2020 Will Be A Tipping Point For IoT Across Industries

Karthikeyan Natarajan Jan 15, 2020

Internet of Things (IoT) has permeated all walks of the digital life - from smart homes and factories to wearables and smart supply chains. Research reports from NASSCOM predict that the global market size of IoT is expected to touch USD 3 trillion by 2020. What the estimates underscore is the huge potential of IoT to cause meaningful disruptions in the Age of Digital Transformation as a multitude of devices to get connected to each other.

Connecting objects with the Internet of Things (IoT) is just one thing, the true potential of IoT will be realized only when sensors, networks and platforms are designed to come together to converse and correlate to deliver connected operations and experiences. The confluence of digital technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), 5G, IoT amongst many others will help us arrive at a futuristic world where systems and devices are not just integrated, but orchestrated to curate superior end-user experiences. The future will be all about a seamlessly connected world, with limitless possibilities.

Mobilizing businesses in this connected world will emerge as a key priority. To accomplish that, we would need to think fresh and devise a new approach around scalable yet lightweight architecture, choice of engineering, and integration platforms that will enable a perfect mix of connections and experiences. Together, this will help attract users to fluid and seamless transactions. It will also provide us with heaps of insights from ever-multiplying data sets that will keep the customers engaged and systems running. Needless to say, the ones who would be able to successfully harness these data mines, will be able to take their businesses to a whole new level.

The vision of an IoT world would come alive with 5G and there will see a shift from Wi-Fi to Long Term Evolution (LTE), to 5G hotspots and then to full-blown 5G. And very soon use cases across sectors - be it Healthcare, Automotive or Manufacturing will emerge. With benefits like increased bandwidth and lower latency, 5G will enable real-time monitoring, quality improvement and logistics with mobile edge computing in smart factories. Similarly, in smart cities, 5G will prove to be vital in enhancing the overall quality of life through a multi-modal transport system and intelligent traffic systems through Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) infrastructure.

Some topline trends that are likely to emerge from the fruitful amalgamation of cutting-edge technologies in the digital age include:-

* Movement to EDGE based computing - The data deluge that comes with an IoT ecosystem will require EDGE computing capabilities to facilitate faster data processing at or near the source of data generation i.e embedded devices or sensors.

* Development of smart, safe and sustainable cities - that would be equipped with world-class amenities like Intelligent Traffic Management System, Smart Parking Systems, Robust Surveillance Mechanisms, Smart Waste Management, Public Wi-Fi etc with the view to offer better citizen services. Today, around 150 cities across the globe are actively contributing to the cause of developing smarter cities and this is only going to accelerate by 2020.

* Increased adoption of IoT in insurance industry - for better risk management, risk assurance and risk assessment - This is going to be another major trend that we can expect to come alive with IoT becoming capable enough to precisely assess the risk appetite of customers, through a comprehensive analysis of data sourced from plethora of interconnected devices.

Apart from that, large-scale industries like healthcare and mining are also likely to get greatly impacted by increased adoption of IoT along with other new-age technologies. Whether it's about retrieving vital information about a patient before the actual treatment procedures begin, taking a second opinion, or about ensuring safety through real-time process monitoring in the mining industry, IoT will unleash a new wave of intelligent discovery, operational efficiency and accuracy in businesses across sectors.