Emerging Technologies

Technology is continuously in motion and that Is indeed the case when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT) or as some have called it, the Internet of Everything!  There is good reason for their massaging the title.  A recent study suggested that this year, 2020, the global IoT market value is projected to reach over $915 billion USD. Yes, just shy of a trillion $$$. With a double-digit compound annual growth rate, the IoT market is projected to reach $1.9 trillion in 2028. That is a huge amount of money.

When you think about all the work involved in the design, development, marketing, sales, installation, integration, and service involved in the global IoT market today, and in the next few years there is an abundance of work involving IoT.  Now we must add to that work, all the efforts to add security to protect all those IoT devices and the data they produce.  There are projections that the global use of IoT devices will likely top 40 billion units worldwide and all those devices will be generating nearly 80 zettabytes (or 80 times 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 bytes) of data in 2025.  Since we are talking about data, we must consider last week’s blog about the collection, storage and analysis of all that data, as well as the effort to take actions based on the results of that data analysis.

Here are a few weird IoT devises that I thought might be good or at least humorous to mention to illustrate just how broad of a range the devices have.  First and perhaps my favorite is a ‘Touch-screen Wine Bottle.’ When activated, it provides a wide range of information about the contents of that bottle. Think about applying that to pharmaceuticals! Secondly, is a ‘Dog Alert’ that contacts your smartwatch/smartphone and tells you your dog is barking.  Once alerted, you can go to your home-cams and look inside your home and see what is going on and talk to your dog if you would like.  One individual told me they were working to determine if the dog’s bark suggested if the dog was happy or upset. So here is the third of my top three.  An IoT toilet, plays music, has a soft light, opens when you approach the toilet, has a heated seat and you ASK it to flush. Ok, now one has to wonder, what data that collects, where it goes and in the United States if that is covered by HIPAA regulations.

I am wondering what is next? What are the hot areas of IoT applications in our specific domain(s) or our domains of interest? As we all move into the connected future of the world, innovation and creativity is the limiting factor in the products and services around the IoT explosion and all the data they produce and how that will be used.

Wearable Technology (WT) – WT goes far beyond the glasses, visors and headsets that many think of when they hear the term.  Today our world is full of a host of gadgets that include intelligence garment labels like the ones you find in the neck (back) of a shirt or coat, as well as some that are in the soles of your shoes.  Some of these are made of flexible circuit boards that appear to be nothing more than a sheet of plastic with gold foil on them.  One recent estimate places the number of smart wearable devices above 410 million in 2020.  The value of all those devices will hit an astonishing $34 billion in that same time period.  Now the BCC Research study puts the global market for wearable computing products is projected to reach $22.6 billion.  Either way it is a big and growing market.  This segment is often included in estimates for the Internet of Things and far larger than many people have thought.  Top applications includes sports, healthcare, and worker accountability.

The Internet of Things (IoT) age is upon us and by all estimates this period of rapid technological advancement and change will be 3 times the magnitude seen during the Internet era of the mid to late 90s.   Forbes recently published an article that projected the Internet of Things economy would be $19 trillion and contain 50 billion connected devices by 2020.  That is tremendous growth in less than 5 years. Consider the manufacturing of those devices, their installation and connectivity.   Consider all the data those devices will generate.  Proper analysis and use of that data will have profound implications on decision making and modern operations.  All of that translates to a significant impact on businesses in virtually every industrial segment.  That also translates to a large number of programs and projects which will put a strain on the current pool of project managers. Is your organization ready?   Are you?