Everywhere you look people are talking about connected things, whether cars, devices, refrigerators, washing machines or even farming equipment. It seems there is high competition for businesses to connect their equipment to prevent machine failures, smarten refrigerators that connect to intelligent personal assistants so customers can order items they need, or use sensors in oil drilling equipment to measure the volume quality of crude oil the provide, just to cite a few examples. IoT has become a household name and much of this is now made possible using cloud platform technology.
A recent International Data Corporation report (
IDC)
Worldwide Semiannual Internet of Things Spending Guide forecasts worldwide spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) to grow 16.7% year over year in 2017, reaching just over $800 billion. By 2021, global IoT spending will grow to nearly $1.4 trillion as investments are made on hardware, software, services, and connectivity that enable the “IoT.” Gartner reports that by 2020, the number of IoT devices will grow to be about 21 billion. To cite one more source to confirm the popularity of connected things, an
MIT Sloan Management Review survey showed that 53% of respondents reported seeing Internet of Things as important to their organization’s strategy today, and 68% of those surveyed think it will be necessary for the success of their company.
As interesting as these stats are, it’s good to stop and think about how companies are reforming their business models by the use of connected things aka IoT. I’ve had the privilege of working with Maribel Lopez on how an open and agile PaaS enables IoT. Maribel spends much of her time advising clients on the path to a clear IoT strategy. You can read about more IoT use cases in her latest white paper, “
Driving New Business Value with Connected Equipment,” or if you prefer, listen to her
podcast to hear some real-world examples and her recommendations on best practices.
To learn about the latest cloud trends from other thought leaders visit
Innovate in the Cloud.
