Why Industrial IoT (IIoT) will prove to be a game changer
The world is experiencing yet another industrial revolution, and this time it is IoT or the Internet of Things that is causing it. With more and more companies adopting IoT, IIoT or Industrial IoT has gained a lot of importance. IIoT is a sub-division of IoT. It helps in making industrial processes more accessible, efficient, and, in most cases, more affordable.
IIoT is all about harnessing the synergy of the connected devices to acquire better data, which in turn results in better output for consumers. So what can we expect in the coming years? How will IIoT shape our future? Here is a list of our predictions:
LPWAN will be the next big thing and will make communication easier.
Current industrial systems depend on disparate and proprietary networks for communication. Such networks don’t help in data exchange, and there are topographical restrictions that make it difficult to utilize their full potential. LPWANs or Low-Power Wide Area Networks can help us counter such difficulties and reduce costs.
These LPWANs are expected to support more than 3 billion IoT devices. They have ultra-low power consumption, intense penetration power, and a long-range. This will massively boost communications in industrial processes. The cost-effective nature of LPWANs will be a further incentive for industries to use them.
Making LPWANs mainstream will require sufficient hardware availability and security so that the information processed is safe and secure. It will also require wider availability and ample personnel deployment. However, we can safely conclude that LPWANs are the future and will be a part of everyday industrial life.
End-to-end encryption will finally be a reality
Industrial data or data as a whole has been vulnerable to frequent attacks in the recent past. It has led to organizations losing millions of dollars, and this can be linked to the sensitivity of IoT devices. Since it is a relatively new technology, no one has yet claimed that it is 100 percent secure, which is a significant hurdle. With IoT devices gaining wider acceptability, we need a security system that can keep the data intact without any intrusion.
A possible way out is the use of the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) in conjunction with Transport Layer Security (TLS). AES is useful for data link layer encryption in relatively low-power IoT networks, whereas TLS is an application layer cryptographic protocol that helps secure web communications. Industries must use them together for end-to-end encryption, which will ensure data flow without any leakage. We are already experiencing a massive increase in the data produced by IoT devices, which will only make encryption more difficult. Therefore, we will need solutions that will reassure industries about the safety of IoT devices.
Inter-dependence of IoT products will give rise to a new field.
IoT devices possess the ability to communicate with each other and depend on each other to operate in an industrial environment. Although their technical specifications and makers are different, they are able to communicate easily.
The nature of an IoT environment is such that any single device is incapable of producing complete information. Data has to be passed through and processed by several tools to make it viable for use. This very structure should create a different field that will be fuelled by vendors providing exclusive solutions suiting a particular industry’s needs.
This will ensure that the industries can maximize the potential of the IoT devices employed by them. With the help of these custom solutions, companies will be able to find out the problems in their operations and address them to improve their financial results.
With the help of IoT, industries will be able to create digital copies of critical assets
What do X-rays do? They create a digital print of a part of our body or our entire body, which allows doctors to find out what is wrong and what needs repair. Such a process is all set to be introduced in the industrial world as well.
IoT will be able to provide a digital twin of any physical object; this will enable quicker, more accurate, and less costly solutions. It will also help industries decrease their idle time significantly, which will provide a fillip to their production. Gartner has forecasted that nearly half of all large enterprises will make use of digital copies in the near future to aid their production processes.
It is a welcome change as it is expected to cut down industries’ operating costs and unforeseen failures significantly. Linking the physical world to the digital world will lead to other synergy benefits as well, such as obtaining the cost-effective and reliable output.
Edge computing will see a massive growth
TechRepublic, an original content provider in the field of technology, forecasts that by the year 2020, the data collected by IoT devices will reach a massive 507.50 zettabyte. It will be impossible for machines to process such enormous data centrally. This will lead to the growth of edge computing, wherein data processing occurs as close to the source producing it as possible. Not only will this be more convenient, it will also reduce latency and the possibility of data loss while transferring. It also means that more and more organizations will look to harness the data produced by IoT in real-time and create better products that are in conjunction with the processed data. We will see more organizations employing the infrastructure required for edge computing rather than passing the data to another source for it to be processed.
Conclusion
Industries no longer have a choice of whether to be a part of this industrial revolution or let it pass. If they are unwilling to be the flag bearers of this change, they will be out of the already fierce competition. Those who think that IoT is a farce will lose out in the long run. IIoT has been subject to a lot of hype, which may seem unreasonable to an extent, but it is largely justified. We will see increased use of IIoT devices, which will fuel growth and innovation in the coming years. We can also expect more and more industries to join the bandwagon of the already growing list of IoT embracers. To stay ahead of the curve, you must employ IIoT and use it in the best possible manner.
About HashStudioz Expertise in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)
IOT Solutions help organizations boost operational efficiency and transform their business need to differentiators. SMART, CONNECTED and SECURE.
We at HashStudioz design application program and interfaces that are used to provide internet to computing devices. In (IoT) Internet of Things offering, we work on Big Data Technologies, machine learning, predictive analytics, Factory Automation, Process Automation, Smart Lock System, Smart Security System, Remote Control Systems, Smart Things, Automatic Car Tracking Adapter, etc to name a few. Contact us to know more.
