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IoT solutions: what, how, and why for businesses

The Internet of Things (IoT) is beyond vast — and its growth doesn’t appear to be slowing down. While there are an estimated 1 billion websites, there are an estimated 17 billion IoT devices connected to the internet. That’s more than two for each and every person alive today. And that number continues to grow by over a billion new devices every year. 

Lead product manager

IoT solutions enable enterprise IoT devices such as kiosks.

Lead product manager

Lead product manager

Let’s explore the scope and nature of IoT, as well as considerations for deploying IoT routers for flexible connectivity. 

What is considered an IoT device? 

An IoT device is “nonstandard” hardware that connects to the internet. Computers, smartphones, and tablets are NOT part of IoT — they were specifically designed to be connected to the internet. IoT devices include objects that in the past were “dumb” and not connected to anything. This includes watches, TVs, and thermostats in the consumer realm and medical equipment, industrial machinery, and smart city IoT for businesses and agencies. 

 

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Types of IoT 

IoT devices can be found in many different types of applications. These are some of the most common types of IoT: 

Consumer IoT 

Consumer IoT means connected devices intended for use by consumers. You may not think of them as “IoT,” but you probably have several in your home — or on your person. Consumer IoT includes devices such as smart watches, smart TVs, connected thermostats, smart appliances, home devices such as Amazon Alexa, Google Nest, etc.  

Commercial IoT 

Commercial IoT is for the general business community. Applications can be generalized devices for controlling a building — access, lighting, HVAC, etc., or specific for a particular business segment, such as medical offices that may connect different medical devices to immediately report results, or supermarkets and stores tracking inventory. 

Industrial IoT (IIoT) 

Industrial IoT is aimed at dramatically improving efficiency in industrial settings. It can include everything from controlling factories to smart meters for utilities that can provide real-time information on power consumption. IIoT can become very complicated when integrating legacy equipment that was not designed with connectivity in mind. 

What are the most used IoT devices? 

Given that there are more consumers than businesses and factories, it’s no surprise that consumer-oriented IoT devices garner the most attention. One provider of device identification services for network service providers claims the top five IoT devices are: 

  • Gaming consoles — 3.7% of all connected devices, although not everyone considers gaming consoles to be part of the IoT as they are basically computers that have always had connectivity. 
  • Smart TVs — 3.5% of connected devices 
  • Smartwatches — 2.7% of connected devices 
  • Cameras — 1.5% of connected devices 
  • Voice control devices (e.g., Amazon Alexa) — 1.4% of connected devices 

Some of the most high-value IoT devices for business, public safety, and “smart cities” include video surveillance cameras, kiosks, digital signs, and sensors. 

What are IoT solutions? 

Some IoT devices seem to be solutions in search of a problem. You can find a connected version of every kitchen appliance, but what does your toaster really have to say to your microwave? 

For businesses, IoT solutions begin with real business problems. For example, a smart city deployment of video camera systems at traffic lights serves the purpose of improving traffic safety and accountability, while also enabling traffic signal priority for first responder vehicles during emergencies. 

The solution challenge? It is difficult to find network routers that are small enough to fit into IoT enclosures yet can be managed without on-site intervention. Organization address this by choosing a cellular-enabled IoT router that is managed through a web portal, enabling centralized troubleshooting and configuration adjustments. 

In the early days of IoT, most applications were in a building or on a campus where LAN technology could handle the networking. With the advent of LTE and 5G cellular routers, companies can put IoT devices anywhere and move them around as desired. 

Typical IoT solutions for business include the IoT devices themselves, the networking connection, and an IoT router that can typically handle multiple types of connectivity. 

Considerations for an enterprise IoT deployment 

A large-scale deployment of IoT solutions can be a complicated process. This is a summary of some of the key ingredients that need to be considered: 

Understand the business case 

You will get what you are looking for, so it is important to look for the right things. What is the goal? Improved efficiency? Better customer experience? Reduced maintenance expense? It is good to include added features that bring benefit to the company, but at the same time, it is possible to add expensive bells and whistles that add complexity but do not add value. 

Hardware 

What IoT devices are you going to use? Are there off-the-shelf solutions for your particular problem? Powered by batteries, a wired connection, or something else such as solar? How will the devices communicate and connect to the network? 5G? Fiber? Satellite?  What infrastructure hardware, such as an IoT router, is needed? 

Software 

As with hardware, is there an off-the-shelf solution for what you need, or will you need a custom development program? Cloud-based or on company servers? 

Network connection 

How will you get the data from the IoT devices to the application’s software? If using cellular or satellite, which provider(s)? 

How do you support the security of IoT for business? 

IoT devices may not have the same level of computing ability as traditional computing devices, but as they are connected to the network, they can be hacked in ways that can disrupt a company’s operations. How will the devices be secured? How will software updates be passed along? 

As the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) outlined years ago, one of the big differences in managing risk with IoT compared to IT systems is that IT typically focuses heavily on protecting confidentiality of data, while IoT use cases are more about availability and integrity because of their interactions with the physical environment. NIST’s IoT security framework recommended the following three risk mitigation strategies be layered into an organization’s security operations. 

Goal #1: Protect device security Ensure the device cannot be compromised to conduct attacks, gather information from the network, or allow pivot attacks. 

Goal #2: Protect data security Protect unauthorized disclosure, lack of availability, and integrity of IoT data at rest and in transit. 

Goal #3: Protect individuals’ privacy For an enterprise IoT use case, ensure the data gathered in systems and applications is adequately protected against direct and indirect personal privacy risks. 

Zero trust security strategies have emerged as an excellent way to bolster the security of IoT. Zero trust assumes that anyone, regardless of their location on the network, could be a risk. Zero trust solutions use an adaptive policy to constantly evaluate a user’s security posture during a session, as opposed to a VPN, which uses one-time authentication to create a secure tunnel that gives users access to the network. 

IoT solutions today and tomorrow 

As IoT technology becomes ever more ubiquitous, it is often being combined with AI to drive dramatic changes. For example, there are AgTech startups that are combining multiple data inputs from IoT devices including soil moisture, temperature, and electrical conductivity. Some are using AI to interpret that data in ways that will boost crop yields and save on input costs such as water and fertilizer. 

With nationwide 5G and LTE connectivity readily available, the possibilities for IoT to improve your bottom line are limited only by your imagination. 

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