Understanding the Internet of Things (IoT)
At the epicenter of the Industry 4.0 revolution is the Internet of Things, more commonly referred to as IoT. Most recent advancements in business, such as artificial intelligence or cloud services, can be credited to the IoT. Its reach has been wide and has changed the ways enterprises interact with us and one another.
But what is the IoT? In today’s blog, that exactly what we’ll be exploring.
Understanding IoT in Technical Terms
In completely technical terms, the IoT is a system made up of interconnected computing devices, both mechanical and digital, with the ability to transfer large amounts of data over their network. This network uses unique identifiers for different types of data and requires no human to human or human to computer interactions.
Understanding IoT in Simple Terms
A simpler way to understanding the IoT is by first realizing that whatever you are using to read this blog is connected to the internet. The same way that you would connect your laptop, your phone, or any other device to the internet, the concept of IoT is to take as many things as possible and connect it all to the internet—essentially, connecting all devices and machines to the internet and allowing them to communicate with one another.
Why It’s Necessary
Now that we know that the IoT connects different devices in the world through the internet, let’s look at why we do this.
Connecting things to the internet lets them send information back and forth. Any device or object that can do this is usually called a smart device. While a smart device doesn’t need to run on a supercomputer, it can connect to them.
The ability to send and receive information lets smart devices keep track of large amounts of data, learn from that data, and process the available information in ways that automatically develop solutions and implement them.
Imagine using the IoT on a farm to reduce the manual labor a farmer has to do. Using soil sensors that can transfer data over the internet, we can track how dry the soil is and when more water needs to be added. Information about the soil is received, computed, and the IoT connects to the irrigation system to switch on the water supply for a dried-out field.
The IoT provides modern businesses with many more uses other than just for water and soil. Processes like managed cloud services, data lake building, and DevOps services help businesses work faster and more efficiently. Explore the benefits of IoT through the AWS cloud services we offer at Continuum Innovations. Get in touch with our team to get started.