Six attributes that make up the ‘things’ in the Internet Of Things

Just before the new year, PTC acquired hot Internet of things startup ThingWorx for approximately $112 million. PTC’s strategy appears to be positioning itself as an indispensable player and partner to industries that deal with the Internet of things (IOT).

ThingWorx in early December 2013, in London, sponsored ThingMonk, the Internet of Things Conference organized by RedMonk.  The conference brought together 20 great speakers along with several leading players in the IoT space sharing their vision on hardware, sensor data, integration, and user experience for the Internet of Things. PTC has been very busy acquiring various tech companies and most likely wants a slice of the market, the Internet of things has the potential to create – a whopping $6.2 trillion annually by 2025.  (McKinsey Global Institute)

With all of these commercial moves surrounding IOT what does it mean for the ordinary man in the street? The shift to making everything mobile connected and internet enabled has already begun. This shift is also compelling companies to undergo a radical transformation, and its obvious that major players like PTC and ThingWorx are busy preparing for it. McKinsey tells us “in what’s called the Internet of Things, sensors and actuators embedded in physical objects—from roadways to pacemakers—are linked through wired and wireless networks, often using the same Internet Protocol (IP) that connects the Internet. These networks churn out huge volumes of data that flow to computers for analysis”. 

To make sense of that statement, it is perhaps important to list the six main attributes that make up the ‘things’ in the Internet Of Things:

  1. Connectivity
  2. Sensors:
  3. Quality and reliability
  4. Energy-efficiency
  5. Cost-effectiveness
  6. Security

The Internet of Things incorporates a new landscape where everyday objects, like appliances or buildings or organics like animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to automatically transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.  Market intelligence provider, IDC (International Data Corporation) has declared the Internet of things “will change everything and be “a new construct in the information and communications technology world“. To put that in plain english, the Internet of things, and soon the internet of everything, is going to be the next large scale market transition. That means for the vast majority of devices or things not currently connected, will be.. sooner rather than later and the network is going to be instrumental in that process.

Image credit via comsoc.org