Stay or TENT Internet of Things can help attain new levels of efficiency in all spheres related to human life t would probably be an exaggeration to compare it with that typical pachyderm puzzle. For the characters in the play are sensing it full well that they are touching something of a huge elephant, which will Create transformational and not just transitional waves, once it gains momentum. The issue is: how to cope with its projected gargantuan pace something which has begun becoming visible ‘on the ground and Is likely to be the story of the next decade. There are issues and challenges but there is also unanimity that 11, or in more spe- cific terms, 1oT (internet of things), is all set to usher in a evolution, which may change human life forever, in all respects. The sensors-enabled increasing connectivity between machines empowered by tremendous technological inno- vations in the spheres like cloud computing, big data mining and data analytics in the last one decade will bring in a regime, wherein devices around us will be talking to each other and taking smarter decisions. ‘And this phedomenon will be section-ag- nostic. While it will help enterprises to remark- ably improve their operations by weeding out the inefficiencies in their systems, it will also be a catalyst for the efficient implementation of social programmes (healthcare, education, ete) oon a large scale. Nothing surprising, its emer sence is being viewed as the evolution of a new “God of all things, rather than just of ‘small’ or ‘big’ things. Some of it may appear out to be a straight Liftoff from a science fiction. Imagine rising in the morning and, as soon as you switch off your alarm clock, a message being sent to your gey- ser to warm the water; or your wearable device (more like a wrist wateh) telling you in the mid- le of your office hour that you have spent enough time sitting and it’s time to take a short walk, which will be good for your health; or, sensors in your refrigerator sending the messagethat the milk shelf is empty and it needs to be filled immediately. How about your LPG delivery boy turning up suddenly at your door steps with the new supply, without you contacting them, because the sen- Sor was Keeping the dealer informed about the recedinglevel of fuel; or, your ikdepartment su denly asking about your well-being? The CCTV camera, which you Walked through, while enter. Ing into the office may also be empowered with capabilities to monitor your vital health stats in not so distant a future. How about your ac turn- ing off on its own, the moment you leave the ‘oom; or being updated on your smart phones fon a daily basis on your consumption pattern of basic utilities ike power and water. Will it not help you to use these essential resources ‘more judiciously? On the enterprise side, forget about what global giants like GE can accomplish with tor. Here is simple scenario. You are a mid-sized ‘manufacturing enterprise running some units, ‘You may be diligent in getting your machinery regularly serviced. But still you can never antic. ipate, if something goes wrong suddenly affect- ing your assembly line. How about using sensors with your machinery, which can send you warn- {ng signal in advance, helping you to take pro- active decision rather than forced to remain in a reactive mode? Or, for that matter, a pharma ‘manufacturing company keeping a direct tab, sitting anywhere in the world, on the tempera ‘ure maintained in the transit vehicle through ‘out the different legs of its journey in another corner of the globe. ‘And, on the social initiative side, which is the cote constituency of a progaramme like ‘Digital India’, tor sits just in the middle of the entire epic scale design. If the words of the market observers are to be believed, new age concepts like smart city are difficult to imagine without well-defined ior architecture, ‘These are merely a handful of basic examples, some of which have begun touching the imple- ‘mentation line in different pockets of the world, And, there is no doubt in anybody's mind that given its all-encompassing nature, it will be a ‘multirllion dollar opportunity over the next decade rising significantly from the present level of around $300 billion globally. Different agencies at this stage are, of course, furnishing different estimates mostly veering around the potential economic value of this business, “This is poised to usher in the biggest revolution sinct the advent of internet,” says Stefan Sjostrom, ve Public sector, Asia, Microsoft (se interview). “lot is going to be a massive business oppor tunity because it will make the world a smarter place to live,” concurs Kavitha Mohammad, director, industrial solutions group, public sec- tor, Asia-Pacific Japan, Intel. Jonas Haggard, chief solution officer, Sensorise Digital. Ser vices, pitches in with a three *M’ formula: " If 1996-2005 was the decade of basie mobility and, 2006-15 was the decade of multi-media, then 2016-25 would be the decade of 2M {machine to machine), connected by billions of sensors across the globe.” ‘No doubt, the rr industry is filled with enthu- siasm unbound with the promising prospects of lot. Talk to anybody within the industey ci cles today and chances are that they will tell you that a specific lot cell has been created within the company, which is exploring new opportu nities. Though, many of them may not be forth ‘coming when you ask for the details. Quite understandable, given the fact that itis the early hours for the segment and you would nat like to tell the competition what you are cooking in the kitchen. They may even tend to duck the ques- tion on their investments and projected returns in the medium to long run, But the point which ‘you will not miss out in their utterances is the unprecedented windfall they are all expecting over the next decade, Somewhere, they seem to bbe weighing various options as how to ride this Ww A Amit Phadris, cisco Sumit Chowdhury, GAIA Smart Citeselephant elegantly. Understanding IoT In the marketplace, you will come across sev- eral definitions of jor. The most tom-tommed one being ~ it will eventually be the mother turf of all technological innovations happened Shalil Gupta, associate vr, insights & consulting, IDC, a noted global IT consultancy & research firm, counters this argument strongly. “lot entails intersection of technologies brought in by cloud computing, big data analytics, social business mobility and security. Individually these technologies have reached to an inflection in the recent past. But is it precisely the case? point and they are unlikely to bring any further ‘loT can be an effective social equaliser tool’ In conversation with Ritwik Sinha, Stefan Sjostrom, vice-president, Public sector, Asia, Microsoft, affirms that io can provide tremendous Support to revamp Indian social sector, among many other things ‘outside the internet connectiv- ity equation today. But, pro- gressively, they will get more aligned to the computing the lot business, globally standing at $200- 300 billion, will grow manifold in the next six. Continue to go down the learn- ing curve, we willdo more with Jess something that we have bbeen doing for last 35 years. Is there a standard power. And it’s @ social equa- seven years and become definition of tor? ler, because when you have a staggering $23 trillion _1oT seems all set to Everybody seem to have ow: cost devices available for business. How realistic are succeed. But does It mean hhis own definition. rural development, it changes these projections? moving to an era, where ‘oT is a wide area resulting in whole notion around educa- Thevalueliesinhow much sav- machines will become various ways of putting things tion, citizen services, micro-fi- ingsandhowmuch productive more dominant? together. You can think of bil nancing, etc, So, technology use can be put into the play. would submit to you that, as lions of sensors, which you can has a powerful way of being a Typically, problems are solved we do, we help the world to use in manufacturing devices like elevators, as pipelines, ‘etc. The crux is that you draw social equaliser. today, but they are solved at a level that it costs more. Going by a projection, data science shift focus to high value tasks, Technology will take over Do you also have any ‘many, many things in a clever yalue from those connections. dedicated programme or data insight itself wil offer way to free us up to do greater ‘This is a ciitical micro-eco- Mike 18M's Watson 2 $70 billion business oppor- things. There sa massive online nomic change after the advent programme for tunity by 2020. There are alot education portal that has been ‘of intemet. We, as a company, promotion of tor? Of estimates to look into the made in india. Itis instruments believeinmobilefirstandcloud first world, connecting huge amount of devices and dravw- ing value outof them while we safeguard security and privacy. Within those lies opportunities. and some challenges. Internet is the base driver. So, how do you envisage lot panning out and making a dif- ference in a marketplace like India? We are at the cusp of an ternet revolution, with one- fourth of India’s population sing internet, But this figure is [projected to more than double Inthe next five years, am a firm believer that we are moving towards clos- ‘We are a platform company. ‘Watson is a. solution pro- ‘gramme trying to do many things. We, on the other hand, help highly specialised compa- ‘ies with great amount of depth expertise, getting huge scalability on our platform. Small is beautiful and peo- ple who have got the domain ‘expertise and scalablity to do that, we provide them a global feach with our computing ower. And these are nimble, ‘could be small entities coming ‘out of ’Make in India’ kind of innovation. We literally work with thousands of partners ‘and info, you will see much of future and say how big is the problem, how elegant are the solution and who is going to execute that and build bus- ness models for the market. | would submit to you that the very notion of looking into the technology landscape and mobilise the local. software ‘economy, in India, there is a tremendous amount of capa- bilities and skis. Having them to focus on specific problem rather than trying them to do ‘everything is going to free up their solutions and we will get better results. So, here, itisnot the case of making too much (of investments and wait for like these which are the bed- rock of critical changes. When we could get affordable edu- ‘ation for everyone and take it to the rural areas, imagine the kind of value it creates. {Is 107 the culmination of major technological cchurnings which we have seen in the last couple of decades? I think, lor takes it to another level. It takes us into a space where we have never been before. So, we are going to ‘draw much more value from it, and when you think about better utilisation of resources, ing that last mie ofruralestab- these interplay. the returns. Here, you willstart better insight, better decision. lishments and vilages. There getting returns as soon as you making, everybody is going to ‘are pockets, where people are There are reports that make investments, So, we will gain from it. .cone ‘Menatntgn ‘es tines Caan oe aye million, which is projected to more than dou- ble by 2020, has proven expertise in 1, is grad- wating to 4G wireless regime, has a government which has initiated an epic scale ‘Digital India’ progranime and is now fuelled by the dreams of datagiri? On the enterprise side, a report by IDC ‘makes it clear that the adoption is at the nascent stage, The report talks about five distinctive stage of lor adoption — ad hoc, opportunistic, repeat able, managed and optimised (see chart: The tot Maturity-scape). “Things are happening in India at ad hoc level, the preliminary experimentation stage. ‘That is why you may not find Indian 17 majors too much gung ho about it because they are get- ting piecemeal projects. But, the corporate inter €st is rising and I expect the scenario to change in next 24 months,” says Gupta of 1D¢. Accord- ing to Kishore Shetty, head, lor cell, Microsoft India, “Many people probably still look at it as ‘ hype. They can only be responded by provid- ing them with effective and practical solution. It may take some time” "1 guess that phase is over when it was con- sidered hype,” adds Ramamoorthy of Gartner. “Gradually, things are falling in place and we are noticing even Indian 11 companies getting involved in more fot projects executing them at roof of concept stage.” ‘Though Indian firms are not that forthcom- ing vis-2-vis their MNC counterparts in divulg- ing the details of their tor programmes, most of them claim of having a dedicated tor cell. “Info- sys has a dedicated focus on tot and it is one Of the core practice areas under the larger engi- neering services practice. We have developed ‘multiple solutions across industry verticals that attempt to address the industry problems, such as asset efficiency that aims at increasing ser- viceable life of an asset, ike landing gear of an. aircrait, precision crop management to improve the agriculture yield, connected healthcaresolu- tion enabling remote patient monitoring and telematics solution to increase driver's safety,” explains Sudip Singh of Infosys. Infosys is also working with industry group consortiums such as Industrial Internet Con- sortiums (lI) to develop standardised solution addressing specific industry problems. It has also Joined hands with Acatech in Germany to cre- ate the maturity index for organisations adopt- ing industry 4.0 standards that will help provide more clarity for organisations on the journey to mature their ior journey. According to a research estimate, Indian tor business opportunity will be about $20 billion by 2020 (excluding hardware) and it will not take much time 10 see more action after the present phase of preliminary experimentation is ‘over. “For example, in one of its chiller plants, Amul has deployed sensors, which not only help in monitoring the temperature of the chamber, but also judge the density of the milk filled in there,” says Sumit Chowdhury, CEO, GAIA Smart Gities (and former Cio, Reliance fio). The former CO, Reliance fio, had setup Gaia Smart Cities last year, with the primary aim of being in the fore- front of offering made in India loT solutions for solving urban and industrial problems in india. Their utility metering service is at @ pilot stage in several cities across the country. On the enter- prise side, the company claims to be working on‘users outcome La seems” ene ao ner ‘tele OT rts innovation. Combining them will bring in larger innovation. jor is one of them,” he explains (se the graph Digital Transformation). “The other major applications emerging out of the convergence of cloud, computing, big data analytics, social business mobility and secu rity are: augmented & virtual reality; congni tive systems; robotics and 3D printing, “But lot is going to be biggest of them, since it can cover everything,” Gupta clarifies. “Convergence of other technologies may be ‘one way of looking at it but that does not nec- essarily mean that they will only converge for Jor,” emphasises Amit Phadnis, president, engi- neering & India site leader, Cisco Systems. “But, yes, when seen through the prism of tot, their Convergence can bring a world of difference in attaining a new level of efficiency when used in spheres like hospital equipment and transporta- tion. Ifyou are using sensors on aircraft, you can create a lot of data, It can be analysed and you can draw business intelligence from it helping in taking some useful business decision,” he points ‘out, Cisco incidentally has gone a step further in defining tot by coining a new term called lof couple of years ago (internet of everything), which entails process and data. “tot infuses the brain into things - and makes them think..by putting software into hardware and then by building analytics capabilities on top,” explains Sudip Singh, senior VP, global busi- ness unit & head, engineering services, Infosys. “This technology provides the identity to phys ical and virtual objects, builds inter-connectiv- ity between them so that real time insights can. be generated from data. There are a lot of prom- ses made by lo across different industry sectors both on the consumer side (connected car, cor nected healthcare, connected retail, etc) as well as the enterprise side with industrial tot (smarter factories, digital twins, assets and machines)". ‘The emphasis on building analytics capabilities ‘make it clear that loT as a technology comprise the quintessential features of analytics to deliver the desired outcome. And the typical journey of, data - the bedrock of IoT story - from sensors to gateways to cloud/ servers to big data to smart hones or other internet enabled devices does highlight its inherent feature of drawing some- thing from the established set of technologies. ‘There Is another set of theory, which refuses connecting things, people, ara) OF Teens Derek Kuhn, BlackBerryINTERNE oF eens ‘ Manish Gupta, Xerox Kavitha Mohammad, Intel to recognise lof-as a critical technological churn- ‘ing. For them, it is something else. "I look at it ‘more as a business improvement tool than a ‘technological process,” says Ganesh Ramamoor- thy, vice-president, research, Gartner. “It's all about helping your business to adopt effi- cient operational modalities. Same outcome is expected when it is applied elsewhere and it has to be understood properly”. Concurs Kavitha Mohammad of Intel: “The Us? of lot is clearly the Outcome for which the targeted segments will opt for it” The global scene There could be different prisms to examine the proposition which lot is bringing on the table but the fact of the matter is: it is paving the way for a world where sensors will be dominat- {ng our lives. Almost as eyes and ears for most of the things we do. And when combined M2M internet-led connectivity and analytics power, the process will ultimately also result in superior decision making. Here is a projected estimate for M2M connectivity as itis unfolding globally. According to a report released by noted global IT consultancy and research firm Gartner late last ‘year, 6.4 billion connected things will be in use ‘worldwide in 2016 ~ a hefty jump of over 30 per- ‘cent from 2015 level. And in next four years, it slated to register over three fold growth reach- ing to 20.8 billion by 2020. In practical terms, it ‘means 5.5 million new things getting connected ‘every day in the current year. In terms of hardware spending resulting from tremendous growth in the M2M segment, con- sumer applications will amount to $546 billion in 2016, while the use of connected things in the enterprise will drive $868 billion in 2016. ‘Ona cumulative basis, the hardware business to support 1oT growth Is slated to cross a stagger- ing $3 trillion by the end of 2020 (see charts 2 & 43), A recently released report by Ericsson clearly earmarks that M2M connectivity segment will ‘overshadow even the mobility connectivity in the medium run, “Of the 28 billion total devices that will be connected by 2021, close to 16 billion will be tor devices," the report said. The drive is clearly led by the likes of global IT giants ~ IBM, Microsoft, Cisco, Intel, Accen- ture, SAP, etc - who had probably, read the ‘seeds of the future’ much better than the others. 18M, for example, is running a Watson IoT pro- gramme for quite some time meant to devise effective solutions for its customers. “Watson Internet of Things Platform Is a fully-managed, loud-hosted service, which makes it simple to derive value from jor devices. We have more than 750 107 patents, and are engaged in extend- ‘ing the power of cognitive computing to the billions of connected devices, sensors and sys- ‘tems that comprise the 107,” informs Prashant Pradhan, Watson leader, 18M India & SA. “IBN Is betting big on Iof and is looking forward to invest $3 billion over the next four years to establish a new tot unit. The company is also building a cloud-based open platform designed to help clients and ecosystem partners build 1oT solutions,” he adds, ‘We clearly recognise the growing digit sation movement in the world as our future growth driver and here lot is an integral com- Ponent,” maintains Amit Phadnis of Cisco. ‘The company had released a forecast last year, which had underlined M2M connections grow- ing nearly three-fold from 4.9 billion in 2015 to 12.2 billion by 2020, representing nearly half (46 per cent) of total connected devices. Micro- soft, with its cloud computing expertise, is also exuding confidence that its leading platform status will not only help thousands of SMES or now age innovators across the world to connect with the larger global market but also in serv- ing the communities with healthcare and edu- cation specific solutions. “We want to be in the forefront of the digital transformation happen- {ng around us,” quips Sjostrom. Late last month, Europe's biggest software maker SAP announced investing $2.2 billion for 1oT specific solutions that would help in connecting a wide range of products ~ from washing machines to cars. Global wireless device major Zebra, which had. acquired Motorola’s Enterprise Solution Unit two years back, claims its push for lor is increasingly becoming strong. “We have a platform called Zapr and we cater to niche industries,” points ut Deep Agarwal, director, regional sales, India, Zebra ‘Technologies APiC. “We produce print. ‘ers which are part of 1ot eco-system. After the acquisition of Motorola, our lor programme in wireless devices has become more robust. All ‘our new devices are made with this prime real- Isation that ultimately they are going to be partNE TNT Kenny Ng, Alcatel Lucent | of tof eco-system”. The company, in the recent past, has been launching over 10 new wireless products mostly meant for industrial use every Year. Telecom companies too are gung ho with the new prospects unveiled by for ‘Take the case of Blackberry - it might be los- Ing its hold on the handset market but it is also operating an enterprise solution unit which has established a dedicated oT platform. “The Black- Berry lof Platform is a trusted foundation for Jot, providing intelligent solutions to complex user problems,” says Derek Kuhn, senior vice- president, BlackBerry lof. “Currently, we are focussed on over-the-air (OTA) software updates for the connected embedded computing indus- try including automotive and BlackBerry Radar, our end-to-end, secure asset tracking solution for the freight transportation industry. But there are many other opportunities in the transporta- tion value chain, such as cold-chain shipping, and we are investigating which areas would be ‘the best fit for our expertise and technology.” ‘On the other side of the spectrum, the enter- prise or industrial tor as it is popularly known, Gx is the most successful lo? signpost today. Its software platform Predix, something that has turned heads in the global rr circles, is meant to provide a formidable base to support the grow- ing industrial internet of things segment with loud servers and an app store. Predix, @ cloud based PaaS (platform asa service), monitors asset performance management and suggest opera- tions optimisation using high-end analytics. Many experts believe Predix would eventually ‘turn out to be GE's master stroke for factories and, ‘manufacturing units ~ something on the lines of Apple's i0s for the cell phone segment. The com- pany is expecting to generate $20 billion revenue annually out of this offering by 2020. Amazon's AwS Jor platform is another major global success story providing options to its suppliers and cus- tomers to connect with it with a mere push of the button on their smart phone. ‘Nothing surprising, the markets in the devel- oped markets are increasingly witnessing the rapid inflow of new innovative products. Inter net-connected door locks, helmet equipped with sensors, medical alert watches, smart fitness clothing, one-button product purchases, inter. net-commanded kitchen appliances, etc, are the product categories where maximum innovation is currently underway, In the US, a company thas recently also launched a device which helps. ‘you to keep a tab on the dietary habits of elderly. ‘members of your family who are living away ~ you can look into their kitchen and refrigera- tors. There are light bulbs now available in the ‘market, which go dim, Ifthe sensor notices that ‘everybody has left the room. On social initiative and city revamp side, there are again examples galore. Chicago's Array Of Things and Dublin's CityWatch are projected as the model examples in laying pan-city sen- sor network to constantly monitor tempera~ ture, noise and air quality (sensors are installed at lamp posts), In California, the local adminis- tration has begun using loT platform to mini- ise water wastage and its judicious allocation. In England, Oxford Flood Network involving citizens has deployed a network of sensors to monitor groundwater level and also anticipate flood risks. Companies like Big Belly, a trash management firm in the US, are consolidating. their position in the marketplace by aligning, ‘their capabilities with (or: They are now supply= ing bins empowered with sensors which directly talk to the systems of the local municipal. ties telling then the level of trash collected in different zones of the city. In the area of smart car parking solutions, a slew of companies have come up in the US and Europe offering sensor enabled information to. drivers helping them in saving time in finding, right spot for parking. And here is an iInterest- ing example: to curb the crime rate in Sao Paulo, the Brazilian government made it mandatory to equip all new vehicles with sensors (to be sup- plied by the manufacturer at the plant) a few years ago. The sensors not only transmit the information about the exact location of the sto- len vehicle but can also lock it from a remote location or even stop its movement. “The crime rate has significantly gone down in the city sub= sequently,” points out Sushil Kumar, DDG, Tele- com Engineering Centre, “Such examples can be easily emulated elsewhere.” ‘The emerging lof eco-system That brings us to the moot point: where does India fit into the emerging lot eco-system -some- thing that is slated to have an arch like presence in not so distant a future. To what extent has it geared up to embrace fot, given the fact that it has an internet subscriber base of over 250Prashant Pradhan, IBM Rishi Bhatnagar, Aries @ comprehensive Automation Platform which will be used for measurement, tracking and controlling machines and people. Concurs Rishi Bhatnagar, president, Aeries Communica tion & member, NASSCOM Committee on Smart Cities: “The government-backed programmes like ‘Digital India’ and ‘Smart Cities’ will be the critical catalysts to give a firm base to lot business in this country”. A company like Microsoft confirms that it sees {a major opportunity for itself in India’s Smart City programme. “There is more opportunity for ToT in an emerging economy like India since it is talking of digital transformation to spruce up its social sectors like healthcare and education,” Shetty of Microsoft points out ‘The government, through its Digital India Programme, is committed “to create smart eveverrere infrastructure to manage complexities of public services, reduce expenses, increase efficiency and. Improve the quality of life,” says Sushil Kumar of Telecommunication Engineering Centre, which comes under the ministry of communications & I. And the broadly targeted areas for the smart Infrastructure ranges from smart city to smart homes and intelligent transportation systems to water manager (see chart: M2M/ lot applications) Of course, public private partnership (PPP) for mula will be the cornerstone of many projects built around the broader social objectives and some of the initial indications positively point ‘out in that direction, Early this year, Andhra Pradesh government engaged Cisco to execute AP's Fibre Net proj- ect, targeting to provide on-demand connec tivity of 2-20 Mbps for all households and 1-10a Tenens Gbps for all institutions by 2018. The 22,500 km Jong project will cover 2,500 locations and will connect over two million households. “A proj- ect of this kind will make a decisive change in the social life of the covered area particularly Jn spheres like healthcare and education,” says Phadnis of Cisco, And there are reports of com- panies across 1 spectrum, including telecom network connectivity firms queuing up to get a plece of slice for the smart city projects, which are out of the drawing board stage now. “We are involved in communications and networking of ‘Gujarat International Finance Tec-City project, relating to Smart City development, which ‘enables lof at a fundamental level,” says Kenny Ng, head, Worldwide market development, network business division, Alcatel Lucent, “This project is expected to enable city-wide connectivity and Intelligent parking to connected bulldings.” ‘Among other notable examples, L&T is ‘involved in smart city project in Jaipur. Cisco is also creating a tourism-specific facility, based on Jot platform in the pink eity.. ‘That lor is not a mere buzzword and the government is also committed to give it a big push to support its digital India drive was also evident when, in July, It gave its nod to set up India’s first centre for excellence in tor, which ‘will promote startups in the segment. The cen= tre has the capacity to ineubate 40 start-ups and agencies collaborating for this include National Association of Software & Service Company (NASSCOM), Department of Electronics & Infor- mation ‘Technology (DEITY) and Education & Research Network (ERNET). “I will be the happl- est, if your extraordinary potential propels prod= ucts that truly become products and used across the world,” said Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union minister for tt & electronics, on the occasion. “Healtheare, education and agriculture should be the priority areas, which give fong benefits to people of India” So, when it comes to building an tot move- ment in the country involving diverse stake- holders, there are indeed some positive signs. ‘And more than anything else, players in the fray are counting on the quintessential Indian ser- vices DNA. “India was 10 years late in adoptir the AC (ect Cpu) we cae Woops tion, but only as consumers. With Internet of Things (lot), India has an with a stror DNA In software, MT, services & data analytics,” oints out Somshubhro Pal Chou jury, manage Figatector-Rnaloy Devices tag.Immediate challenges It would be too simplistic to assume that some- thing that is shaping as a global revolution will ‘not have its share of bottlenecks. And lot does hhave quite a few ~ of serious kinds, in fact. The primary issue is that of lack of a standard plat- form. “The tor ecosystem requires interopera- bility to create the ‘seamless’ programmability Of the very devices or sensors that enables the full potential of a connected experience. This ‘means lof requires standards to enable horizon- tal platforms that are communicable, operable, and programmable across devices, regardless of make, model, manufacturer, or industry. The vision is that connectivity between people, pro- ‘cesses, and things works no matter what screen type, browser, or hardware is used. The reality, however, is that the lor is fragmented and lacks interoperability; disparate or overlapping solu tions can't easily ‘talk’ (connect) to each other,” points out a research paper. The practical problems which emanate out Of this scenario include devices or equipment made by different OEMs not readily integrat- {ing with each other and use of different Oper ating Systems making it difficult for machines to talk to each other. The evolution of standard format would entail tech giants like Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Google, etc. agreeing to a common platform which has the inherent risk of them Josing their competitive advantage. “I don’t see a standard format happening In the near run. At best, they could agree on some de facto stan dards. So, it will largely grow as open ended plat- form,” says.a senior official of an Indian rr major ‘who did not wish to be named, It is important ‘to note here that major global tech and telecom. firms have formed consortiums in the past to tackle with this issue but so far it has not yielded. any result Data security is probably a more serious issue, “With lot explosion, every year, we will be gen- «rating more data than in the past fifty years and ‘that makes security a major issue,” says Gupta of IDC. *Earlier, the technology was implemented. in a ring-fenced manner ~ between data centre and servers. In foT, | am expanding to every pos- sible envionment and exposed to it. There are millions of attacks happening every day, And there is no solution provider who can ensure end-to-end security”. According to a report by Gartner released early this year, firms spend- {ng on tor security is growing significantly and 1s projected to reach $547 million in 2018 from $231 million in 2013, ‘The manpower issue is another major concern, From the standpoint of an emerging economy like India, the internet enabled automation vis- ‘vis manpower has two-fold dimensions. Firstly, ‘he low rank 870 kind of jobs will go away and, secondly, the lack of manpower with adequate skillsets to support 1oF systems, “tis true that lot ‘may result in the end of many set of low-skilled jobs,” points out Manish Gupta, director, Xerox Research Centre, India. “But it would also create ‘opportunity for various segments like data scien- tists and social scientists. In India alone, we will ‘need 20,000 data scientists in the next two-three years’. For preparing the lo? specific work pool for the future, Rishi Bhatnagar suggests academia and companies in the fray to come together and. ut in place right curriculum, ‘These are as much open-ended Issues today s tot as a platform, but enthusiasts appear out to be unperturbed, calling them minor or inte esting twists and turns in a great unfolding story. “Historically speaking, each time there hhas been a technological disruption, such con- cerns have emerged. But over a period of time such concerns get addressed. As far as standards, are concerned, they are evolved, but as we move forward, based on requirement of time, they will evolve further. In case of security, it evolves by the minute. Cost implications and other stum. bling blocks too will be addressed as we move forward in this space of tot,” observes Kenny Ng. of Alcatel Luicent. And he is not alone in express ing this sentiment. There are clearly quite a num- ber of people out there, who are excited with the beginning of the show. ay Shalll Gupta, oc