“Designing an IoT-driven Digital Future”

“Designing an IoT-driven Digital Future”

Authored by Uma Pinagli, Business President, element14

From smart roadways that alert drivers and state officials about treacherous weather conditions to systems that monitor fuel usage of organisations for energy saving – and everything in between - the Internet of Things (IoT) is constantly changing the way we work and live in the 21st century. Whether it’s healthcare, transport, agritech, e-commerce, manufacturing, logistics, education, or fintech, all industries today are embracing IoT and other disruptive technologies for digital transformation.

In the next two years, the worldwide IoT market will reach a whopping $1.7 trillion, from $674 billion in 2017, predicts the International Data Corporation (IDC). While big players such as IBM, Google, Apple, Amazon, and their likes, are all vying for a larger share of the IoT pie, it’s the startups across the globe that are truly pushing the envelope in the current ecosystem. And as a virtual platform comprising multiple technologies, IoT is enabling unique innovations amongst startups in India, too.

Indian scenario

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) expects the IoT market in India to touch $15 billion by 2020, accounting for about five per cent of the global IoT market. According to the IoT Startup Directory 2017, there are 971 IoT startups in India, of which 536 are based in Bengaluru.

Defined by IDC as a network of networks of uniquely identifiable endpoints that communicate without human interaction using IP connectivity, IoT as a technology presents a massive untapped market for startups in India. Similar to the rise of ecommerce startups almost two decades ago, spurred by the internet growth, IoT today is facilitating the evolution of tech startups in the country.

Flagship programmes by the Government of India, such as Digital India, Make in India, Smart Cities, Startup India and Skill India, are creating a holistic ecosystem for the growth of technologies like IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), blockchain, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR) and more. To inspire innovation in technology, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, is also undertaking noteworthy initiatives, such as the Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) scheme. That apart, the Indian tech startups domain has been witnessing a steady influx of investments, funding and acquisitions over the last few years.

Opportunities beckon

Industry reports by McKinsey and KPMG concur that there is huge potential in the IoT space to become a startup ecosystem enabler in the country. However, to ride the IoT success wave, startups need to focus on customising their services to meet local demands.

Besides wearables, connected homes, connected vehicles and connected cities, there’s also growing demand to cater to enterprises (industrial IoT). Further, the coming together of IoT with ML, AI, edge computing, and big data analytics is paving the way for disruptive solutions across verticals.

One of the most significant developments – albeit less talked about – has been the easy and affordable access to a wide range of development kits and evaluation modules today. Development kits and single-board computers (SBCs) such as the Raspberry Pi and BeagleBoard have not only simplified the IoT journey and accelerated time-to-market, but also helped combat the many challenges of building IoT solutions, entailing software design, sensor networking and cloud on-boarding. Design engineers today are empowered to develop IoT gateways and prototypes in a more cost-effective and faster fashion than ever before. Today, companies such as element14, who pioneer in making these boards and make them available at a click of a button to be and delivered locally to the doorstep, are enabling start-ups to access trusted hardware at affordable prices and improve the time to market.

As a collaborative, multi-disciplinary effort, IoT functions best when enterprises have a robust mobility strategy in place. Interestingly, a recent study found that improving mobility strategy – going beyond replicating the desktop experience for mobile users - greatly increased the individual productivity gains for businesses as well as augmented the return on investment (ROI) by up to 150 per cent!

Great expectations

Research and advisory firm Gartner anticipates that by next year, 20 per cent of the large-enterprise businesses will adopt AR, VR and MR solutions. Major players in the financial and healthcare institutions have already started harnessing the power of AI, while blockchain is finding its footing in businesses and governments around the world.

In my opinion, it is IoT that will be the real game-changer. The technology is poised for dynamic evolutions. Let’s take Uber as a case in point. At the face of it, all the ridesharing mobile app does is combine data from diverse drivers to provide quick transportation service to the customer. However, there’s so much more. It provides an application programming interface (API) to build machine-to-machine communication (M2M) between the company’s services and third party services. Not surprisingly, Uber drivers have the ability to provide swift deliveries, including food from your favourite restaurant.

These are exciting times for technology innovation, especially for startups in India. From pioneering consumer products and commercial hardware to brilliant platform development, all eyes are on the promise of an IoT-driven digital future, where connectivity will rule supreme.

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