You might have heard the saying; “The only constant in technology is change”. Well this year is no different, in fact the saying is true in every sense of the word. From wearables, holographic computing, cloud computing to self-driving cars and smart machines the state of technology is forever changing, with new innovations all over. Below I have a very brief discussion of some of the trends I think are worth noting in the technology space this year, the biggest of which for me is IoT (the Internet of Things).
The Internet of Things (IoT)
Jacob Morgan in his article (A simple explanation of “The internet of things”) describes IoT as the concept of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the internet (and/or to each other). The concept of every electronic device being connected means fridges, microwaves, cell phones, cars, watches, basically every device will be able to connect and communicate with other devices, and can store and process data through sensors and RFID technology. IoT will impact many industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and retail as well as affect how we do things at home. What powers this IoT is data sourced from a wide range of devices. Theo Priestley stated three elements for the IoT to fulfil real value; (i) Data, (ii) Distributed/Edge computing for in-situ analysis, (iii) Open data and Blockchain. Theo stressed that the value is in the data gained from these devices not necessarily the quantity of devices alluding to the fact that most of us get excited by how many devices will be connected by 2020 and beyond. In order to truly take advantage of IoT we need to process and analyze the data in real-time hence distributed computing is what will help us achieve that. Daniel Burns said that data gathering by sensors plus cloud-based applications is key in enabling IoT. Kelly Spors pointed how IoT will revolutionize small business citing 3 aspects, (i) New business opportunities, (ii) More efficient and real-time operations, (iii) More cybersecurity. The growth in connected devices poses a number of questions regarding the privacy and security around the data being transmitted and Theo as his third element for IoT to provide real value stated open data and blockchain as a solution. Open data is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents, or other mechanisms of control. Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed digital record, it can only be updated by consensus of a majority of the participants in the system. With blockchain users remain anonymous while sharing their data and this maintains their privacy. IoT is enabled by other technologies but also contributes to advances in these technologies, firstly it produces big data, needs cloud-computing and produces smart machines and leads to more virtual reality.
The Internet of Things (IoT)
Jacob Morgan in his article (A simple explanation of “The internet of things”) describes IoT as the concept of basically connecting any device with an on and off switch to the internet (and/or to each other). The concept of every electronic device being connected means fridges, microwaves, cell phones, cars, watches, basically every device will be able to connect and communicate with other devices, and can store and process data through sensors and RFID technology. IoT will impact many industries like healthcare, manufacturing, and retail as well as affect how we do things at home. What powers this IoT is data sourced from a wide range of devices. Theo Priestley stated three elements for the IoT to fulfil real value; (i) Data, (ii) Distributed/Edge computing for in-situ analysis, (iii) Open data and Blockchain. Theo stressed that the value is in the data gained from these devices not necessarily the quantity of devices alluding to the fact that most of us get excited by how many devices will be connected by 2020 and beyond. In order to truly take advantage of IoT we need to process and analyze the data in real-time hence distributed computing is what will help us achieve that. Daniel Burns said that data gathering by sensors plus cloud-based applications is key in enabling IoT. Kelly Spors pointed how IoT will revolutionize small business citing 3 aspects, (i) New business opportunities, (ii) More efficient and real-time operations, (iii) More cybersecurity. The growth in connected devices poses a number of questions regarding the privacy and security around the data being transmitted and Theo as his third element for IoT to provide real value stated open data and blockchain as a solution. Open data is the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents, or other mechanisms of control. Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed digital record, it can only be updated by consensus of a majority of the participants in the system. With blockchain users remain anonymous while sharing their data and this maintains their privacy. IoT is enabled by other technologies but also contributes to advances in these technologies, firstly it produces big data, needs cloud-computing and produces smart machines and leads to more virtual reality.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing, often referred to as simply “the cloud,” is the delivery of on-demand computing resources—everything from applications to data centers—over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis (IBM). The cloud is becoming more and more important especially with the rise in data collected from IoT as well as an appetite for more virtualization in the business world. Some people see the benefits of cloud computing which can be summarized in three elements, security, accessibility and longevity as stated by Ewan Spence. The cloud can be very secure with a mixture of passwords and two-part authentication, it also ensures accessibility everywhere and is usually stored there forever as long you still want it there. The challenges of cloud computing also come in three parts which still include security, accessibility and longevity, and in fact these are what Ewan says are not entirely met by the cloud for him, he says the fact that cloud storage is almost free one needs to question how are companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are making money with your data. On accessibility he points to the fact that one can be unable to access their data if they fail to prove their identity to the system and lastly the issue of businesses being bought or merging with others raises the question, what happens to the data and how are you as a person affected when that happens. It seems therefore that there is some trade-off between accessibility and security. It also seems there needs to be careful consideration regarding what to store on the cloud and what not to store on the cloud.
Cloud computing, often referred to as simply “the cloud,” is the delivery of on-demand computing resources—everything from applications to data centers—over the Internet on a pay-for-use basis (IBM). The cloud is becoming more and more important especially with the rise in data collected from IoT as well as an appetite for more virtualization in the business world. Some people see the benefits of cloud computing which can be summarized in three elements, security, accessibility and longevity as stated by Ewan Spence. The cloud can be very secure with a mixture of passwords and two-part authentication, it also ensures accessibility everywhere and is usually stored there forever as long you still want it there. The challenges of cloud computing also come in three parts which still include security, accessibility and longevity, and in fact these are what Ewan says are not entirely met by the cloud for him, he says the fact that cloud storage is almost free one needs to question how are companies like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are making money with your data. On accessibility he points to the fact that one can be unable to access their data if they fail to prove their identity to the system and lastly the issue of businesses being bought or merging with others raises the question, what happens to the data and how are you as a person affected when that happens. It seems therefore that there is some trade-off between accessibility and security. It also seems there needs to be careful consideration regarding what to store on the cloud and what not to store on the cloud.
Big Data
Big data is high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making (Gartner.com). What separates big data from just data is the volume of the data, the speed at which the data grows, and the variety of sources from which the data comes from. Big data is in part a result of more devices being connected and being able to store, process and transmit data. IoT produces big data but at the same time is enabled by the bid data. On his article “Why Big Data is A Big Deal”, Jonathan Shaw stated that an important fact on the revolution of big data is that the revolution lies on improved statistical and computational methods not in increased storage. New ways of linking data sets will play a major role in generating new insights, while creative approaches to visualizing data will prove integral to the process of creating knowledge. In his work in Kenya, Nathan Eagle learned that big data alone cannot solve societal problems, he said in order to build flawless models from the data collected we must have real insights on what is happening on the ground. This is encouraging as it means that as human we have a big role to play in using big data to solve both business and societal problems. Big data is definitely an important force in IT and is going to be vital in shaping the future.
Big data is high-volume, high-velocity and high-variety information assets that demand cost-effective, innovative forms of information processing for enhanced insight and decision making (Gartner.com). What separates big data from just data is the volume of the data, the speed at which the data grows, and the variety of sources from which the data comes from. Big data is in part a result of more devices being connected and being able to store, process and transmit data. IoT produces big data but at the same time is enabled by the bid data. On his article “Why Big Data is A Big Deal”, Jonathan Shaw stated that an important fact on the revolution of big data is that the revolution lies on improved statistical and computational methods not in increased storage. New ways of linking data sets will play a major role in generating new insights, while creative approaches to visualizing data will prove integral to the process of creating knowledge. In his work in Kenya, Nathan Eagle learned that big data alone cannot solve societal problems, he said in order to build flawless models from the data collected we must have real insights on what is happening on the ground. This is encouraging as it means that as human we have a big role to play in using big data to solve both business and societal problems. Big data is definitely an important force in IT and is going to be vital in shaping the future.
Smart Machines
You might have heard of Google’s autonomous car, Deep Blue (a computer that played chess and beat a world champion in a chess game), Robots that perform surgery and various other “machines” that basically perform human tasks with virtually no human intervention. This is the rise of “The Second Machine Age” Andrew McAfee says, a professor at MIT. What is fascinating about these smart machines is their efficiency and accuracy in performing these tasks. Google’s autonomous car has a perfect record with accidents only being caused because it was either driven manually or a driver of another car being at fault, that’s according to Google. A big fear around smart machines is that they will take away people’s jobs because they will soon become viable alternatives to human workers (Stephen Prentice, Gartner Fellow). Smart machines are powered by data and artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms. These machines will provide a lot of benefits in healthcare, manufacturing and other sectors in the economy but there is a lot of inequality in income distribution and McAfee points out that we need more government collaboration in ensuring that the benefits of smart technology reaches 3rd world countries and economies.
You might have heard of Google’s autonomous car, Deep Blue (a computer that played chess and beat a world champion in a chess game), Robots that perform surgery and various other “machines” that basically perform human tasks with virtually no human intervention. This is the rise of “The Second Machine Age” Andrew McAfee says, a professor at MIT. What is fascinating about these smart machines is their efficiency and accuracy in performing these tasks. Google’s autonomous car has a perfect record with accidents only being caused because it was either driven manually or a driver of another car being at fault, that’s according to Google. A big fear around smart machines is that they will take away people’s jobs because they will soon become viable alternatives to human workers (Stephen Prentice, Gartner Fellow). Smart machines are powered by data and artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms. These machines will provide a lot of benefits in healthcare, manufacturing and other sectors in the economy but there is a lot of inequality in income distribution and McAfee points out that we need more government collaboration in ensuring that the benefits of smart technology reaches 3rd world countries and economies.
Data Security and Privacy
On his article “2016: The Year We Claim Our Privacy Back” Theo Priestley emphatically stated that we lost our privacy, years ago. What we believe is our private information, what we believe we own and control is very little. You might have received a promotional text message from a company you never gave your details to and wonder how they got your number, well it turns out you gave them, of course not directly. The amount of information about us we have on our Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Amazon, Ebay and other social networking and shopping sites is enormous and do we really know what these companies do with our information. How many of us reads the privacy policy in many sites? I don’t either! This just shows how courageous we are in giving up our information without asking, or are we? I just do not have the time to read those privacy statements and quite frankly I trust these companies, or maybe I have never thought about what they could do? Well the growth in connectivity of devices and data transmission is critical. Theo Priestley advocates for us to become regulators of our own information through open data. “We need access to everything we generate. On our terms. And we need the means to open that data to whoever we choose, on our terms. If I generate health information via wearable devices I want my doctor to access this, I want my life insurance company to access this. I don’t want it to be simply contained within a proprietary app and the only information I get back are the bar charts dreamed up by the creators” (Theo Priestley).
On his article “2016: The Year We Claim Our Privacy Back” Theo Priestley emphatically stated that we lost our privacy, years ago. What we believe is our private information, what we believe we own and control is very little. You might have received a promotional text message from a company you never gave your details to and wonder how they got your number, well it turns out you gave them, of course not directly. The amount of information about us we have on our Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Amazon, Ebay and other social networking and shopping sites is enormous and do we really know what these companies do with our information. How many of us reads the privacy policy in many sites? I don’t either! This just shows how courageous we are in giving up our information without asking, or are we? I just do not have the time to read those privacy statements and quite frankly I trust these companies, or maybe I have never thought about what they could do? Well the growth in connectivity of devices and data transmission is critical. Theo Priestley advocates for us to become regulators of our own information through open data. “We need access to everything we generate. On our terms. And we need the means to open that data to whoever we choose, on our terms. If I generate health information via wearable devices I want my doctor to access this, I want my life insurance company to access this. I don’t want it to be simply contained within a proprietary app and the only information I get back are the bar charts dreamed up by the creators” (Theo Priestley).
Context-Rich Systems
A context rich system is one that is alert of its surroundings and is able to respond appropriately to them (www.financialbrawn.com. This is one of Gartner’s top IT trends this year. Context rich systems will be enabled by the internet of things as, big data and cloud computing to name a few. In order for a system to understand its context it makes use of the sensory technology that IoT comes with and must be able to store and analyze the data in-real time in order to respond appropriately to its context. If you think about it the idea of context-rich systems is similar to smart machines and Google’s autonomous car for instance is embedded with technology that is able to understand its surroundings and take appropriate action to it.
A context rich system is one that is alert of its surroundings and is able to respond appropriately to them (www.financialbrawn.com. This is one of Gartner’s top IT trends this year. Context rich systems will be enabled by the internet of things as, big data and cloud computing to name a few. In order for a system to understand its context it makes use of the sensory technology that IoT comes with and must be able to store and analyze the data in-real time in order to respond appropriately to its context. If you think about it the idea of context-rich systems is similar to smart machines and Google’s autonomous car for instance is embedded with technology that is able to understand its surroundings and take appropriate action to it.
3-D Printing
You might have used a coffee maker to make coffee, in china there are vending machines that make a noodle meal on the spot, you might have also seen machine that prints artwork and writing on t-shirt in a matter of 2 minutes. Well how about printing a toy, a tool, a chair, a car! 3-D printing is a revolutionary innovation that promises to have many businesses re-thinking their product development strategies. 3-D printing will result in infinite customization because altering the design of a good will not require re-tooling but only a change in the instructions given to a software in a 3-D printing machine, 3-D printing also means that soon China will no longer be the world’s manufacturing powerhouse as 3-D printing will become cheaper as years go by and will reach consumers (Richard D’Aveni). The 3-D printing technology will definitely impact on jobs when it has matured as some jobs, e.g. assembling part of certain products will be up to the printing machine.
You might have used a coffee maker to make coffee, in china there are vending machines that make a noodle meal on the spot, you might have also seen machine that prints artwork and writing on t-shirt in a matter of 2 minutes. Well how about printing a toy, a tool, a chair, a car! 3-D printing is a revolutionary innovation that promises to have many businesses re-thinking their product development strategies. 3-D printing will result in infinite customization because altering the design of a good will not require re-tooling but only a change in the instructions given to a software in a 3-D printing machine, 3-D printing also means that soon China will no longer be the world’s manufacturing powerhouse as 3-D printing will become cheaper as years go by and will reach consumers (Richard D’Aveni). The 3-D printing technology will definitely impact on jobs when it has matured as some jobs, e.g. assembling part of certain products will be up to the printing machine.
Computing Everywhere
Everything will turn to have a user interface, more computer-like and this means user experience will be key (Forbes). This one is a direct result of IoT and it will have a huge impact on productivity and working as more and more people want to do things on the go, everywhere and with many kind of devices.
Advanced, Pervasive, Invisible Analytics
Data analytics will continue to grow due largely to the Internet of things producing big data, now every app, machine will need to be analytical in real-time and this type of analytics is the one that will power the internet of things as well as context-rich systems.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality has been around in gaming for a while with games immersing players into a whole world of adventure, innovators has decided to bring this to everyday computing. You might have heard of Google glass and Microsoft HoloLens, these are two examples of computing being virtualized. Virtual reality is also being used in education, healthcare and therapy with applications that immerse therapists to various context that their patient face in order for them to better understand their challenges and provide better care.
Everything will turn to have a user interface, more computer-like and this means user experience will be key (Forbes). This one is a direct result of IoT and it will have a huge impact on productivity and working as more and more people want to do things on the go, everywhere and with many kind of devices.
Advanced, Pervasive, Invisible Analytics
Data analytics will continue to grow due largely to the Internet of things producing big data, now every app, machine will need to be analytical in real-time and this type of analytics is the one that will power the internet of things as well as context-rich systems.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality has been around in gaming for a while with games immersing players into a whole world of adventure, innovators has decided to bring this to everyday computing. You might have heard of Google glass and Microsoft HoloLens, these are two examples of computing being virtualized. Virtual reality is also being used in education, healthcare and therapy with applications that immerse therapists to various context that their patient face in order for them to better understand their challenges and provide better care.
So with that said I want to go back to a point that I made earlier on about the internet of things and big data being at the center of everything. If you think of 3-D printing technology for instance, in order for that machine to print virtually any design ever imagined by humans it needs more than just instructions preloaded, 3-D printers will also need to be analytical so that what you say as a user you wanted printed comes exactly as you imagined it. Smart machines, context-rich systems are all powered by sensors and RFID technology, computing everywhere means every device must eventually be able to connect and transmit data to any other device and that also sounds like IoT. All of the trends discussed here are very important and are definitely interlinked as they affect each other, they used information from each other and also feed information to each other
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References :
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theopriestley/2015/07/16/the-3-elements-the-internet-of-things-needs-to-fulfil-real-value/
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2941106/internet-of-things/5-facets-of-the-coming-internet-of-things-boom.html
http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/the-internet-of-things-bigger/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2015/06/01/the-dangers-of-trusting-cloud-computing-over-personal-storage/2/
http://harvardmagazine.com/2014/03/why-big-data-is-a-big-deal
http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkerschberg/2014/10/10/6-technology-articles-you-must-read-today-a-look-at-analytics-business-intelligence-big-data-clustering-manufacturing-innovation/
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21578360-brain-work-may-be-going-way-manual-work-age-smart-machines
http://www.fin24.com/Tech/News/Smart-machines-to-increasingly-take-control-of-our-lives-20150615
http://www.information-age.com/it-management/strategy-and-innovation/123458776/get-smart-how-smart-machines-are-bringing-us-closer-together
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theopriestley/2015/07/12/2016-the-year-we-claim-our-privacy-back/2/
https://hbr.org/2013/03/3-d-printing-will-change-the-world
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theopriestley/2015/07/16/the-3-elements-the-internet-of-things-needs-to-fulfil-real-value/
http://www.computerworld.com/article/2941106/internet-of-things/5-facets-of-the-coming-internet-of-things-boom.html
http://www.wired.com/insights/2014/11/the-internet-of-things-bigger/
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2015/06/01/the-dangers-of-trusting-cloud-computing-over-personal-storage/2/
http://harvardmagazine.com/2014/03/why-big-data-is-a-big-deal
http://www.forbes.com/sites/benkerschberg/2014/10/10/6-technology-articles-you-must-read-today-a-look-at-analytics-business-intelligence-big-data-clustering-manufacturing-innovation/
http://www.economist.com/news/business/21578360-brain-work-may-be-going-way-manual-work-age-smart-machines
http://www.fin24.com/Tech/News/Smart-machines-to-increasingly-take-control-of-our-lives-20150615
http://www.information-age.com/it-management/strategy-and-innovation/123458776/get-smart-how-smart-machines-are-bringing-us-closer-together
http://www.forbes.com/sites/theopriestley/2015/07/12/2016-the-year-we-claim-our-privacy-back/2/
https://hbr.org/2013/03/3-d-printing-will-change-the-world