What is IoT — Internet of Things?

Gianluca Busato
Enkronos
Published in
4 min readDec 1, 2022

The openness of the Internet and the accessibility of the network allow to connect a multitude of objects for a multitude of uses, allowing the whole to communicate. The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) says nothing else when defining the Internet of Things as “a global infrastructure for the information society, which enables advanced services by interconnecting objects (physical or virtual) through existing or evolving interoperable information and communication technologies.

Any object that can connect to an open network on the Internet is potentially a connected object. It is in its uses that it finds its usefulness, uses defined by embedded programs, algorithms, or by solutions deported to servers (in the cloud) that receive information from objects, sensors for example, store it, analyze it, process it, and eventually automate actions that are sent back to the objects.

If the ‘general public’ uses are beginning to be known, smartphone, watch or connected household equipment, home automation, e-health, it is especially in its industrial dimension that the IoT offers extraordinary potential, from the simplest in sensors and measurement, to the most complex, robotics, digital commands, remote control, etc. We will then talk about IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things).

According to the latest statistics, there will be 150 billion objects connected to the Internet by 2025 and billions of users.

What is IoT?

The IoT, or Internet of Things, refers to connected devices that receive and transfer data over a wireless network. Designed and configured by engineers, they require almost no human intervention to operate. These objects connected to the Internet can take the form of any physical object (connected car, watch, glasses…).

Image source: https://www.vecteezy.com/free-vector/internet-of-things

The IoT, in full growth, allows all kinds of connected objects to be developed

These objects have the particularity of being able to communicate and transmit information to other connected objects (Example: the humidity sensor detects a lack or an overflow of water; it then sends a signal to the computer program as well as to the owner of the plot, and then allows the valves to act accordingly).

These connected objects are also referred to as smart objects, because they are machine-to-machine communication, without the need for a human as an intermediary. This is the major change. Until now, computers, and therefore the Internet, needed humans to feed them with data.

Today, the IoT is a bridge between the physical and the virtual world. The purpose of connected objects is therefore to adapt to the needs of Man, but also to his environment.

From a technical point of view, each connected object has a standardized digital identity ID, (such as an IP address for example) which exists to work with a wireless communication system, such as LoRaWan, Bluetooth or WiFi. Finally, these objects are equipped with sensors, which retrieve information.

This technology integrates a computer system with different objects and allows users to save time and control them remotely.

What are the advantages of IoT for you?

  • Time saving: Information in real and delayed time, less unnecessary travel, programming, and automation of certain tasks.
  • Cost reduction: Reduction of energy, monitoring, storage, labor expenses…
  • Increased productivity: thanks to the numerous data collected by the sensors, the teams are more autonomous and productive.

What is the future of the IoT?

Currently, the Internet of Things is an integral part of everyone’s daily life. Although we don’t pay attention to it, connected objects facilitate the smallest activities of its users. They also help the development of each sector of activity they feed.

When connected devices send and receive data from each other, they generate huge amounts of data, stored in what is called big data. The latter is used to analyze the billions of data that is emitted by the IoT. It can then process and classify them so that connected devices can improve their automatic decision-making.

The IoT is ubiquitous in today’s world. It connects billions of devices and billions of humans. Currently, the Internet of Things is considered one of the must-have tools to create, modify and share information. For the moment, only a tiny part of the technology is exploited. So it holds a bright future for the modern world. According to Cisco and the Gartner Institute, the number of connected objects will reach 50 billion by 2020. This number will continue to grow over the years, reaching 125 billion in 2030, according to IHS Markit.

Given these data, we are witnessing a true digital revolution on a global scale. The Internet of Things is likely to change the lifestyle of the entire world’s population within a few years.

Would you like to create your IOT service? Contact Enkronos today.

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