehicles, water pumps and ventilation fans – to run mining operations continuously. Moreover, to increase profitability form the existing resources, mine owners need an effective and safe resource management platform that can bring resource wastage time to zero. In such situations, an IoT network can help mine owners or managers to know the locations of these expensive resources and its usage statistics. Further, the underground staff can also be monitored via an IoT network.

Dundee Precious Metals sets the best example for this. They have deployed nearly 280 wireless access points over 50 km (31 miles) of tunnels in their flagship gold mine placed in Chelopech, Bulgaria. The firm quadrupled production from 0.5 million to 2 million tons by using an IoT-based system to track miners and vehicles locations, monitor vehicles status and automate safety and maintenance operations.

An IoT-based system is not only helpful to mine owners but original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) as well. The open connectivity of IoT architecture enables OEMs to monitor their product performance in their lifetime, even after the product is sold. Such data can be used to initiate a new revenue stream and to improve product design as well.

Say NO to casualties

In the case of a calamity, miners are taught to escape from the mine first with handy self-rescue equipment and enter a refuge alternative when escaping is cut off. Refuge alternatives are designed to provide 96 hours of breathable air, food and water for underground staff. Although refuge alternatives are only planned for use in post-accident occurrences, so their functionality should be checked periodically to ensure that they are working as intended in an emergency. In addition, a system should be in place to signal the surface instantly when a refuge alternative is triggered after a calamity. One way to monitor a refuge alternative's feasibility status from the ground is to attach sensors, such as a magnetic switch sensor, air quality and temperature sensors to the door of a refuge alternative. These sensors detect the occupancy status, air quality and temperature to ensure that a refuge alternative always stays safe.

To sum up, whether you need to cut expenses, lessen downtime, increase productivity or reduce environmental footprint – an IoT-based system is the right choice.

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The future of application is all set with the automation and intelligent technologies on the frontline for a vital change. Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of things are changing the course of the future of application development and automating the process capabilities and testing methods.

There are over 3 million smartphones in 2019 and the said number will almost surpass 3.8 million by 2021 and it is the indicator of widespread smartphone reach and a growing market for applications that are the source of revenue for several enterprises and businesses around the world today. This is why deploying AI for app development can improve app revenues.

Development of mobile application has many stages in its development lifecycle and automation of these phases can render fruitful results for the developers, with greater reusability of the codes, seamless APIs and adaptive integration of user data to create user experiences that will be more intelligent.

Another important aspect of Artificial Intelligence-driven application development will be helpful in the integration of the Internet of Things based smart devices with the APIs of mobile devices. We have already seen the use of AI for smart features that have invoked smartphone markets with a frenzy.

Realization of Automation in Apps Development:

The application development lifecycle has several stages and substages. Putting it in a simple perspective there are three basic stages to be considered-Design, Deployment, and Testing. Automation of these stages was realized due to several challenges related to these stages.

Designing the application optimized for the user experiences is quite a challenge as there are platform constraints and making the user interface seamlessly to facilitate the interaction between user and system smooth takes error-free programming. This is where automating the process can solve key issues with the design of applications.

Deployment and integration of newer versions of the applications with the already existing app versions without hindering the performance of the existing interface is a key challenge and here machine learning and NLP(Natural Language Program) techniques from the AI realm can automate the deployment to ensure continuous development and integration.

And Finally testing an application is one of the most challenging factors in an app development process. Automation of testing the application can bring effective performance enhancements that earlier were not realized and simulation of vital app functions and attributes can be achieved through the automation of the testing process.

Artificial Intelligence and IoT Realm:

Artificial Intelligence is the ultimate keyword today for businesses worldwide. It is reported that AI will contribute up to $15.7 trillion by 2030 to the global business revenue. Similarly, the Internet of Things has shown quite a potential in the market that could induce $4 trillion to $11 trillion in economic value by 2025. The realm of AI and IoT may seem complex and segregated but they are quite intertwined and inclusive.

Leveraging the realm of AI and IoT can change the whole scenario of mobile application development. A mobile application has gained huge traction as a business and the enterprises and businesses are looking to structure their processes to align with the AI and IoT technologies. With IoT powering new markets like wearables and Augmented reality, the development of applications that can align its UI with these devices can be a challenging job.

Another key aspect is the personalization of mobile applications, as the markets are envisaging the IoT based technologies, the personalization factor is gaining traction and AI can help applications achieve greater personalization through data analytics and machine learning techniques.

Three Stages Of Automated App Development:

1. Design:

Designing an application is the integration of ideation into the application interface to project the vision, mission, and functions of any idea. Any application that is developed with a simple function at its core is data that is transferred to and fro between the system and the user to help solve a problem of the user.

User Interface design should be efficient enough to solve a particular pre-defined problem. But, AI can help build an application that can use features like predictive analysis according to the data analytics and transform the UI according to the user data and bring about the user experience that can change the whole design paradigm.

Continuous analysis of data collected with each user interaction with the system is recorded, stored and analyzed through the data analytics and computational powers of intelligent machines to automate the altercations in the application designs.

2. Deployment:

Deployment of the application with cross-platform capabilities to capitalize on the environment of a particular platform through a single logical code for several devices and platforms can provide enhanced UX across all the platforms without hassle of changing the code each time.

Continuous Integration:

Continuous integration allows the android developers to submit small segments of the application each time. These codes are then saved and automatically dent to the build server immediately or sometimes at a definite regular interval. The build formed of these codes is then passed to an AI-based test server, which conducts tests of an application.

Integrations of several attributes of applications based on the user feedback achieved during the pre-production and prototyping phases along with the updates and the latest version integration of the applications can be automated through the machine learning algorithms and NLP.

Continuous Delivery:

Continuous Delivery can be considered as a collection of best practices designed to ensure rapid and safe deployment of code by delivering several changes to a production environment. It is followed by rigorous automated testing techniques to ensure full services and functionalities of a business application.

Using Predictive Analytics to make adjustments to the algorithms that can control the production phase of an application and based on the same make vital changes in the applications. Commonly, the application itself understands how to apply its rules based on how those rules have worked in the past.

Continuous Deployment:
To ensure Continuous Deployment(CD) of the application through several phases and versions without too much effort and programming can be achieved through the use of machine learning capabilities. Continuous Deployment is considered as an extension of the continuous delivery and it differs from the delivery part with every change in the code. These changes that are passed through the automated testing phase is automatically included in the production phase.

3. Testing:

Automation of testing can reduce the regression cycles of any development team. Regression cycles can not only put pressure on the development team but also led to financial crisis and missed release deadlines. Testing of mobile applications can cause a prolonged regression cycle that involves different platforms and devices and it fails to keep up with the frequent updates of operating systems, and devices that are constantly introduced in the market.

Deploying AI-based Continuous Testing Mechanism:

Achieving continuous application testing through AI-based mechanism can be achieved using machine learning by applying AI techniques to automatically learn the testing data without explicit programming. Further, this mechanism can access the data, run tests and apply the learning to testing cycles to make improvements.

Machine learning can derive data patterns from operations data and enable the analysis of BigData. It can be used for accurate results with the integration of new and emerging technologies like IoT.

With AI-baed mechanisms, Quality Assurance teams can trigger unattended test cycles, where defects are identified and remedial measures are triggered in run time, based on insights gained from historical data sets and past events.

An AI engine will ensure that only a robust code progresses from one stage to the next, orchestrating quality across the application development lifecycle.

Benefits of Continuous Testing through AI:

  • An AI engine can promote the code or shut down features with a high probability of causing application outage or production defects depending on the data analytics and machine learning.
  • Using the data patterns and correlations, machine learning algorithms can trace defects to root causes, with the AI triggering remedial tests before the code progresses.
  • Machine Learning can leverage its algorithms to flag several coding errors that are previously overlooked and flags such as high memory usage, as a potential threat can be raised.
  • It ensures continuous testing through the best-fit tools, based on historical data and manages tools in advance based on a future requirement and unclogs the delivery pipeline.
  • It helps organizations to shift from conventional tools to open-source tools, optimizing licensing or acquisition costs.

Artificial Intelligence is a new magic tool that is transforming the app development market. organizations need to invest heavily in AI technologies and training. Though AI is an automated system, human testers are yet required to encode the AI with business process flows and critical scenarios. The knowledge of application development lifecycles is critical to executing such automated mechanisms.

This can be developed into a market of itself by enterprises, who enabled infrastructures aligned with AI technologies and manpower trained for the same, by leasing out these AI engines and skilled manpower to other firms and teams looking to develop applications through automated mechanisms.

Before, such a venture, enterprises must understand the landscape of the AI and IoT based technologies for app development with an evaluation of data logs and data richness of the enterprise archives that can facilitate effective data analytics. AI engines can be effective only if, the enterprise is able to maintain data from several processes or has high levels of automation that can provide relative data.

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The Internet of Things (IoT) or the connected ecosystem of devices, sensors, and computing systems is exploding with the latest technologies. As mobile devices are increasingly becoming more equipped with most advanced sensors and user-friendly user interfaces, they are playing a central role in the development and proliferation of the IoT ecosystem. No wonder IoT apps have emerged as the leading mobile app category with an era-defining impact on the lifestyle and development paradigms.

As the promise of this connected ecosystem, is not going to die down anytime soon, a famous mobile app development company working with IoT apps understand the opportunities promised by the connected ecosystem of gadgets and emerging technologies such as Machine Learning, edge computing, and in-memory computing.

Let's explain now the present state of things with iOS apps.

What do the Predictions and Statistics say?

According to most analysts of our time, the impact of IoT is really supposed to be huge as the vast majority of consumers are going to buy connected gadgets by the year 2019, as predicted by an Accenture group venture called Acquity. Another report by Gartner predicts that the total number of connected things across consumer homes, businesses, and industries will grow up to 26 billion by the time we reach 2020.

Improving Business Operation with IoT

With so much of promises on offer, naturally, organizations are trying to find out the best ways to equip their companies with the IoT ecosystem of gadgets and sensors. This obviously involves also combining the information fetched from a variety of connected sensors with predictive analytics. Modern enterprises are increasingly realizing the potential of IoT data when coupled up with analytics and the latest technologies such as Machine Learning. The smart apps utilizing the potential of IoT with the help of modern analytics and Machine Learning technology are actually trying to make things easier for their target users and customers.

Key Smart App Niches with Maximum Impact of IoT

While IoT is increasingly being integrated across industries and business niches, not all areas of IoT Integration are equally successful. Over the years, many people quickly refer to IoT as smart home gadgets, and it was the area where connected gadgets and apps started their journey.

Then comes the wearables like smartwatches and health and fitness bands that quickly became part of a smart gadget revolution. Then the connected car entertainment and navigation system became a massive reality with major thanks to the ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft. Last but not least, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) also became a reality with never-before promise for efficiency, productivity, and excellence.

Let us explain these key niches that gradually played the biggest role in the smart app revolution.

Smart Wearables

Smart wearables like smartwatches and fitness bands remain the most prominent category of smart mobile apps showcasing the value proposition of a connected ecosystem of devices. From a plethora of smartwatch brands with their own ecosystem of standalone wearable apps to the plethora of smart fitness and health tracker bands with their connected mobile apps, continue to contribute to the IoT ecosystem of smart applications.

Smart Connected Cars

The concept of smart connected car gas evolved over the years. While the basic smart connectivity with the car entertainment system to allow phone calls or using the virtual assistant to respond to emails are increasingly becoming part and parcel of automobile offerings from leading brands, the connected cars in the way of driverless car technology or remote navigation control system has still not become a marketable technology.

But as most car makers these days have their own mobile apps to allow users to exercise greater control while driving or boarding the car, connected car apps have become a big pushing factor for the automobile sector. The connected car apps are also evolving to help with various issues, and tasks ranging from real-time traffic feedback to monitoring the technical difficulties to alerts for maintenance needs to monitoring fuel consumption, etc.

Smart Home Apps

This is the oldest and most mature category of iOS apps that went through almost a whole evolution. Smart home gadgets ranging from the electric lights to the air conditioning systems to the connected refrigerators to the smart coffee maker, all gadgets that can be communicated and controlled using mobile apps, belong to this category. The smart home apps allow users to control their home gadgets with simple commands while enjoying the comfort and ease in lifestyle.

Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) refers to the connected gadgets, devices, and sensors that, in an enterprise or industrial environment, help workers and employees to communicate and access data to complete tasks faster and with more efficiency. From the smart Beacon sensors or the geofencing technology in the retail stores to help to locate nearby customers to the use of connected security camera systems to process security information in real-time to the smart connected gadgets in the modern manufacturing units, there are a plethora of examples of Industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) applications.

As the IoT apps across all industries are rapidly proliferating and opening new and never-before opportunities of boosting efficiency and ease of use, should we not forget about the challenges to the IoT app development. The biggest challenge to the IoT mobile app development as of now concerns the data security and question of protecting privacy. In the years to come, with the ongoing excellence of IoT apps, addressing security challenges will continue to remain a key priority for the IoT app developers and strategists.

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IoT technologies or "Internet of Things" collect and analyze information about the object, its movement, condition, and many other features. In the European Union alone there are currently more than 13.3 millions of active trackers that use this system, which is a significant growth compared to 0.7 of a million in 2016.

An object of observation will be tagged for tracking with a relatively small device that collects the necessary information and sends it to you via Wi-Fi. But how one should know which type of IoT solutions to choose?

IoT Tracking Technologies

  1. RFID tags

RFID tags use radio frequency to identify the right element or track a certain "tag". In comes in two types:

  • Passive RFID tag depends on the RFID reader to send a wave that they can use to reply. For example, to see who passes through the reader bars in the store with an unpaid product.
  • Active RFID tags have an identifier along with a battery inside, which allows it to communicate with a reader on a larger distance.
  1. BLE beacons

BLE beacons rely on Bluetooth Low Energy so they can communicate, often used inside mobile phones. They can send multiple types of signals and detect many devices around them.

Beacons come in different forms and devices:

  • Parent beacons process and collect received data, communicate with child-beacons.
  • USB beacons
  • Router-sized beacons
  • Small portable beacons
  1. NFC chips

Near Field Communication is one of IoT technologies that rely on the electromagnetic field when are very close to each other (5-20 centimeters). NFC devices interact similar to RFID, can also be active and passive:

  • Active NFC sends and receives data (for example, it's being used on smartphones)
  • Passive NFC only sends information
  1. Zigbee hardware

Zigbee was invented for more complicated communication. They create a small network in a limited area, powered by a small radio.

Zigbee chips are widely used in radios and USB interfaces among other IoT solutions. It's also famous for its low cost and power expenses.

  1. LTE advanced

Long-Term Evolution is a wireless communication technology that was developed for faster internet, bigger storage and data processing. It's mostly used by mobile phones but sadly has different regions depending on the country where the phone was produced, with no support for a different frequency.

  1. LiFi

Visible Light Communication based Light Fidelity uses diodes to communicate at the speed of light without a chance for a human to notice the signal. The signal is then received by a photodetector.

LiFi is known to be the biggest rival of WiFi, though it's limited to the reach of the light that can be stopped by an obstacle.

  1. GPS

Everyone who owns a phone is familiar with Global Positioning System, which provides geolocation at a certain time to all GPS receiving devices. While still haven't beat by its accuracy in tracking, GPS is known to be quite power-consuming because it determines an object's location in non-stop mode.

  1. LPWAN

Low Power Wide Area Networks is created for long-distance communication and uses a low bit rate. It also allows to create a private wireless network.

Here some of the LPWAN based technologies:

  • NB-IoT uses a wide range in cellular services and devices
  • LoRaWAN uses a chirp spectrum radio module along with LPWAN technology
  • DASH7 is a firmware standard with low-latency, used over LPWAN

How IoT tracking helps in your business

Which of the IoT technologies is the best suited for your business?

Commercial Organization

  • A commercial organization may track their assets using RFID tags, such as Amazon keeps track of products in their vendor places
  • BLE beacons can help understand the customers, how much time they spend in the store, which aisles they visit and how they move across them
  • NFC technologies allow your customers to pay faster with their wireless credit cards
  • Zigbee is a necessity for those who develop smart home devices
  • LiFi help you set up shop displays and show advertisements to the customers

Industrial Business

  • BLE beacons help organize the inner industrial process, track equipment, monitor assets, prevent human errors and incidents
  • NFC takes care of security and access control
  • Zigbee helps with remote monitoring in a company with a large facility. However the cost rise drastically when operating between the facilities, so it's not used
  • LTE Advanced can instantly notify of a security breach and needed maintenance, write reports, draw a map of assets real-time movement
  • LPWAN optimizes costs and energy losses and power outrage. It monitors liquid levels, energy installations, optimizes solar plants performance

Healthcare Facility

  • RFID helps manage medical equipment and monitor the room's condition. It also helps with identification badges
  • BLE beacons help with indoor navigation
  • NFC tracks the patient's location, their time of treatment and health at home
  • Zigbee can monitor patients in real-time at low-cost
  • GPS tracks down the location of an emergency case
  • Li-Fi can lag when the light is interrupted. Otherwise, it's a perfect tool since it doesn't mess with another equipment
  • LTE has a personal network for enterprises. It's a large and secure network at a hospital

  • RFID identifies a vehicle, person, baggage and therefore is helpful at railroad, airports, and roads
  • NFC helps scan tickets and trains passes fast
  • GPS helps to locate fleet vehicles and contact them
  • Modified with LED bulbs, LiFi cars help to prevent a collision in advance
  • Paired with other technologies, LTE Advanced can monitor the flight in real-time and communicate in long-distance
  • LPWAN can trace objects in real-time, optimize routes, detect and resolve faults, road threats, and maintenance

Agriculture and Food

  • RFID is helpful with tagging and locating cattle and food
  • GPS allows to plow and place crops precisely, map and monitor the field and save costs from farming
  • LPWAN is useful for measuring the soil moisture, water levels, cattle hygiene, and gate security

A wide range of IoT object tracking technologies is created to serve different purposes. Decide among the best of IoT solutions for yourself or read more in our blog to help determine which option is the best for you.

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IoT today is one of the most significant sources of new data. Considering that, data science will provide a considerable contribution to making IoT applications more intelligent and fast. Current applications of data science backed with Machine Learning has helped us deduce significant factors to help achieve optimum success in this field.

First, since data gets generated from different sources with specific data types, it is imperative to adopt or develop algorithms that has the capacity to handle the data characteristics.Next, the vast number of resources that generate data in real-time are not without the problem of scale and velocity. Conclusively, finding the best data model that fits the data is one of the most vital issues for pattern recognition and for better analysis of IoT data.

These so called ‘issues’ have paved a path for a vast number of opportunities in expanding new developments. Big data can be laid down as high-volume, high-velocity, and high variety data that demands cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing that enable enhanced insight, decision making, and process automation.

3 Major Concepts of Machine Learning in IoT

In order to better understand what algorithm best fits for processing and decision-making in the field of IoT, one needs to understand the most basic concepts of IoT.

  1. i) The overall application of IoT
  2. ii) The data-driven vision of ML algorithms

iii) Characteristics of IoT data

The overall application of IoT

As we know, the purpose of IoT is to develop a smarter environment and a simplified life-style by saving time, energy, and money. It also reduces significant amount of costs for major industries. Four major components of IoT include: 1) sensors, 2)processing networks, 3) data analysis data, and 4) system monitoring. Since IoT is integrated with a  number of technologies, and connectivity is a mandatory and sufficient condition for it to function, there are certain communication protocols which can are some of the most basic ingredients of this technology. Cumulatively, we need to enhance these components:

(1)Device to Device (D2D): is a type of communication which enables communication between nearby mobile phones; representing the next generation of cellular networks.

(2) Device to Server (D2S): is a type of communication device where all of the data is sent to the servers; can be either close or far from the devices. Such communication is majorly applied to cloud processing.

(3) Server to Server (S2S): is a type of communication where servers transmit data between each other and is majorly applied for cellular networks.

Before transferring data to other devices, one needs to prepare the data in order to establish communication. For this, there are various analytical processes and computing methods that are used.

Fog Computing:- This method is applied in order to migrate information from the data center task to the edge of the servers.

Edge computing:- The processing is run at a distance from the core in this type of computing.

Cloud computing:- Cloud has high latency and high load balancing, indicating that this architecture is not sufficient for processing IoT data because most processing should run at high speeds.

Once we understand the detailed classification and the purpose for which we intend to use the IoT device, we can establish the correct type of algorithm to use under the hood. Majorly this part of allocating algorithms comes up during the process of IoT app development and a lot of brainstorming goes behind it.

Let us have a look on the surface of some of the most widely-used and sophisticated Machine Learning algorithms that can be inculcated with the IoT devices.

A) Classification:- This type of ML algorithm is used in smart cities, especially for managing smart traffic. It helps in traffic prediction and in increasing data abbreviation.

B) Clustering:- This algorithm is used for smart traffic and smart health. It again aids in traffic prediction and in increasing data abbreviation along with patient data monitoring.

C) Linear Regression:- This algorithm is mainly used in economics and helps in real-time prediction along with data abbreviation.

D) K-Nearest Neighbours:- This algorithm is applied for smart-citizens and helps in analysing passenger travel patterns.

E) Feed Forward Neural Network:- Used for smart health purposes and helps in reducing energy-consumption and forecast the state of elements.

F) Canonical Correlation Analysis:- Used for monitoring public places and helps majorly in fault detection.

IoT has excited every single individual connected with information technology today. It promises an all-connected, all-encompassing future. These connections and smart devices together will lay down the foundation of a world we have so fondly visualized with sci-fi books and movies.

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Application development is one of the most challenging processes for enterprises and choosing a model approach for the same is a complex decision to make. An application development model or Software Development Lifecycle Model(SDLC) is the heart of any development process. There are several models for SDLC like agile, waterfall, V-shape, iterative, spiral, etc.

The battle of agile and waterfall for the dominance over SDLC model acceptance has been a happy hunting ground for developers around the world. Developers and enterprises are looking forward to tapping into agile methods to create applications faster, secure and leaner. But, there are ardent followers of the waterfall model that are still using it as an SDLC model for application development.

What is the waterfall model?

The waterfall model is based on a waterfall-like structure of phases of any application development lifecycle. Each phase has an iterative relationship with each other that provides direct value to the end-product. Other phases are needed to be staffed and planned differently for the best utilization of program resources.

Image Source: SDLC Models Explained

There is a sequel dependability among the phases, which holds back the system design whenever the analysis model is still to be signed off and holds back coding if design is still to be signed off. Each development step progresses, and the design is further detailed by iteration with every preceding and succeeding step.

Due to the addition of the preliminary program design phase between requirements and analysis phase, the designer assures that the software or app will not fail because of storage, time or data flux. The waterfall model relies on documentation of every phase, with a view of building a shorter and smarter phase consisting of all the phases to ensure customer involvement in both during and after the program design phase.

What is the Agile model?

Agile techniques depend on the iterative development and a focus on iteration, communication and the reduction of resource-intensive intermediate artifacts. It combines short iterative cycles with the feature planning and dynamic prioritization. Any agility in development of apps or softwares require face-to-face interactions that can be achieved through close customer relationships.

Image Source: SDLC Models Explained

These customer relationships can help teams make decisions immediately rather than waiting for the correspondence to happen from the customer's side. Each iteration in agile methodology is an iterative product itself. They are like self-contained mini-projects with activities that span requirement analysis, design, deployment, and test.

These iterations encapsulates all the digital resources across the teams and act as a subset of the final system. The customer provides feedback based on the observations of current iterative releases and specify requirements for further iterative releases.

Enterprises hire ios developers and android developers to exploit the iterative releases across platforms prevalent in agile model. The predetermined length of an iteration serves as the deadlines for the teams.

In this SDLC model, each iteration is better known as a "Sprint". The sprint is a 30-day development iteration, where the whole process of an iterative release is carried out in 30 days. During the sprint, there is no change to be made in the metrics and parameters of a sprint and the same should be reviewed by the teams at the end of the sprint.

A wholistic comparison between Agile and Waterfall methods:

  1. Primary Requirements: For conventional methods like a waterfall, the major set of objectives are predictability, repeatability, and optimization. While Agile techniques focus on rapid value and rapid response to the changes.

  1. Scaling: Waterfall techniques are better for scaling large projects. While agile methodology is not good at scaling large projects and suits best for the smaller projects where the organizational structures of a waterfall system fails.

  1. Customer Relations: Agile methods works better when it comes to customer relations with a condition that customers operate in a dedicated mode with the development teams. This method risks the pitfalls of implicit knowledge, which is solved through documentation in the waterfall model.

  1. Planning and control: The waterfall model focuses on project management requirements like careful planning, estimation, coordination, tracking, and control. While agile methods are more focused on the results than documentation.

  1. Communication: Agile techniques advocate face-to-face communications and waterfall methods require explicit documented knowledge.

  1. Requirements of Process: The agile model does not entertain the up-front and formal requirements engineering. While the waterfall model encounters problems with rapidly changing requirements.

  1. Development: The waterfall model relies heavily on the infrastructure of a software or application as a part of the development sequence. While the agile model values the working software or app over documentation and emphasizes simplicity.

  1. Testing: The waterfall model focuses on architecture and documentation adopting conventional assurance methods that involve dynamic testing, static analysis with internal and third-party evaluation. The agile model facilitates internal design and code review that encourages developers to adopt the coding standards.

  1. Skill Of Customers: Agile requires dedicates, co-located and knowledgeable customers. While the waterfall model needs adequately skilled and knowledgeable customers.

  1. Developers: Waterfall developers are to be plan-oriented, adequately skilled with the knowledge of external skills. While agile model needs developers that are knowledgeable, co-located and collaborative with amicable communicative and interactive talents. Agile approaches emphasize the cross-functional teams of developers, testers, subject matter experts and architects of application infrastructures.

A plan-driven waterfall model or an adaptive agile method are both advantageous and disadvantageous in several ways. If an enterprise has a large project at hand, the waterfall model is the best suited SDLC and if there is a small project at hand than the agile model is best suited. But. when it comes to medium-sized projects, both the models struggle in terms of handling and execution over medium-sized projects.

With rising costs and time constraints on development projects, the agile model can create apps more rapidly owing to its sprint tool which is a very short iterative method. While the waterfall model has large costing issues with staffing and tools required for several phases in the interactive relationships and with the focus on external testing, it incurs heavy costs on the project budget. So from the above, it is clear to choose the most suitable model according to your project requirements.

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To outsource or not to outsource?

Depending on who you are talking to, the idea of outsourcing can promote some very positive or negative reactions. ‘Off-shoring’ and ‘unfair competition’ are thrown against ‘specialization’ and        ‘lower costs’. Whether you are considering product development, the provision of specialist services or the handling of back office activities, there are a number of pros and cons that need to be considered.

What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing is defined as ‘the process of paying to have part of a company's work done by another company’. It can therefore cover a wide range of business activities and is usually undertaken as a cost-cutting or efficiency optimization measure. Investopedia states that was first recognized as a business strategy in 1989 and became an integral part of business economics throughout the 1990s and makes the point that ‘the practice of outsourcing is subject to considerable controversy in many countries. Those opposed argue it has caused the loss of domestic jobs, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Supporters say it creates an incentive for businesses and companies to allocate resources where they are most effective, and that outsourcing helps maintain the nature of free market economies on a global scale’.

Typically then, a firm will have a project or an ongoing activity that it wishes or needs to undertake but which, for example, it does not have the necessary in-house skills to undertake, does not form part of its core activities, or which it does not have the resources to fully undertake. The firm will search for another company that specializes in the area and seek to outsource the particular activities to them. The IT sector is one of the main areas – along with Human Resource and finance – that thrives on outsourcing.

Benefits of outsourcing

There are a number of advantages of outsourcing:

  1. Greater access to expertise. By working with firms who are specialists in a particular area, a company can gain greater access to the relevant skills and knowledge in a quicker timeframe. This can include access to cutting-edge tools and concepts and insight into the developments within the sector that would otherwise not be available. Using an outsourced firm can also give access to a wider pool of expertise and talent, as the contractor will have access to these within its own sector – access that the contracting firm would not be able to gain.
  2. Greater efficiency. One of the key tenants of economic efficiency, going back to Adam Smith and the Wealth of Nations in the 1770s, is that specialization can increase efficiency and that greater efficiency can increase economic returns – that is, at a company level, by specializing on its core activities, a company is better able to gain a competitive advantage and increase financial returns. By thus avoiding diverting resources into non-core activities and relying on specialized outsource companies to provide these non-core activities (which are core for the contractor company), greater productivity can be generated.
  3. Reduced costs. One of the primary benefits of outsourcing to hire a dedicated team is that the contracting firm does not need to employ more people to undertake temporary or non-core activities. Given that staff costs make up a large component of ongoing expense for a company, this can substantially reduce costs. As a factor, this should not be underestimated: in the EU, for example, firms need to add an extra 24% in non-wage costs (from 6% in Malta to 33% in France).
  4. Developing partnerships. Outsourcing can help a company develop relationship with partner companies, whether domestically or abroad. This in turn can generate further business opportunities.

The downsides to outsourcing

There are, however, some disadvantages to outsourcing:

  1. Lack of direct control. While the relationship between the outsourcing firm and the contractor will be determined by a contract or by a service level agreement, there is a level of reduced control that comes from outsourcing.
  2. Changes in requirements. Business requirements change, this is a fact of life. But if you need to change the contracting agreement between a company and the contractor, this can be difficult to do if – for example – you are in the middle of a several year-long agreement, or it can result in increased costs for the change in service to be accepted.
  3. Increased communication issues. Contracting out some of your activities or product development can result in increased communication problems, with staff in both companies having to understand two different companies’ ways of communicating. This can lead to misunderstandings and, in some cases, cause serious problems if there is not the goodwill to resolve issues.
  4. While product development, for instance, with a specialist contractor can result in a world class product, by definition in an outsourcing relationship you are in the hands of the contractor, to a degree. This means that if the quality of the product is not that which you wanted or which you had agreed with a stakeholder, you will often not be able to solve it yourself and will need to work with the contractor to do so – and that will often involve addition costs.

The decision on whether to outsource, for example for product development or to hire a dedicated development team is one that each company needs to assess for itself. There are considerable advantages in terms of gaining access to expertise and skills and keeping costs controlled. But at the same time there are potential risks of which a company needs to be aware. With effective management and good communication, these risks can be substantially reduced – but both sides in the relationship need to be aware of the need for this and take steps to ensure that the outsourcing runs effectively.

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Embedded systems are maybe the most complex part of an integrated IoT solution. Looking at my company's experience I can say that most programmers that come to build IoT systems have to have additional experience if they want to work with hardware. Customers that want to hire IoT developers also need to have a basic understanding of what skills his future contractors must have.
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Having a smart home is all well and good until you become a victim of data leakage.

This is not a discouragement against IoT implementation into your home, however. The Internet of Things market has been on the rise, and thanks to that, even our homes have become smarter. We don’t have to worry about doing our laundry, or making coffee manually anymore. With just a command we can do these things without having to move away from that comfy couch.

But over the last couple of years, some incidents have shown that the matter of smart homes might not be all it’s hyped up to be. Just like everything, IoT implementation in smart homes has a bright and a dark side, but it seems the dark side is more sinister than the bright one.

Incident one:

The combined research conducted by Northeastern University and Imperial College of London has shown how consumer devices are not to be trusted when dealing with client data. The researchers conducted 34,586 controlled experiments on 81 different IoT devices, 46 of which are from the US and 35 are from the UK, and this is what they found out-

  • 72 out of these 81 devices are connecting to services that are not the first party. Which means they are connecting domains and addresses that have no business connecting to the device.
  • The research showed that 56% of the US devices and 83.8% of the UK devices were connecting to domains that were not in their region.
  • The safety of the data on an online connection depends on the level of encryption, but here’s the kicker- according to the research, all the tested devices have at least one plain-text flow, which means at least one data flow from all the devices is non-encrypted. Not to mention, any cyber-evesdroppers can analyze device traffic, encrypted or not, and figure out the user and device behavior.

But in any case, this is just research. What happens when a smart home management platform leaves a server with important user data exposed on the internet without any password or protection?

Incident Two:

Around mid-June, the security team at vpnMentor, lead by security researchers Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, spotted a completely exposed server containing the customer details of 2 million users, including their usernames, passwords, and password reset codes.

The server in question belongs to a Chinese smart home management platform Orvibo. Their smart home management Smartmate helps users control every aspect of their smart home, from security to closing the curtains.

Not only a smart-home management system, but Orvibo also deals in self-manufactured smart home products such as smart light bulbs, HVAC systems, home entertainment systems, security cameras, smart power plugs, and many more.

The open server containing user information poses a huge threat to everyone who’s data has been exposed. Since the data breach being exposed, Orvibo has taken steps to secure the server. Even then, the data breach can have serious repercussions for the users. What are these repercussions though? Let’s find out what can happen to your data if it is leaked by your smart home device.

What will happen if your data is breached?

When hearing about IoT and data breach, the user can have two kinds of reactions.

One group would panic, and probably stop using all kinds of smart devices.

Another group would ask so what if their data is being breached? And this point is to answer the question for the latter group.

There is a reason why smart home security is something to be concerned about. The personal and sensitive data, the users enter in order to run the devices, can be manipulated in various ways, and each one would only harm the users.

So what are the ways hackers can manipulate the IoT devices and data that make your home smart?

1. Manipulating The Devices

The first thing you might do after getting a smart device for your home is to configure its username and password.

However, this is not a widespread practice. Most people often end up using the same default username and password the device came with, which means that it’s going to be super easy for the hackers to get your data and gain access to your device. And from there on, it’s an open sandbox for them to play with. They can do whatever they want with your device, but there’s one guarantee- whatever they do is not going to do you any good.

2. Holding Your Data And Device For Ransom

The ransomware attack is the most familiar in the IoT industry. Through this, what the hacker usually does is that they would gain access to an IoT device, and cut off the legitimate user’s access. Then they would ask for a ransom for restoring the user’s access to that device.

While this may not seem to be as dangerous, it is a serious threat. Once the hackers have gained access to your data, they can use it for many malicious ends, things you don’t even have any idea about. And not to mention, there is no guarantee that they would give you back the access to your data once you pay them. And that’s why implementing some serious security protocols in place is needed to prevent your device and data from ransomware attacks.

3. Doing Serious Damage To Your Home

This one might seem a little petty, but here we go anyways.

Imagine having a smart thermostat, which you can control using online access. Now imagine going out on a vacation with your family, making sure that everything around the house is shut down, even the thermostat. However, when you get back, you see that the thermostat turned up to its highest setting on its own, melting every plastic thing in your house.

But did it happen on its own? How are you going to find out whether it just happened or someone purposefully hacked into your smart home system and used the thermostat to seriously damage your home? Stealing the authorization details, hackers can do this for multiple reasons, ranging from personal vendetta to trivial entertainment because they were bored. Either way, it is your home that will be damaged.

4. Actively Robbing Your Home

When details such as passwords and user IDs, along with device IDs are being sent to an unknown third-party domain without any encryption, the data can be used in many ways, and one of them can be to rob your home.

Think about how a hacker-robber group can hack into the security system of your home, disable it and then walk into your home to steal everything from you. This is a bold use of smart home data breaches, and it can be quite fatal in case someone is home when they decided to hit the house. In this case, the loss of data security can result in serious loss of physical property as well.

5. Launching A Botnet Attack

Last but not least, gaining access to your IoT smart home devices, the hackers can turn these devices into zombie devices and launch a botnet attack. A botnet is a number of internet-connected devices. Each of these devices is running one or more bots, which can be used to perform distributed denial-of-service attacks.

Through this, the hackers can also steal important data, send spam emails, getting the attacker access to the device, this is not only going to create a problem for you but others as well.

With a DDoS attack, the botnets can connect to a website, generating so much traffic that the website crashes, leaving them vulnerable for many data exploitations. Using your IoT device, the hackers can launch a similar botnet attack to that of the Mirai Botnet attack of 2016. The Mirai botnet attack brought down a french host OVH. and that’s how your smart home devices can be turned into a weapon to bring down popular websites around the world.

What Is Going To Be The Solutions?

Every problem has a solution, and so does this one.

There have been plenty of solutions suggested for the data security of IoT devices. But so far only two of these solutions stand out. One is the use of machine learning, another being Blockchain.

The Machine Learning Solution For Smart Homes

Rather than looking for a security solution for each device, AI and machine learning can create a shield of security for all the IoT devices for your home network. Deep learning and machine learning can not only monitor each and every device connected to the network, but they can also detect and prevent any unwanted and unknown device trying to connect with the home network.

The use of AI comes in handy when analyzing the network traffic. This way the AI can keep up with the general traffic flow of each of the devices and detect any anomalies in the normal flow of traffic. Which means fewer chances of any hackers getting inside your home network. You can check out these top 10 highly performing smart home apps making it big.

Along with these benefits, the use of Machine learning and deep learning can also detect botnet activity, manage device authentication and access management. This way they can manage to give your smart home network 360-degree security without worrying you.

The Blockchain Solution To All Things Smart-homes

The main problem with the smart home network is the centralization of data, which could be easily hacked into. And that’s why Blockchain can provide a decentralized solution to this problem.

Once the smart home IoT systems start utilizing the blockchain system for data communication, the security will increase tenfold, because it is close to impossible to hack into a blockchain network and change the data. To do so, the hacker would have to have control of 51% of the devices connected, and when the number of connected devices spans millions, it can be a little tough.

Not to mention, blockchain in IoT will end the trend of data monopolization. Your data won’t be a subject of daily business deals with large conglomerates. Blockchain can bring affordability and security for smart homes that people have been asking for a long time.

So does it mean you should not be using smart home technology?

The answer is no, absolutely not. It is undeniable that smart home technology has its own benefits and you should be able to take advantage of that. But only after you have made sure of your data security. Once you have made sure that all the devices you are using are secure. You can make use of IoT devices for your home as much as you want. Always remember that the security measures for your home IoT devices are not a matter of joke.

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How PKI & Embedded Security Can Help Stop Aircraft Cyberattacks

 by August 27, 2019 by Alan Grau, VP of IoT, Embedded Systems, Sectigo

On July 30th, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA) issued a security alert warning small aircraft owners about vulnerabilities that can be exploited to alter airplane telemetry. At risk to cyberattack, the aircraft’s Controller Area Network (CAN bus) connects the various avionics systems–control, navigation, sensing, monitoring, communication, and entertainment systems–that enable modern-day aircraft to safely operate. This includes the aircraft’s engine telemetry readings, compass and attitude data, airspeeds, and angle of attack; all of which could be hacked to provide false readings to pilots and automated computer systems that help fly the plane.

The CISA warning isn’t hypothetical, and the consequences of inaction could prove deadly. Airplane systems have already been compromised. In September 2016, a U.S. government official revealed that he and his team of IT experts had successfully remotely hacked into a Boeing 757 passenger plane as it sat on a New Jersey runway, and were able to take control of its flight functions. The year before, a hacker reportedly used vulnerabilities with the IFE (In Flight Entertainment) system to reportedly take control of flight functions, causing the airplane engines to climb.

The Boeing 757 attack was performed using the In-Flight Entertainment Wi-Fi network.

A researcher with security analytics and automation provider Rapid7 wrote about the security of CAN Bus avionics systems in a recent blog and discussed the challenge at this year’s DEFCON security conference. He explained, "I think part of the reason [the avionics sector is lagging in network security when it comes to CAN bus] is its heavy reliance on the physical security of airplanes . . . Just as football helmets may actually raise the risk of brain injuries, the increased perceived physical security of aircraft may be paradoxically making them more vulnerable to cyberattack, not less."

A False Sense of [Physical Access] Security

The DHS CISA warning stated, "An attacker with physical access to the aircraft could attach a device to an avionics CAN bus that could be used to inject false data, resulting in incorrect readings in avionic equipment.” CISA fears that, if exploited, these vulnerabilities could provide false readings to pilots, and lead to crashes or other air incidents involving small aircraft. Attackers with CAN bus access could alter engine telemetry readings, compass and attitude data, altitude, and airspeeds. Serious stuff.

Not all of these attacks required physical access.

These risks should serve as a wake-up call to everyone in manufacturing. Any device, system, or organization that controls operation of a system is at risk, and the threats can originate from internal or external sources. It’s critical for OEMs, their supply chains, and enterprises to include security and identity management at the device level and continually fortify their security capabilities to close vulnerabilities.

Security Solutions for Avionics Devices

Today’s airplanes have dozens of connected subsystems transmitting critical telemetry and control data to each other. Currently, tier-one suppliers and OEMs in aviation have failed to broadly implement security technologies such as secure boot, secure communication and embedded firewalls on their devices, leaving them vulnerable to hacking. While OEMs have begun to address these issues, there is much more to be done.

Sectigo offers solutions so that OEMs, their supply chains, and enterprises can take full advantage of PKI and embedded security technology for connected devices. Our industry-first end-to-end IoT Platform, made possible through the acquisition of Icon Labs, a provider of security solutions for embedded OEMs and IoT device manufacturers, can be used to issue and renew certificates using a single trust model that’s interoperable with any issuance model and across all supported devices, operating systems (OS), protocols, and chipsets.

Much like the automotive industry, the aviation sector has a very complex supply chain, and implementing private PKI and embedded security introduces interoperability challenges. With leading avionics manufacturers introducing hundreds of SKUs per year, maintaining hundreds of different secure boots within a single aircraft is complex, cumbersome, and ultimately untenable. Using a single homogenous secure boot implementation greatly simplifies the model.

Purpose-built PKI for IoT, such as the Sectigo IoT Manager, enables strong authentication and secure communication between devices within the airframe. Using PKI-based authentication prevents communication from unauthorized components or devices and will eliminate a broad set of attacks.

Embedded firewall technology provides an additional, critical security layer for these systems. This is particularly relevant for attacks such as the Boeing 757 attack via the airline Infotainment Wi-Fi Network. An embedded firewall provides support for filtering rules to prevent access from the Wi-Fi network to the control network.

Icon Labs embedded firewall has been has deployed in airline and automotive systems to address attacks such as these. In both instances, our embedded firewall sits on a gateway device in the vehicle or airplane to prevent unauthorized access from external networks or devices into the control network, or from the Infotainment network to the control network. We continue to see interest in this area, indicating manufacturers are beginning to act.

From Cockpits to Control Towers

Securing connected devices in aviation is not limited to airplanes. The industry requires secure communication between everything on the tarmac, from cockpits and control towers to provisioning vehicles and safety personnel. For that reason, Sectigo provides an award-winning co-root of the AeroMACS consortium, which addresses all broadband communication at airports across the world and calls for security using PKI certificates to be deployed into airplanes, catering trucks, and everything else on the tarmac.

Future Proofing with Crypto Agility

It’s worth noting that aviation is also uniquely challenged by the tenure of its components. Unlike devices that are designed to last for months or years, airplanes are designed to last for decades. Advances in quantum computing, which many experts believe is just around the corner, threaten to make today’s cryptographic standards obsolete. Aeronautical suppliers need to be prepared for this coming “crypto-apocalypse” and to update the security on their devices in the field while the devices are in operation. Sectigo’s over-the-air update abilities provide the cryptographic agility to guard against this upcoming crypto-apocalypse (listen to the related Root Causes podcast).

The ecosystem has fast work to do. Manufacturers must secure the CAN buses in their existing, and future fleets – whether those planes idle on fenced tarmacs, or in airplane hangars. In the meantime, CISA counsels that aircraft owners restrict access to planes avionics' components "to the best of their abilities,” leaving passengers to hope security soon extends beyond their TSA experiences.

Read this blog online at https://sectigo.com/blog/how-pki-and-embedded-security-can-help-stop-aircraft-cyberattacks

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More often than not, the budget and cost of ownership with a build-versus-buy aspect has been a key consideration in the decision-making process. Once after that, one goes out to seek the flexibility of the platform, vendor lock-ins, and scalability, which are definitely equally important, if not more.

The field, Internet of Things IoT, is one such domain which is driven by volume, velocity and variety. This makes you picky about the choices you make. Technologies continue to emerge and enable a myriad of IoT use cases.

If you are thinking about selecting a platform partner for your IoT based project, there are a few criteria you need to consider before solid decision-making.

Regulation of IoT devices

Today, in the present time, there are more devices connected to the internet than humans. This clearly shows the upward trend. Data says that, more than 75 billion internet based devices will be connected by the end of 2025. IoT has been adopted within multiple applications and is being used across industries or IIoT, enterprises--smart cities and waste management, healthcare, etc.

The overall adoption of IoT is providing companies the much-required agility, efficiency, and scalability. All combined together are providing a competitive advantage to businesses. Things are going North for IoT and vendors who provide a versatile IoT platform to help these companies get on the IoT bandwagon.

Taking the build vs buy decision

There are chances that things might get a little overwhelming if you fail to define your expected outcomes before choosing the right platform partner. Some of the pointers you should jot down are: What kind of data are you processing, which systems need to be integrated, and what kind of insights do you wish to generate?

Asking the right questions can help you arrive at the right place, which is: whether to build or to buy? Think on critically evaluating various components separately, including device type, communication, cloud services, applications, and cross-layer security.

There can be some components which you may have to build from scratch and for others, it can be managed with the IoT solutions provider company. It depends entirely on the cost of ownership. Cost of ownership is the upfront fee to procure the platform, service fee, customization charges, and the cost of upgrades to adapt to dynamic business ecosystem.

Is the platform scalable enough

The IoT vendor that you choose should be flexible when it comes to aligning its technologies with your legacy architecture. Make sure there are no limitations and that their technology should be easier to deploy without causing any delays.

Many vendors will speak about flexibility but not all of them are equipped enough to offer it. The number of devices is increasing, due to that, you will definitely require a lot of customization and personalization.

The vendor that you choose should be transparent about how extensible the platform is and whether there is adequate scope to add new features without hampering the existing system.

Is the platform capable enough to handle huge queries?

There is no doubt that the number of connected devices continues to grow, and will keep on going. This will pose the need for scalability more than ever. In fact, this might even become a prinary concern for most enterprises..

This will also mean that the costs that come associated with data management and hardware, will continue to rise with every added device. You need to keep the amount of scalability clear with the vendor. Ask them what is the highest they can offer.

Are they competent enough to handle complexities which more number of devices bring along. The  agility and ability of the vendor are of critical importance.

Do they offer real-time monitoring and data analytics

The ecosystem of data analytics is heavily crowded, and the right vendor at the right time can be all you need to break from the pack. There are four main things when it comes to IoT: things, data, people, and processes.

With the help of networked connections, vendors are able to understand their relationships better and present insights that can take businesses to the next level. With real-time data and actionable insights, vendors can alert you about the issues that were not even there on your radar and help make more informed, intelligent decisions.

The entire arena of IoT is thriving, and is soon going to become the Internet of Everything. Working seamlessly with these connected smart devices can accelerate the businesses effectively. There are always pointers and directions one can follow, the final decision rests in your hand.

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IoT and CRM, the buzz words of the 21st century, are now a reality and would soon bring the great industrial revolution across the world. With the advancements in technology and the internet, it’s not only humans who are connected via the internet, but also the devices which are getting connected through this marvel technology.

 IoT(internet of things) as a game-changer is becoming a crucial technology in different industries and integrating innovative ways to bring success to an organization.

As per a report by Gartner, there will be around 20 billion IoT devices by 2020.

IoT and CRM

IoT is the connection of the devices via internet while CRM is the collection of customer’s data through data mining, giving useful insight into the customer behavior for segmenting the market and targeting the campaign effectively. With the empowerment by IoT, CRM helps to manage relationships with the customer and facilitates in achieving the goal of an organization.

As per another report by Gartner, CRM will be the heart of the digital initiatives for many years to come.

Who mainly benefits from CRM?

  • Small businesses looking for rapid growth: CRM can take off the burden from the IT management team by automating the business process. It further helps the employees to keep the focus on the critical areas which needs human intervention.
  • Top industry leaders looking for large scale solutions: It simplifies and improves the complex engagements with a customer. Some of the top-level executives like CEOs, CIOs, CMOs require advanced tools to streamline the business and technical process of an organization and with a wide range of CRM tools it can be scaled to meet the requirements of any organization.

It should be acknowledged that with IoT, CRM can evolve to a much developed and advanced version of the technology. The combination can help in making sense of the past enterprise data, and connecting it with the real-time data through the “devices.” The combined technology can help all the departments across the organization, be it sales, marketing, or customer service.

Find out some of the best results which businesses can achieve through this integration:

1. Optimized customer service:

Have you ever thought of, fixing the errors before the customer notices it!!!!

No product in the market is entirely error-free. For a marketer, it is a nightmare when a customer complains about their product and that too on a widely-used social media platform. It can hurt a company’s reputation as negative publicity spreads fast like the wildfire of Amazon. This scenario can be easily evaded with predictive analysis, and with the right integration of CRM and IoT. It helps to push away the major lapses, which can demotivate a customer in purchasing further services or products of the same brand.

 Majority of the manufacturers are already reaping the benefits of connecting their CRM with the IoT devices. As they are partly responsible if a product does not provide the service as per the expectations of a customer, they can make the product 100% efficient with the right collection of the customer data and the product specifications needed by the customer.

Customer service as one of the essential support to generate high revenue for the organization needs an advanced version of the technology, which helps to understand the customer with the right information.  IoT with CRM is a perfect guide in this circumstance as it is the right combination of technology and customer relationship management process of the organization.

 As businesses vie up for the same customer, the one providing the best and optimized customer service will be surely a winner in this race.

2. Increased sales:

The consumer market has evolved over the years, and customers are highly valuing service over others, before making the final decision. An efficient service, which involves providing precise solutions to the business challenges of the customers at the right time, significantly improvises the business process and increase sales.

An increasing number of organizations are leveraging IoT technology to increase sales opportunities.

3. Next-generation CX: Customer experience (CX) is the sum of the customer journey throughout the business cycle with your organization. IoT and CRM pave the path for the next-generation CX as the IoT related data which provide predictive analysis enables proactive support leading to some of the best customer experiences. By using customer information on the location, preference, status, and others, the problem can be predicted and resolved at the right time.

4. Omnichannel in-store experience: CRM and IoT can provide an immersive and omnichannel in-store experience. Store owners can know what the customer is looking for, what are his preferences, etc. It would also help in suggesting the products which the customer might purchase.

5. Customer retention: As CRM provides the complete customer data, it can help in better understanding of your customers. The IoT data and customer data build up a unique combination in streamlining the marketing approach and targeting the existing customer. The whole process helps to retain the existing customer, a challenge in the current market scenario.

What are the benefits of IoT and CRM integration?

It influences customer engagement to a great extent and provides:

  • A higher degree of personalization
  • Molding of the marketing process
  • Helping to change the prices as per the demand
  • Higher revenue and sales for the organization
  • Increased customer satisfaction

 As an organization, one can discover advanced ways of connecting with the customers, when IoT and CRM are enabled to work together as a connected enterprise.

 IoT is the new channel which holds great promise for CRM. The small and mid-sized businesses, along with the large enterprises equally, could reap the benefits of this amalgamation. The interaction of the devices with intelligent systems opens up a complete new world for delivering personalized services and exceptional support.

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I believe, that Apple is the most important IoT company. I believe this, not because, with the iPhone, Apple has brought up a different category of smartphones, but it keeps on setting the gold standards for what this device can do. The seamless, effortless integration of the whole product line of the apple, has given the company an advantage which no other mobile company can surmount. It is not the only reason for apple products being in the limelight. Nowadays, every consumer-focused IoT application works well with smartphones but the iPhone was the first device to display the power of connected sensors. With the help of the iPhone, many companies were able to amass the incredible amount of data.

Today, I will be discussing one of the hot technologies, that is in buzz since its birth that is IoT.

IoT stands for the Internet of things and is a hot technology nowadays. The 'things' in IoT can be any device embedded with software, electronics, and sensors. It provides an ability to transfer data over the network without any manual intervention. The network in IoT devices is decided on factors like range, security, power, and data. These factors are responsible for the choice of the network, which will be established such as Wifi, Bluetooth, internet, and any other.

Now, let us look at the reasons made IoT, a hot technology:

Technical Optimization
It helps in improving the technologies and giving a better experience to the user. For eg, IoT can provide car manufacturers, the data from various car sensors to make the car more efficient and to improve the car design.

Reduced Waste
It provides real-time updates to the users helping in making a better decision. It also leads to better management of the resources. For eg, If the manufacturer finds a fault in multiple items of the product, then by tracking the manufacturer's plan, he will be able to resolve the issue through the manufacturer belt.

Customer Engagement
IoT improves the customer experience by detecting the problems in the system and improving the issue. For eg, any issue in the car will be notified by the sensors alerting both the driver and the manufacturer. By the time the driver reaches the service station, the manufacturer will be ready with the solution.

Data Collection
Traditionally, data collection was limited and had a passive use. But with IoT, it has become easy to collect data as it facilitates immediate action on data.

There are many reasons other than these, which accelerate the market of IoT but these are some of the major reasons for the increased popularity of IoT devices and made every consumer-focused business owner to hire an iPhone app development company
 to get the iPhone app build having an IoT feature.

Parting Thoughts

With this, I end up the article on why you should build an iPhone app having IoT features. I hope, by now, you have understood the concept. While looking at today's world of technologies, it clearly indicates how IoT will be implemented in the future. The world of connection of devices, people, and data generates more business opportunities for many sectors. With the decrease in IoT components, the cost of IoT linked devices have become more affordable. Eventually, making more people to use IoT Linked devices. The usage of the internet is increasing day-by-day and IoT is the concept that allows multiple devices to stay connected and communicate with each other with the help of the internet. It is the only reason behind the concept of smart grids, smart cities, smart homes, and intelligent transportation. With all this, I can say that the future is the Internet of Things.

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When Refrigerators Attack - How Cyber Criminals Infect Appliances, and How Manufacturers Can Stop Them

Alan Grau, VP of IoT, Embedded Systems, Sectigo

Homes and businesses worldwide are vulnerable to attacks from cyber thieves and other bad actors – and not just through their computer networks. The embedded electronics inside appliances present an easy path of entry. It’s already been happening. According to Business Insider and Proofpoint, one of the first refrigerator incidents occurred in late 2013 when a refrigerator-based botnet was used to attack businesses.

Some of these attacks, such as infecting appliances with botnet malware, don’t really have much effect upon a family’s security and safety. In fact, if a “smart” refrigerator gets infected by a bot, the homeowner might not even notice anything wrong.

However, connected-appliance based cyberattacks are not limited to just refrigerators – and they are rarely one-off incidents. Almost any type of appliance can be hacked and used to host a botnet that could attack the web. According to Wired Magazine, a botnet of compromised water heaters, space heaters, air conditioners and other big power consuming home appliances, could suddenly turn on simultaneously, creating an immense power draw that could cripple the country’s power grid.

A bot, quite simply, is an infected computer. Many cyberattacks, like the Mirai Malware and the Dyn attacks, infect a network of computers, including “smart” connected devices such as home appliances, security cameras, baby monitors, air conditioning/heating controls, televisions, etc., and turn them all into compromised servers. These compromised servers then act as nodes in an attack and together create a botnet. They can participate in a variety of coordinated attacks, infecting other devices and expanding the network of bots, or participating in Denial of Service attacks.

Caption: A bad actor or cyber criminal can send infected messages to a home or business network that targets various appliances or machines. Once infected, that machine is under the control of the bad actor and can be used to send out thousands of infected messages to new targets worldwide. The botnets can also send out millions of dummy messages to a single target – overwhelming it and putting it out of service.

Without any apparent symptoms or notice, a criminally enhanced refrigerator could be generating and sending out thousands of attacks every minute. In addition to the homeowner or business manager never realizing what is going on, these attacks may be unstoppable until unless the machine itself is disconnected from its web connection.

Additionally, the infected refrigerator could spread malware from the kitchen to the home’s “smart” TVs, to the home’s computer networks, to other smart devices in the home, and even to connected smart phones. Every target could be transformed into malicious bots that distribute millions of infected spam messages and cyber-attacks.

So how do we combat this threat?

Unfortunately, end users really have no power to fix this problem. There is probably no way for a homeowner, office manager – or even an experienced refrigerator repair person – to talk to a refrigerator’s electronics. No way to get into the appliance’s software and middleware to identify and kill an infection. However, if the homeowner suspects an infection, they could disconnect the refrigerator from the its internet connection to make it “dumb” again.

Fridge caught sending spam emails in botnet attack - In the first documented attack of its kind, the Internet of Things has been used as part of an attack that sent out over 750,000 spam emails

It is up to device manufacturers to protect against these attacks.

So how do manufacturers combat this type of attack? How can they ensure that appliances in homes and offices do not get infected to cause mayhem?

Security starts in the design process for the refrigerator itself, as well as for the appliances’ various electronic components and control surfaces. Most appliance manufacturers get their control sub-assemblies from a wide network of smaller manufacturers, sometimes with a worldwide supply chain. These suppliers need to make sure that the chips and sub-assemblies they use are secure from hacks.

Two important security practices can be utilized by appliance makers:

  • Embedded Firewall with blacklist and whitelist support – Protect appliances and edge devices from attacks by building firewall technology directly into the appliance. An embedded firewall can review incoming messages from the web or over the home network and, via a built in, and regularly updated blacklist, reject any that are not previously approved.

  • Secure Remote Updates and Alerts – Validate that the firmware inside the device is authenticated and unmodified before permitting installation of any new firmware updates. Updates ensure the incoming software components have not been modified and are authenticated software downloads modules from the appliance manufacturer.

Most consumer and device manufacturers have heard about the potential for attacks on smart devices like door locks, baby monitors, and home thermostats, but this risk awareness needs to expand to types of connected systems – including appliances. An infected refrigerator sending out malware is not just a funny story. These systems have been attacked and used to spread malware.  Ensuring the security of these devices is necessary to protect home network, slow the spread of malware and even protect credit card numbers or other personal data stored in smart home devices.

# # #

Refer to: https://www.cnet.com/news/fridge-caught-sending-spam-emails-in-botnet-attack/

 Author Bio - Alan Grau, VP of IoT, Embedded Solutions, Sectigo

Alan has 25 years of experience in telecommunications and the embedded software marketplace. He is VP of IoT, Embedded Solutions IoT at Sectigo, the world’s largest commercial Certificate Authority and provider of purpose-built, automated PKI solutions. Alan joined Sectigo in May 2019 as part of the company’s acquisition of Icon Labs, a leading provider of security software for IoT and embedded devices, where he was CTO and co-founder, as well as the architect of Icon Labs' award-winning Floodgate Firewall. He is a frequent industry speaker and blogger and holds multiple patents related to telecommunication and security.

Prior to founding Icon Labs, Alan worked for AT&T Bell Labs and Motorola.  He has an MS in computer science from Northwestern University.

About Sectigo

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Did you think that the digital revolution was too focused on consumers? Think again. In came the Industrial Internet of Things or IIoT. Undoubtedly it is the largest propeller of productivity and growth in the coming years. This wave of digital innovation aims at accelerating the restructure and enhancements of sectors comprising of more than two-thirds of world output.

The current market scenario is experiencing a shift from capacity to capability. This shoots towards an increased manufacturing flexibility towards responding to variable market
demand and achieving high-levels of customer fulfilment.

Speaking about the factories of the future, they are transpiring from conventional make-to-stock (MTS) to emerging make-to-order (MTO), configure-to-order (CTO) and engineer-to-order (ETO) production models. Manufacturers are becoming more demand-driven.

What exactly is IIoT?

We can state that the Industrial Internet of Things is a large cluster of physical objects, systems, platforms and applications containing embedded technology for the communication and share applied intelligence internally inside the network, with the external environment, and with people who operate or communicate with them. The rapid adoption and incorporation of the IIoT are being driven by the easy, effective availability of sensors, affordability of processors and other technologies.

Based on the current scenarios, we can assume that the process of evolution of IIoT will most probably follow these four different phases:

1. Operational Outcome

  • Utilization of assets
  • Cost reductions in operations
  • Worker productivity

2. Outcome-based Economy

  • Pay-per-outcome based approach
  • A dynamic and connected ecosystem
  • Platinum-enabled market place

3. Modern Product & Services

  • New business models
  • Software-based enhanced services
  • Data Monetization

4. Autonomous Pull Economy

  • Continuous demand sensing
  • Complete automation
  • Optimization of resources and reduction of waste

Various sectors where IoT is enhancing the Industrial and Manufacturing sector

Human-machine collaboration:- The next-generation robots and droids are designed in a way where they can be easily trained, learn by processing data and observation, and to work collaboratively with humans. They can be used for elder care, hospitality, and concierge services.

Augmented workforce:- Companies are empowering the workforce with mobile and wearable technologies such as smart helmets or smartwatches. They carry the potential to boost employee efficiency on the factory floor. With real-time access to data like status, alarms and instructions, they can have their hands free.

Monitoring:- The current types of equipment are fitted with sensors that help increase visibility into the condition and identify threshold violations from those machines. This can help in scheduling maintenance pro-actively. The smart sensors are capable enough to grasp vibration measurement and analysis, infrared thermography, oil analysis and tribology.

Optimization:- The integration of predictive maintenance data along with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems helps optimize the workflow schedule. If we take this into consideration, it helps manufacturers make sure that the impact of equipment unavailability gets minimized by adjusting production run.

Analysis and prediction:- With advancing IT solutions for manufacturing industry, manufacturers are able to correlate current and historical data for predicting potential equipment failure and order a mitigation process. Companies can put to use sensors and analytics that can anticipate pipeline leakage in realtime.

Business process

Constant QA:- By taking the benefit of IoT application development services, companies can enable cross-correlation of various data streams in order to make quality assurance a rather less time consuming and expensive. Companies can look forward to integrating visual image inspection with statistical process control (SPC) of plant processes along with datasets to deliver a realtime solution. Any level of quality issues can be addressed immediately through this.

Demand-driven production:- If a company wants to adjust to new changes in product demand, it needs a handsome amount of investment in agile processes. This is the case because the company needs to scale up or down, as needed. With real-time automation and process integration across the supply chain, the industry can enable necessary responsiveness coupled with processes that support mass customization.

A transformation is underway. It is seeping every ounce of available technological aspect in order to fuel the manufacturing industry; once considered late adopters of any technological change, they are today rapidly becoming the frontiers of change. Even though IIoT poses considerable challenges for the industry, the promise of smart manufacturing and intelligent production is too good to let go.

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For years, I have been written about the promise and perils of the Internet of Things (IoT). In many of my articles I described how the IoT could help transform society and kickstart the next industrial revolution. However, I think after talking these summer days with people outside this "industry" that most of them are lost with the IoT. We still cannot define in a unique and clear way what IoT is and much less explain how thanks to IoT it will change our lives, without using the example of the connected refrigerator.

At the beginning of 2015, I wondered if we would be able to build the Internet of Things. Taking a look at the most recent IoT Landscape I continue seeing how the fragmentation of the market, the lack of standards and the challenge of security continue damaging the growth of IoT. The evolution that not the revolution of IoT, has been slower than I expected and desired. Today not only Telcos admit IoT is failing to meet expectations.

Why are we lost in IoT? Let´s see some arguments.

Lost in IoT connectivity

With so many IoT connectivity options on the market, choosing the right one for your project can be complicated. It scares me to think that billions of devices will be connected in a few years to decentralized IoT networks and with no interconnectivity between them, unless we use millions of edge nodes that transfer messages among devices connected in multiple networks. If it is already difficult to justify the ROI of a use case considering a single type of connectivity, it is almost impossible to justify that these devices can communicate with other devices on different IoT subnets.

In case we consider the doubt small, we add the issue of end-to-end security and the need in some use cases networking in meshes with no single point of failure. Here comes new IoT technologies such as Blockchain to help or to confuse.

It seems that it is easy to get lost among so much connectivity technology. Isn’t true?

Suggested read: IoT Connectivity Options: Comparing Short-, Long-Range Technologies

How will Edge computing impact the global connectivity landscape?

Lost among hundreds of IoT Platforms

At least we already intuit some of the platforms that will survive among the +700 that some analysts have identified. I have only been able to analyze with more or less depth about 100. Surely my methodology of Superheroes and Supervillanos will advance the end of most of them.

It is no longer just one IoT Platform, stupid! Although they want to make it easy for us, companies like AWS, Microsoft or Google add concepts such as Serverless, Data Lakes, AI, Edge Computing, DLT and all the artillery of Cloud services to the core features of the IoT platform. I get lost in its architecture and I feel that if I get too close to one of these black holes, they will end up absorbing me.

Glad to know that “Verizon retools ThingSpace IoT platform to focus on connectivity” and system integrators are they are abandoning their in house development to embrace leaders vendors’ products.

The IoT analysts are also not helping much with its reports. IoT Platform vendors are disputing relevant positions in their graphs but we are lost when do not see any vendor in the leader quadrant of Gartner and most of them are Niche Players.

Lost between the Edge and the Clouds

In “Do not let the fog hide the clouds in the Internet of Things” , I warned about the degree of complexity that Fog / Edge Computing added to the already complex solutions in the IoT Clouds. Now nothing seems to be of great value if we do not include Edge Computing in our IoT solutions. And there our confusion arises again.

The Babel tower of Alliance & Consortiums is consolidating but we keep losing in acronyms. Industrial Internet companies felt relief with the newsThe Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC™) and the OpenFog Consortium® (OpenFog) unite to combine the two largest and most influential international consortia in Industrial IoT, fog and edge computing. While The Open Group Open Process Automation™ Forum (OPAF) is defining the next generation edge computing standards for industrial operators.

And again, the question arises, do we wait or start my Industrial IoT project? For now, I choose "Industrial IoT - Edge Computing Vendors Overview" as my first book. You can read my post here

Lost in the Proof of Concept (PoC)

Businesses are spending $745 billion worldwide on IoT hardware and software in 2019 alone. Yet, three out of every four IoT implementations are failing.

Microsoft launched a new research report — IoT Signals — intended to quantify enterprise internet of things (IoT) adoption around the world. The survey of over 3,000 IT team leaders and executives provides a detailed look at the burgeoning multi-billion-dollar segment’s greatest challenges and benefits, as well as related trends. Perhaps it’s not surprising, then, that 30% of respondents say their IoT projects failed in the proof-of-concept stage, often because the implementation became too expensive or the bottom-line benefits were unclear.

There are technical reasons for example the use of Rasberry Pi or Arduino boards in the PoC and realise that you need other more expensive hardware for the project.

There are economic reasons when you try to escalate your PoC to real implementations and then the ROI doesn’t look as well as in the pilot.

There are organization reasons when leaders are failing to go all in. If you can’t get the CEO on board, then the probability to finish in the PoC is almost 100%.

If you are lost in the PoC, these tips can help you implementing IIOT.

  1. Solve a problem worth solving
  2. Keep it quick and simple
  3. Manage the Human Factor

Sources: https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/blog/IoT-Agenda/Break-out-of-IoT-proof-of-concept-purgatory

Microsoft: 30% of IoT projects fail in the proof-of-concept stage

Lost in select the right IoT Ecosystems

In Harbor Research article “ Has Anyone Seen A Real Internet of Things Ecosystem?” ,dated November 2013, the analyst firm wrote that no really significant ecosystem or network of collaborators had emerged in the IoT arena in spite there was early and very interesting efforts being made by several players. This article does not need changes.

Since I wrote “The value of partnership in Industrial Internet of Things”, I have heard, read and repeated hundreds of times how important it is to belong to an IoT ecosystem and how difficult it is to choose the one that suits you best.

All or at least most of those who read my articles know that there is no company in the world, no matter how great it is, it can do everything in IoT. Creating an IoT ecosystem either horizontal (technology) or vertical (industry) requires a lot of talent managers able to maintain win-win transactions over the time. And according to the results, it seems to me that it is becoming very complicated.

I am working in an article in which I will analyse 4 examples of IoT ecosystems that represent a big portion of the value chain in the multiple IoT markets: IoT Hardware Ecosystem, IoT telco Operator, IoT Cloud Platform Vendor and IoT System Integrators. Hope this article could help you, if you are lost with IoT ecosystems.

Remember, you are not the only one lost in IoT

When it comes to achieving a return on their investment from IoT, businesses really need rethink how they are deploying it so that they can manage remotely and secure their assets, use the sensors and devices data to make better real time decisions and be able to monetise it. However, for both to happen, and for IoT project to not end up in the purgatory, businesses need independent and expert advice at several levels to find the right people to lead the project and the right technology and partners to make implementation successful.

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