The Internet of Things is basically the next internet, it’s going to connect all the things in the real world. So us having an Alexa, Fitbit and a nest is a far cry from connecting the planet.
To understand why I don’t think IoT is grown, let’s take look at where I think we are on its life cycle.
Gartner identifies five levels of IoT maturity to assess how far businesses have come in their journey, and indeed how far they have yet to go.
The five stages are:
- Initiating
- Exploratory
- Defined
- Integrated
- Optimising
Today, most companies looking to create that valuable connected world are somewhere between 1 and 3. Most organisations have just started to connect their business to one central system. The goal is that processes are no longer siloed or working independently. Businesses are focused on learning what the environment is really like so that can work in a more data-driven landscape.
Stage 4 or Integration is where we will start to see a real impact in IoT maturity.
Organizations will start to integrate their IoT projects into the company’s overall strategy. This will be the turning point that ensure that IoT grows up.
What Mature IoT means for the Average Consumer
A connected future is more than knowing when you’re running low on milk, the most apparent change will be self-driving cars. 5G and IoT will enable a world where cars can talk to each other and drive themselves.
Whole cities will be filled with sensor-embedded devices, from stoplights to street signs. This will affect traffic flow, waste and pollution management, and even crime prevention. A connected future means being within arm’s reach of a connected device, a thought that thrills some and unnerves others.
Either way, it’s going to happen, likely sooner than most think.
Source: IoT Now
