Today, almost everywhere the term (IoT) Internet of things is present. This blog talks about what IoT is and what skills we need to develop to embrace the new era of IoT.
As per wiki–“The Internet of Things (IoT) ” is the network of physical objects or “things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors and connectivity to enable it to achieve greater value and service by exchanging data with the manufacturer, operator and/or other connected devices. Each thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system but is able to interoperate within the existing Internet infrastructure. “
The Internet of Things is here today in devices, sensors, cloud services, and data your business uses.
IoT is the next big thing in the technology evolution landscape and I am sure it will touch almost all industry over the next 5-8 years.
So, now the question is what it takes for us to grasp IoT-centric career opportunities, right from roles of IoT consultants, evangelists to IoT architects. But as we know that IoT is a vast and pointing out a single skill is not really easy.
We can drill down the concept of IoT into the following three major components:
1. Operational Efficiency- Gather data from devices
In the IoT era, Smartphone sensors are replacing the old ways of keying in data using keyboards and browsers. This clearly shows we need to gather skills around hardware which will now be the heart of IoT. Expertise in the areas like WiFi, Bluetooth etc will help in IoT.
All IoT products and services will be linked to smart phones and other mobile devices, hence mobile application development with a details to user experience (UX) design are important skills to hold.
2. Data Science- Transform data into business information & Insight
The major and crucial part of IoT is Big Data Analysis – developing insight requires skills in computer science, analytics and statistics and crucial domain knowledge. Thus business intelligence specialists who are able to understand and execute sensor data analysis, data center management, predictive analytics will be key players. Hadoop and NoSQL will be key technology players in IoT.
3. Business Transformation- Enable Intelligent collaboration & take corrective action anytime, anywhere
Once we gather the relevant information from sensors and apply data analytics, we need to combine the different logical information in a secure storage. Thus, expertise in cloud platforms along with the security areas like networking, cybersecurity etc will be important.
So, now is the time to associate with IoT right now simply because of the amazing stuff companies are doing using IoT. Following are some examples of such companies-
A large farm equipment manufacturer
Big data and the IoT are making waves in big agriculture. A large farm equipment manufacture monitors moisture levels and sends the data over a wireless connection for farmers to see. According to the website, the environmental sensors also measure “air and soil temperature, wind speed, humidity, solar radiation, rainfall and leaf wetness.”
The data will help farmers discover when crops are reaching optimum moisture levels. Armed with this information, farmers can make timely irrigation decisions. Trend data can also show how much the change in seasons affects moisture retention.
A large electric utility provider in Canada
The company began upgrading its electricity meters to smart meters. Users can now track their energy use by the hour and see trends in their own usage data. Electricity theft has been greatly reduced and automatic outage detection alerts the company when the power is out in a certain area. Leveraging the data collected has enabled them to provide services at a lower cost.
A leading provider of engineering services
Another leading provider of engineering services and manufacturers of flexible automatic production system has connected the factory’s robots and thousands of other devices to back-end monitoring systems, thereby enabling it to produce a car body every 77 seconds!