The Internet of Things (IoT), once just another captivating technology trend among many, is gaining deep traction in industry and government. Today, we are on the cusp of an IoT-driven technological revolution, affecting most if not all industries and mobilizing strategic thinking at every level, from the design engineer to the C-suite. With billions of connected sensors designed into products round the world, the IoT gives companies the power to gather, process and analyze vast — and potentially invaluable — data sets. Properly distilled, this data can reveal real, a

The Internet of Things (IoT), once just another captivating technology trend among many, is gaining deep traction in industry and government. Today, we are on the cusp of an IoT-driven technological revolution, affecting most if not all industries and mobilizing strategic thinking at every level, from the design engineer to the C-suite. With billions of connected sensors designed into products round the world, the IoT gives companies the power to gather, process and analyze vast — and potentially invaluable — data sets. Properly distilled, this data can reveal real, actionable intelligence. Yet for several companies, the path forward remains unclear.

The IoT’s potential is tantalizing, but the truth of harnessing its power is often daunting, and is usually logistically challenging. Nevertheless, a 2017 McKinsey survey found that 92 percent of high-level executives believe the IoT will generate a positive impact over the next three years, with 62 percent stating this impact will be very high or transformative.

Yet quite half an equivalent group of executives (54 percent) said that their companies actually use only 10 percent or less of their IoT data. and every one cited major capability gaps when it involves the IoT, such as integrating IoT solutions into existing business workflows, managing data, identifying case studies and applications, analytical modeling and determining context for collected data.

Advances in sensor technology, data storage and highly compact processors have pushed the planet to the brink of technological transformation. Estimates are that by 2020 the worldwide installed base of IoT endpoints will reach 30 billion. As this connectivity increases, its potential value intensifies. “Metcalfe’s Law,” originally promulgated with reference to Ethernet, states that the worth of a network is proportional to the square of the amount of connected users. Extrapolating this widely-cited phenomenon to the IoT, as many have – where every node or sensor may be a “connected user” – it suggests potential business value of such immensity on almost defy quantification.

And the growth of this value-creation network is accelerating. Its underlying infrastructure is finally beginning to achieve real scale, as are the associated economies that allow companies to experiment and uncover new opportunities and therefore the techniques by which to take advantage of them.

As the IoT and its applications mature, the longer term will become increasingly intelligent and automatic. Machine-to-machine communication and machine learning, analytics, are already changing the landscape across retail, manufacturing, utilities and government entities. In the supply chain realm, for example, in-depth simulations using real-time IoT data can identify where disruptions are likely to occur and empower organizations to act beforehand. In retail, machine learning is going to be used to build more powerful, more personalized customer experiences. It’s important to know that the worth of IoT-generated data isn't intrinsic; it flows from what a business does with it.

The data challenge, however, isn’t almost the quantity of data. It’s also about the speed and sort of data being created by the IoT. Due to the ubiquity of sensors, the large volume of knowledge coming at organizations is coming in no time and it arrives during a sort of format. So the mission is both to affect the info and its various attributes, then also add up of it, to probe it for

insight to assist grow or expand a business.

Once a corporation determines the way to distill data into actionable intelligence, the chances for efficiencies and value become almost self-evident. for each organization, however, the challenge remains: the way to best refine the raw material of the IoT – its data – into a meaningful asset, one with measurable business value?

Across industries, one among the foremost critical areas is customer expectations. Today’s sophisticated customers want experiences that need massive real-time and large data analytic capabilities. Increasingly, it'll be crucial to:

• Capture, analyze and store up to millions of sensor events per second Visualize and probe observations about sensor events
• Perform fast analytics on billions of knowledge points add up of objects and devices that

are both moving and stationary, and also likely have changing attributes.

Utilities provide essential services and need massive infrastructure and coordination from local, state and often national-level suppliers.

To reduce waste (non-billable water loss) and to streamline the identification of leaks, one among the most important utility districts in the Southeastern US installed a sensor network to collect real-time data from flow meters, tanks and pump stations. The utility layered the new IoT data onto an existing GIS system. Now operations staff can see instantly where water flow is excessive relative to normal use patterns. Staff can then trace a possible leak to a subzone, specific pipe segment and even a private valve.

By visually layering IoT data onto detailed above-ground and subterranean system mapping, the utility created an overarching, real-time view of their assets. Without mapping, the sensor data gave only water level readouts and coordinates — with no insight into exact location or condition, and allowing only basic inference on potential user impact. Without the IoT, the organization had relied on manual practices to get and isolate leaks — an extremely inefficient, often truly “hit-or-miss” process.

Today, the leak discovery process has been reduced from months to 72 hours. The system is projected to save the utility $1 million annually.

Sensor technology can give immense leverage to organizations involved in manufacturing and provide chain logistics, where location – and therefore the efficient movement of products between locations – is everything.

Complex product intelligence scenarios are often broken down into component elements without losing track of the big picture; then tracked, visualized, understood and acted upon in ways in which weren’t possible before the IoT. This allows a corporation to uncover new efficiencies, and monitor assets and items across the whole spectrum of their trek. Location tracking is particularly useful in dealing with today’s global distribution networks.