IoT and Public Cloud – An Overview of Challenges and Benefits

The IoT has been hailed as the technology of tomorrow by several experts across industries. It is no surprise that Statista estimates the market size of IoT to expand to over $1 trillion by 2023. To add, compatible technologies such as Cloud, AI and ML are all growing equally fast with IoT, making the future of IoT promising.

What Does the Future of IoT Look Like?

Future of IoT – A Bird’s Eye View

There are four major trends that are being observed in the IoT industry –

Enhanced Role of AI and Data Analytics

Continuous monitoring of the user preferences and habits continuously through various fitness bands leads to volumes of data. As the volume of data surges, AI and ML will play a crucial role in enhancing these capabilities.

Security and Regulations

Smart home devices combined with conversational AI are seeing exponential growth, bringing new security vulnerabilities along.

Smart Cities

With the Internet of Things and interconnected device networks, smart cities will vastly improve quality of life.

Smart Industries

Thanks to the Internet of Things, systems such as predictive maintenance, automated supply chain management and data analytics have combined to empower the manufacturing industry.

With many technology giants betting big on Internet of Things, innovation in the field shows no sign of slowing down. Integrating technologies such as AI and Edge Computing with existing technologies has opened more avenues.

Challenges Faced by Companies in Implementing IoT Solutions

While the Internet of Things may look like a lucrative opportunity, the path of adopting it is paved with challenges. Here are some of the most common challenges faced by companies when implementing an IoT solution –

Security

Due to the fact that the Internet of Things is in a nascent stage, companies are dealing with security issues that haven’t even existed till now. Device vulnerabilities can cause major issues, including DDoS attacks.

Infrastructure

Whether it is connectivity, support, or security infrastructure, the right setup makes all the difference. But there are real constraints when it comes to building the infrastructure required to implement an Internet of Things project.

Connectivity

While the number of devices connected to the internet keeps rising, connectivity and bandwidth issues are still a big concern in most parts of the world.

Technical Expertise

Finding the right technical expertise is challenging for a technology which is still developing, making it tougher for organizations to have a deeper talent pool. 

The question remains a tedious one – What are the criteria to keep in mind when selecting Internet of Things solutions?

Best Practices while implementing an Internet of Things solution

Despite the number of obstacles and challenges, Internet of Things projects can still be deployed without much issue. These are the factors to consider –

• Hardware Support
• Associated Storage Services
• Dedicated OS’ and SDK support
• Data Protocols
• Security Resources

While it is an exciting time ahead for the Internet of Things, several challenges remain. With the Public Cloud coming into focus, IoT can now eradicate those problems by leveraging Big Data to tackle the volume of data generated through devices, and fast-track the speed of innovation through the implementation of AI and ML.

Many studies have estimated that the number of Internet of Things-connected devices will go beyond 75,000,000,000 by 2025. It is expected that over the next few years, Internet of Things will evolve, becoming an integral part of our lives.

Many public cloud platforms support Internet of Things. Depending on your requirements, you can select the one that is the best fit for your industry.

Benefits offered by Public Cloud Service Providers

Unlike private clouds, public clouds are used by many different organizations or tenants, and you can access them through a web browser.

There are four main benefits of public clouds for the Internet of Things - 

• Lower costs
• No maintenance
• Practically unlimited scalability
• High reliability

Our Point of View

Given that Internet of Things devices need to be connected to the cloud to perform their primary functions, cloud platforms are now becoming the foundation for most Internet of Things deployments. The public cloud also offers features such as easy bootstrapping, unlimited data storage, convenient device management, and more.

Centralised dashboards allow access to data visualization and analytics, making management of devices easy. The public cloud also ensures that Internet of Things connections are secure, with continuous assessments of security levels, identification of security threats, and mitigation guidelines.

Deploying IoT solutions through public clouds also enables the solutions to embed a trigger in the workflow, allowing certain events to set off triggers and take necessary courses of action. With the ever-increasing adoption of the cloud platform for IoT solution deployment, going the public cloud way is not a bad way to go.

--By Somenath Nag, VP, Marketing & Corporate Strategy, Calsoft Inc India 

Read more IT news here

Read products news here