The first wave of connectivity to serve the continent of Africa was mobile communications; in fact more than double the population in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has mobile phone access compared with access to paved roads, writes Stephen Stewart, the regional director for Africa at Eseye. (more…)
February 8, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
IT is no longer the sole guardian of technology in the business. From IP enabled turnstiles to smart manufacturing systems that continuously monitor and optimise performance and smart buildings with IP connected environmental controls, the Internet of Everything (IoE) is slowly but inexorably expanding across every business environment, writes John Pepper, the chief executive and founder of Managed 24/7.
Right now, however, these deployments remain completely separate from the core business network – and IT has little or no visibility of IoE deployments. While companies are gaining operational benefits, these siloed deployments also represent significant operational risk. Security is the primary concern, but organisations are also missing out on essential business information. By failing to consolidate IoE deployments into the core network, organisations cannot enable CxOs to take advantage of a depth of real time analytics that should be informing changes to every part of the building, estate and production systems.
It is, therefore, no surprise that there is a growing CxO push to integrate IoE into the existing corporate network, not least to exploit IT’s security expertise. Few CxOs even consider any difficulties arguing, quite reasonably, that there is little or no difference between an IP enabled temperature sensor and any cloud based application. However, there is one fundamental and essential difference to consider: IT systems are still managed on the basis of 99.999% – five nines – availability; IoE demands 100% availability – failure is simply not an option.
A small but growing minority of IT organisations have therefore begun to explore the value of consolidating monitoring tools to move beyond break/fix to a predictive model that delivers 100% uptime. End to end monitoring that accurately predicts trends in performance combined with self-healing technologies both prevent problems and enable organisations to achieve far more effective IT utilisation.
Given the speed with which devices are becoming Internet enabled, there is no time to delay. But organisations have some tough questions to consider. From ownership to budget, capacity planning to network audit and security, organisations need to determine where the responsibility lies for this new connected model – and, critically, ensure IT embraces the predictive approach required to deliver the 100% availability now required of these essential systems.
The role of IT is changing; today’s requirement to support servers is evolving fast to one that is about managing millions of connected devices, from coffee machines to life saving NHS equipment. IT needs to step up quickly to embrace this critical, predictive model for every aspect of the corporate infrastructure.
February 5, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
We recently saw the Internet Society (ISOC) calling for more standards to be adopted within the Internet of Things, writes Manfred Kube, the head of M2M segment and offer marketing at Gemalto. Releasing a whitepaper discussing the issues and challenges of IoT, the ISOC is urging vendors and users of IoT devices and systems both have a collective obligation to ensure they do not expose IoT stakeholders, and the internet itself, to potential harm. (more…)
December 27, 2015
Posted by: George Malim
As the hype transitions to commercial deployment, it seems the M2M industry is starting to fulfil the early potential by driving the kind of innovation that is set to make tangible impact on how we live our lives, writes Phil Cole, the sales director of Wireless Logic. (more…)
December 2, 2015
Posted by: George Malim
Ericsson and Orange have announced a trial of optimised, low-cost, low-complexity devices and enhanced network capabilities for Cellular IoT over GSM and LTE. (more…)
November 27, 2015
Posted by: George Malim
The development of the Internet of Things (IoT) will see multiple systems be linked in order to realise automation, data sharing and efficiency benefits, writes Phill Peston, a senior analyst at Beecham Research. (more…)
November 24, 2015
Posted by: George Malim
Much has been said about the growth of the Internet of Things (IoT), but it’s important to emphasise that innovation in this market is simply not going to happen of its own accord. According to a recent report by McKinsey & Company, failing to solve the sticky issues around IoT interoperability could cost the industry a minimum of $1.5 trillion in lost value per year. (more…)
October 27, 2015
Posted by: Olivier Beaujard
Today smartphones are still seen as the dominant mode of connectivity. But – with everything from toothbrushes to cars gaining connectivity – the Internet of Things is set to become the new face of the digital world. (more…)
October 7, 2015
Posted by: Nithin Thomas
Numerex and T-Mobile US have announced a technology upgrade programme to offer customers a migration path to move from their old 2G devices to long-term and sustainable LTE technology. (more…)
September 11, 2015
Posted by: George Malim
A new report from Juniper Research forecasts rapid adoption for 5G from 2025 onwards, with active connections representing a threefold increase from 2024 to reach 240 million by then. However, this will represent a very limited global reach, accounting for approximately 3% of global mobile connections. (more…)
September 8, 2015
Posted by: George Malim