Internet of things (IoT) is currently one of the fastest growing modern technologies. It is opening a new world of innovation and possibilities that were not even imaginable a decade ago.
With the continuous development of IoT, almost everything can now be connected to internet. Devices, appliances, and infrastructure can easily be controlled from anywhere with the use of an electronic device.
As per Gartner, there will be more than $20 billion IoT devices globally by 2020. This shows a very high growth in number of IoT devices in coming years, which will impact the way humans live and the way they work.
Microsoft, a leader in Forrester’s Industrial IoT Software Platforms, announced investment of $5 billion in IoT technology over the next four years, with a goal to drive business and world transformation with connected solutions.
The tech giant has revealed the top IoT stories on its blog which drove the most interest and excitement in 2018. Along with it, Microsoft has also analyzed what is coming for this technology in 2019.
Top IoT trends and predictions for 2019
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Smart spaces
Smart spaces are used to automate home, office, and buildings using IoT and AI. Typically, the projects based on smart spaces are focused on operational factors of building management, like infrastructure maintenance, water, and power usage.
People are trying to explore smart spaces more to understand its potential in influencing every day productivity and increase positive interactions. They are looking to expand smart spaces from just buildings to stadiums, schools, hospitals, banks, and other places.
To help its customers and partners in exploring further, Microsoft provides Azure Sphere and Azure Digital Twins. These solutions help in managing and improving the built environment in real time.
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Intelligent edge
Edge computing is transforming the businesses, by reducing IoT solution costs, and providing improved security, lower latency, increased reliability and interoperability with traditional devices.
Edge computing has the potential to enable dynamic communication among several things. IT teams in organizations are using this technology to address infrastructure and security issues to make IoT a reality.
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Open standards and interoperability
Interoperability has become a necessity for enterprises, as they look for simple and comprehensive solutions that can enable connectivity between IoT devices and traditional equipment.
This is critical especially for manufacturers. They are using open standards to enable openness and interoperability, while maintaining right security standards.
Also read: Microsoft launches new program to skill Indian students in AI and cloud tech
IoT contributes significantly to the digital transformation. New ecosystems and solutions are arising under IoT space that have the potential to unify data and insights from various places and enable new possibilities.
Microsoft will continue to reveal new solutions to address the challenges in IoT, and provide built-in connectivity, real-time performance, as well as security at the intelligent edge.
Source: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/the-biggest-iot-stories-of-2018/
