What Are the Benefits and Challenges of IoT Implementation in Business

The Internet of Things (IoT) includes several phenomena at once. The term "Internet of Things" (IoT) was coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton. He is one of the three founders of the University of Massachusetts Center for Automatic Identification. So, why do software development companies need to know about it and what are IoT benefits?

What is the Internet of Things?

There are several explanations for this term, but each of them has some formulation flaws. One of the most accurate sounds like this: IoT is a network of physical objects in which technologies are embedded that allow you to interact with the external environment, transfer information about your state and receive data from the outside. We should also distinguish between the terms "Industrial Internet of Things, IIoT" and "Internet of Everything, IoE", which are predicted to dominate in the foreseeable future. 

The creator of the TCP / IP protocol was able to connect his toaster to the internet and made it turn on and off remotely in 1990. This was the first example of an "Internet thing" in the world as well as the first attempt to better understand machines.

The Internet today is made up of thousands of home, corporate, and government networks. The interconnection between them takes place over the IP protocol. Each member of the network is assigned a temporary or permanent IP address. A striking example of many networks in one place is an office building, where the control networks for room control systems, security systems and office equipment operate according to different standards and do not intersect. The internet things business is growing faster and faster and IoT influences a lot of spheres.

Among the main features of the IoT:

1. Accompanies all human actions.
2. The system is result oriented.
3. The user sets a goal, and does not program actions.

One device collects and processes information from all connected devices. The Internet of Things is based on machine-to-machine communication (M2M) technology. That is, machines use mobile networks to exchange information with each other or transmit it unilaterally. E.g. IoT sensor technology is applicable in a variety of systems M2M technology is used in health and safety systems, manufacturing, housing and communal services, energy and banking IoT systems.

Internet of Things Protocols

IoT data transfer protocols are a set of rules established for the exchange of data between objects on the Internet of Things. Rather than trying to adapt all internet things protocols to existing architecture models such as the OSI model, the protocols have been layered:

• Infrastructure (for example: 6LowPAN, IPv4 / IPv6, RPL) 
• Identity (for example, EPC, uCode, IPv6, URI) 
• IoT communication protocol/ transport (for example, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LPWAN) 
• Discovery (for example, Physical Web, mDNS, DNS-SD ) 
• Data protocols (ex: MQTT, CoAP, AMQP, Websocket, Node)
• Device Management (for example: TR-069, OMA-DM) 
• Semantic (for example, JSON-LD, Web Thing Model) 
• Layered Structures (for example, Alljoyn, IoTtivity, Weave, Homekit)
• Security industry vertical (connected home, industry, etc.)

IoT Risks and Challenges

To understand businesses' benefits of IoT and its risks, you need to be clear about how the Internet works. It is a huge network of routers sending ones and zeros back and forth around the world. IoT business becomes variable and today we have a wide IoT network, including even education companies IoT.

Sometimes these ones and zeros are stored locally on your device or inside a private network in your office building. An Internet connection allows you to send ones and zeros from your computer or network to another computer anywhere in the world (for example, your email correspondence). This is a reverse process, and zeros and ones are loaded onto your computer when the site loads. So, here are IoT security challenges. In the same way, data packets with malicious data can be sent or your data can be stolen. 

Since we do not always think about the safety of equipment such as a TV or air conditioner, we therefore do not admit the thought that Smart TVs can send and receive data packets over a direct, unfiltered and unsecured Internet connection.

Only 17% of IoT devices use a secure Internet connection. Although if you have a secure network and your device's OS automatically updates security settings, usually IoT devices require manual updates, if they can be updated at all, and cannot be monitored with a network monitoring solution. This makes them an easy target. Without an update to fix the vulnerability, the same threat remains constant.

How IoT Influences Businesses?

The IoT has a number of qualities that can benefit a business. IoT influences all spheres and improves web development security level.

Among IoT business opportunities:

• Timely receipt of comprehensive information and the ability to predict events.
• Formation of a comprehensive vision of production cycles and the ability to manage them at all levels and stages.
• Efficiency and accuracy of structuring the available data.
• Increasing the index of competitive advantages in the market by reducing the costs of key financial costs by optimizing them.
• The ability to remotely monitor geographically distant objects, which eliminates emergency failures and critical failures in production.
• Web analytics and customer data analysis.

Based on many examples of IoT apps, the target audience of a product analyzed by sellers sometimes does not coincide with its true purpose. Much greater efficiency in this direction can be achieved by adjusting the characteristics of the manufactured product towards a real group of potential consumers or customers.

The company's own security, which is ensured by remote video surveillance of the processes taking place in the offices (e.g. IoT healthcare or education companies, where it is needed processes to be automated).

Automation of certain stages of ordering a service or product - reduces the number of manual data entry operations (name, customer payment details, etc.) and helps to ensure preliminary planning and reserving goods in the warehouse.

As the number of connected devices continues to grow, our environment to live and work will be filled with smart products - provided we are willing to make compromises in terms of security and privacy.

What Businesses Can Benefit From IoT?

The use of IoT technologies has successfully proven itself in the following areas:

• Production;
• Infrastructure;
• Logistics;
• Transport;
• Military Defense Complex;
• Agro-sector;
• Trade, including retail sales;
• Banking and insurance systems;
• Oil and gas industry and mining;
• Smart home and Smart city directions;
• Production and sale of food products;
• Service sector;
• IoT education;
• Medicine;
• IT industry.

The business benefits of IoT vary by implementation and business, but the bottom line is that businesses can access more data about their products, their own back-end systems, and their operational status.

Companies Using IoT Technologies

 IoT technologies are used by a number of global companies. Some of them even release their own services using the IoT. Let’s talk about some IoT cases.

Amazon is one of the largest technology companies in the world and they are currently working on IoT systems to control and connect their devices. So far, they have introduced a number of services to improve IoT in consumer products so that everyone can benefit: IoT Core, Greengrass, Analytics, Device Defender, Device Management, and more.

Microsoft needs no introduction when it comes to tech giants, and it should come as no surprise that they also use the IoT. They are using their Microsoft Azure cloud management services to build an IoT platform that can power their billions of IoT resources. Today, Microsoft is investing over $ 5 billion in IoT research, being the world leader in IoT research.

Computing giant IBM is also developing its own platform, the IBM Watson IoT Platform. Its main feature is simplicity, security and scalability. The Watson IoT platform is a service that adds blockchain and analytics services to organize device data into useful applications. The subscription to use the service is symbolic, but the level of security is more than decent.

 Cisco Systems is engaged in Internet analytics and infrastructure, as well as the sale of software, networking equipment, telecommunications and much more. They develop IoT solutions to defend against security threats, deploy scalable systems, and integrate IT and operations services.

Google is using its data analysis capabilities to create its own service - Google Cloud IoT, which can perform predictive maintenance, track assets in real time, manage logistics and supply chains, etc. The user gets a complete set of tools to connect and use devices for analysis data and efficiency gains.

Oracle Corporation is a corporation that sells software, databases, cloud engineering services, and management systems. They leverage their extensive data management expertise on their Oracle IoT platform, which enables users to deploy IoT solutions in existing applications.

These are just some of the companies that use IoT to create authoring services.

The Future of IoT and How It Can Change the World

According to a recent study by MarketsandMarkets, smart devices will grow at a CAGR of 33.6% by 2023. Already today, their sales volume exceeds $ 5 billion a year, and in five years this figure should grow to 22.48 billion. A variety of smart technologies are gaining popularity, and the growth in sales is expanding the applications for such devices. So, IoT solutions will become even more popular.

In the coming years, all intelligent building management systems will determine the needs of customers. For example, Perenio has already started developing a universal system that will allow equipment from other manufacturers to be connected to a single network. Indeed, today they do not interact well with each other, since they use different data transfer protocols, and each network requires a separate control center. Thus, the end-to-end solution will allow consumers to focus on the functional characteristics of the smart device rather than its brand.

Our IoT-Powered Project

The TopDevs portfolio also includes internet things cases. We are talking about BabelBark, a comprehensive, integrated software solution tailored to the individual needs of each dog. It includes intelligent cloud analytics, mobile apps and marketing tools.

The TopDevs portfolio also includes internet things cases. We are talking about BabelBark, a comprehensive, integrated software solution tailored to the individual needs of each dog. It includes intelligent cloud analytics, mobile apps and marketing tools.

Our team has been finalizing the current application, improving it and increasing security. App development process was aimed at learning IoT opportunities and realization of business automating processes for creating comfortable conditions for veterinarians and pets owners. Each pet owner creates their own profile, adds their dog accounts to monitor their health status and manage their activities. 

Another IoT project is Pet Monitoring App. It is a video streaming service, thanks to which you can watch the actions of your pets while you are away. In addition to observing, you can also interact with animals through your voice and laser pointer. For certain actions, the pet can receive treats that are stored in a special box.

It was redesigning of the existing app and transforming certain functionality.

To Wrap It Up

In the long term, not only houses, but also cities, and probably even states, will become “smart”and the number of IoT companies will increase. But at this stage of development of technology and society, the Internet of Things is being actively implemented not on a global scale, but within companies engaged in the production of goods, energy, transport, etc. - where new technologies are expected to increase productivity and competitiveness. The difficulty of scaling this experience is due to the fact that it is necessary to integrate many systems from different suppliers into a single whole, and to establish their coordinated work is a difficult task. Automating processes are on fire now; more and more IoT technologies will appear in our everyday life, giving all IoT opportunities to everyone.