Enterprise IoT to bring strategic revolution

S Mohini Ratna 
Editor
VARINDIA

Change is an inevitable part of technology. But the present rate at which new technologies are rendering established ones obsolete can leave companies scrambling to adapt. Digital business is now a reality and most of the organisations are in the process of Digital Transformation.With this the role of the Technology Leader (CIO, CTO, etc.,) has also changed. The fact is everything that can be connected will be connected.

In the coming days, CIOs will face new challenges and take on new roles. It is the time when we have so many disruptive technologies converging on the business world at the same time. We are going through a fundamental shift in technology and it is no longer merely transactional, and instead should become a source of information for business decision-making. Cyber-attacks are on the rise. It is impossible to create a non-hackable system. There is a growing concern that these hacks can lead to the destruction of mission critical data. The impact of not being able to recover business processes and data can be devastating.

The possibilities for IoT (Network of physical objects that contain embedded technology to communicate and sense or interact with their internal states or the external environment) might be boundless. With IoT transformation taking hold and the technology improving and expanding, IT professionals have a responsibility to guide the process and deliver on the promise of the future. However, enterprises have a number of complexities and variables that do not exist in the home, where IoT is currently having the most success. 

The rate of global connectivity is multiplying, with three quarters of businesses now investing in mobile devices to better serve their staff and customers, and two thirds believing it will bring them greater understanding of consumers. Enterprises need to get ready to manage the growth of a mobile, increasingly connected workforce. With the mobile devices being used to carry out vital business activity, IoT presents the opportunity to add even more value by enhancing and enabling business critical tasks and processes.

Industrial business challenges include fast-changing market dynamics, technical complexity and the relentless pressure to do more with less. The perceived benefits are, connected devices bringing new business challenges around scale, interoperability, security and the management of devices and endpoints. With the growth of IoT, Industrial IoT also holds a lot of promise for manufacturers, but many struggle to identify the right strategies for adoption within their operations. The Government of India also realizes the next generation of technology which is seeing exponential growth. There is an allocated budget of Rs 3,073 crore that will spearhead work on fifth generation technology start-ups like Artificial Intelligence (an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence) and other disruptive technologies. It is a fact that IoT won’t work without artificial intelligence.

India has a great scope for start-ups that work in the AI space. Personal data is a double-edged sword. AI is all set to revolutionise manufacturing, transport, healthcare, finance, retail, agriculture and even into medical science. We need to improve the speed and accuracy of big data analysis in order for IoT to live up to its promise.