Hitachi Data Systems COO for the UK & Ireland Lynn Collier has arranged her decorate wreath for the holidays, dusted down her DVD copy of Titanic and laid out a couple of predictions for the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2017. It’s beginning to look a lot like sector-specific intelligence…
Follow the cloud model
As we know, there is no cloud. Rather instead, there is the cloud computing model of service-based application delivery over a communications pipe commonly known as the Internet.
So then, cloud 101 misnomers notwithstanding… we can look at the cloud model and see that once the first clouds took shape and the Earth cooled, what followed was ‘finessing’ of cloud delivery options so that we can now buy clouds with specific memory tuning, specific Input/Output abilities and specific storage, networking shapes and so on.
That word specific is important, but wait… there’s more.
Task, job, role, function & market-specific
What then happened (in cloud land) was the development of task, job, role, function or market-specific clouds.
Suddenly we saw Customer Relationship Management (CRM) cloud, Human Resources (HR) clouds and so on. The difference with this software is that it was built to be delivered as a web service, so most of the same CRM and HR (or other) functions could be delivered, but a few of the technical elements were different so that storage, logins and access levels were architecturally distinct.
These chunks of software weren’t really radically different from a CRM or HR perspective, but a) they could be Continuously updated (Caps C deliberate) and also b) they could provide more specific connected functionality.
The IoT gets sector-specific
Hitachi Data Systems COO for the UK & Ireland Lynn Collier points to specificity as a key differentiator for the IoT in the year ahead.
“Organisations are already unlocking value from IoT and we are all aware of the real business benefits it can bring to an organisation. In 2017, partner organisations – with their sector-specific insights, specialist knowledge and collaboration partnerships – will play a critical role in helping companies to integrate IoT into their current infrastructure or new cloud-based services in a way that will yield business-critical data and insights,” said Collier, in a conversation this week with Internet of Business.
Collier could have commented on any other aspect of the IoT, but she didn’t.
Platform integration, spiralling standards, Application Programming Interface (API) connection and security are easy picking low hanging fruit in terms of IoT spokesperson commentary hotspots.
Sector-specific demands skills-specific
“Yet we have a long way to go; the proliferation of IOT and big data means we’re seeing a skills gap in many developed nations and within the tech industry,” argues Collier.
Saying that algorithms and connected devices and systems will continue to take hold in our lives, Collier argues that as a result, making these architecturally-specific skills accessible to our students and workers should be a priority in 2017.
“Ultimately consumers and businesses already expect a ubiquitous experience across all devices, platforms and with all vendors, but we need the skills to make the most of these technologies. Enterprise technology has come so far in such a short time, but in order to push through the next big hurdle, we must ensure businesses and our students have the specific skills for the specific way our platforms are evolving to get the job done,” said the Hitachi Data Systems COO.
Let’s be specific then, we can then be quite specific about the specificity emanating from the Internet of Things.