I believe we have all heard about the Internet of Things (IoT) and its promises to connect any device to the internet. It appears that the Smart Home is a focus area and it sounds promising to have control over our home while we are away. I have read some exciting articles on Nest and other topics, but beyond the initial coolness factor things aren’t quite there yet.
Don’t get me wrong. It sounds cool to answer my doorbell for a delivery using a mobile device or, to control my AC from the office before heading home on a hot summer day. However, a closer look shows functional limitations or even issues. All these devices appear to be a first step on a journey to something bigger. It kind of feels like the beginning of the PC era when the market evolved from B&W text to true color graphics in just a few years.
So, what is the next step for the Internet of Things? What will elevate the user experience? In my opinion, the answer is simple. We need a common framework with a built-in layer of automation. Something that would learn from our daily routines and make smart decisions for us. For example, it would be much better if my phone (or Google car) would notify my home that I am on my way home. This information would allow my home to adjust the temperature in time for my arrival. Ideally, the home would even consider traffic and other factors (e.g. stop at the grocery store) that might delay my arrival. If it is night time, it would also be nice if it would turn on the lights upon my arrival as well. That said, I am not sure if I would want it to open the garage or front door.
A quick search on Google shows me that many companies are working on new devices to make this vision become a reality. However, we are lacking a common framework to even share information between different devices. A good framework would allow us to connect any devices while being able to capture all the data it receives. Once we have such a framework, we could extend it to understand simple, configurable rules. It’s safe to assume that a rule based framework will quickly include analytical processing, which would allow the framework to make decisions based on behavior patterns it could discover in the captured data. From a technical point of view, this framework could be implemented on SAP Enterprise HANA, which would give it enough performance and analytical capabilities.
Well, I have no doubt that developing this framework will be more challenging than it sounds, because it would have to be highly flexible and adjustable. Last, but not least, the framework should provide strong security to make us feel comfortable trusting it with our data and access to our devices.
I believe it is certain that we will see more IoT ready devices this year. At the same time, we will see some frameworks entering the market. The successful ones will be flexible enough to connect with other frameworks, and I am sure we will see some market leaders in a few years from now. Once the majority of devices are connected, the focus will shift and the frameworks will focus on becoming smart frameworks that allow automated control of internet devices and the safe exchange of information between different users. One key area for the success of any framework will be the ability to intelligently reduce data to avoid information tiredness.
Any feature complete framework will include a massive, cloud based framework that will connect people with their devices, the world and each other. Finally, the Internet of Things will evolve into the Internet of People!
I think it is very clear that the Internet of People (IoP) will drastically change the way we live and work today. In its best form, it will eliminate many chores we face today while consistently providing us with hopefully useful information, but it will add new challenges and risks to our lives as well. It would certainly be sad if the Internet of People will also bring the end of personal interaction.
From a business point of view, we are approaching the beginning of a golden age of opportunity. The Internet of Things will open up countless opportunities to make money for everyone who is ready for the challenge of creating something new.