How IoT Will Change Our Lives?

The Internet has taken over the world by storm and everyone is connected to each other through it. Apart from staying connected with people, it is essential to have your devices connected to the internet as well. This is what is known as the Internet of Things (IoT). There are billions and trillions of devices such as mobile phones, laptops, computers, wearable devices, hospital devices among others that have to be connected to the internet for data sharing and functioning.

The wireless network has helped a lot of devices all over the world to stay connected and work efficiently. All devices are connected to the internet with the help of micro and mini chips that are pre-installed in them. A network is required to connect the physical objects and there is nothing better than the IoT that brings the best performance of any device.

Understanding IoT

All devices need connectivity to the cloud to function and work efficiently. The IoT enables them in doing so and performs in a certain manner. It allows the users to perform various functions on different devices and obtain access to online data which can be used in several ways. Here are some of the top devices that are connected with the wireless network via IoT:

• High-speed wireless internet network
• Security systems of smart homes
• Appliances that are connected to a house or office building
• Smart factory apparatus
• Wireless inventory trackers
• Farming equipment
• Wearable health devices
• Biometric cybersecurity scanners
• Shipping container tracking
• Logistics tracking

In a nutshell Internet of Things bind several things together such as the expansive connection networks, connected devices, and a large amount of data for a stunning experience. We have been looking forward to building smart cities, smart homes, and office spaces, for which we definitely require IoT. This technology has gained great prominence in the recent past and now everyone wants their devices to be connected to the cloud with the help of IoT as the competition has gone high and users don’t want to buy a product that has no connectivity to the wireless network.

Another aspect of IoT is that it requires minimum human resources in conducting any function as it is all done with either the devices, the internet, or both of the collaboratively. We are living in a fast-paced world where we want the devices to understand each other’s language and perform various functions without the intervention of humans, and that is why IoT has been developed.

Further, we are going to lay emphasis on the Impact of IoT, its challenges, and the process followed in connecting several devices with the help of it.

Impact of IoT

The Internet of Things has had a quite positive impact on technology and devices that can connect to wireless networks. There are sensors in almost all products now that let you connected with the item all the time, either through sensors or some other form. From reducing carbon footprints to helping the governments of various countries stress more on the quality of healthcare offering, there is a lot that has been offered to the users through IoT.

Here’s how IoT has impacted the technological landscape:

1. Cities have gone smarter: There has always been a significant need for smart devices installed in cities for safe water, energy, and other resources. Since more than half the population of the countries reside in cities because of bright job prospects and other things, it has become necessary for the city administration to keep a check over the infrastructure without having to manage it manually. Therefore, most cities have now installed convenient transportation systems, street lighting that is safe, and top it all, there are now buildings that are now energy efficient. Secondly, the government of any country or city has to deal with the growing population, which is on a rise. With the help of sensors installed around the city, they can get a 3D visual representation of the entire city to get an in-depth analysis of the same. It also helps in managing the traffic flow of cities, manages resources, controls the population, and improve the standard of living for the citizens of each city. Take a look at the benefits that smart cities can derive from IoT:

• Cities can be installed with sensors that can sense the early warnings of any natural calamity and warn the residents of the city so that proper precautions can be taken in time.
• It also helps in reducing traffic as drivers can be intimated about any traffic congestion on a route before in hand. Also, if an accident happens on a road, the residents are communicated about the same with the help of several devices.
• An ambulance can switch on the siren to stop other cars on their way and making their way to the nearby hospital. With the help of IoT devices, they can easily get in touch with the near most hospital, who will be readily standing outside waiting for the patient to arrive.
• Finding a parking space can be a hassle a lot of times, due to which people end up wasting a lot of time. In this case, IoT has been helpful in a way to intimate the car drivers about the parking lot that has space and the one that is full. This reduces their time of going on looking for a parking space
• The lighting in a smart city can help the administration save a lot on the money that is spent on electricity as the lights will only get switched on when someone’s presence in that vicinity.

Apart from this, the IoT has also impacted businesses significantly. Take a look at some of the ways how the technology is being implemented and making changes in the business world:

• Managing inventory and tracking: There has always been a growing need for managing the products in the inventory and tracking it with the help of human resources. IoT allows devices and techniques to do all this work, which helps businesses in spending less amount on manual labor on doing all. With the introduction of IoT in the business world, you can control the inventory without having too many people on the floor.
• Increasing productivity: There are several operations and work tasks in an organization that have to be done in a day or in a given period of time. With the introduction of IoT devices, all organizational works have been accomplished without any error and give accurate information. The helps in enhancing the work of the organization and increasing the productivity of a business. Since the productivity and quality of the work process plays a vital role in the success of the organization, it is very important to do the work in a well-maintained manner.
• Skilled employees: It is a good practice to employ only those who have the required knowledge for using the IoT devices. The basic understanding of the devices used within an organization and knowing about them is always a good idea so that there are no hurdles in between in the future. Since IoT makes technology quite modern and makes things easier for the employees or the workers, it is important for the latter to have the basic skills of using it.
• Data collection: Each organization needs to have access to the data of an organization for growth and a bright future perspective. IoT lets you handle the data and keeps a watch over the analytics in a much better way. It can give you access to the devices’ interaction with the consumer and helps you calculate the user success resulting in an enhanced user experience. Data is very necessary to any business as it gives them an insight into how their organization is functioning and get an idea of the user behavior. IoT does not only help in collecting this essential data but also guides you through the analyzing process of the same.

Challenges of IoT

Connecting everything and everyone to the internet with the help of several devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) has one of the most talked-about technologies ever. While it has helped everyone stay updated and reduced the physical work significantly, it has certain loopholes that should not be ignored.

Having become a core technology behind smart cities, smart homes, smart buildings, smart cars, etc. IoT has gained prominence like a wildfire. The ease of use has made it one of the most likable technologies ever.

A statistical report by Gartner has stated that the growth of IoT has grown from 20 billion IoT connected devices in 2016 to 26 billion devices by the end of 2020. So, it is quite prominent how people have been gradually shifting to this technology. However, you must know the drawback of this technology before actually venturing into it. Take a look at some challenges that the technology faces:

• Security and data protection challenges: This is one the biggest challenges faced by the technology as the data gets transferred from various personal devices to the web and then the cloud. While going through all these stages, it might get leaked or hacked at any stage. The leak of this information can lead to the breach of information, making the service providers at risk as he has to be answerable to the users. While it is easy to encrypt the safety of the users on websites and apps, it is difficult to keep it secure and safe from hackers. Another challenge it faces is that it is difficult to detect if a device is affected. Therefore, you might even not know if your device is hacked and that someone is using information from that. You could just lose out on all the information from your devices. Monitoring each IoT device can become difficult, therefore, keeping a tab on which one is affected is something that you don’t have control over.
• Predicting the attacks: There are hackers out there who are constantly waiting to try some of the other ways to hack into your device and get all the important data out of it. It is because of the loopholes in this system that it becomes difficult for the service providers to see the malware. It has been a long persisting challenge in the case of the Internet of Things. Threat intelligence is used by modern cloud services in predicting issuers pertaining to the security of IoT devices. It is always advised to use these technologies to safeguard your devices against any sort of data threat, however, it is not easy to integrate these technologies into IoT.
• Malware: With the increase in IoT devices, there have been numerous cases of cyber attacks. There has been a rapid increase in the kinds of ways cybercriminals are trying to use all personal information from the devices.
• Default credentials: There are several companies around the world that have dwelled in this field and are selling IoT devices. They provide a default username and password to each user who purchases these devices. Hackers do not take time to get access to the device and already are aware of the username and the password. This makes their work easy and they can easily get the information they had been looking for.
• Outdated software and hardware: Why do you think these devices are so susceptible to cyber-attacks? Since these devices are being produced in abundance, the manufacturers are just paying heed to the number of devices that are being made, not the quality. This is why they are made with old and outdated technology. Similarly, it is essential for these organizations to take care of any updates in the device or bug fixes at the later stage, which is several times overlooked. It is of utmost importance for all the devices connected to the internet to have regular updates so that they can continue working efficiently without any glitch or hassle. Therefore, all IoT devices manufacturing companies should be looking into the technology and make regular updates to them.

How do IoT works?

The Internet of Things (IoT) system is not a complicated process for the transfer and sharing of data. Since it helps connect all devices to the internet with the help of sensors that are fit into it, IoT connects with the cloud through the internet and passes on the information to the cloud. Once this information is received by the software via Cloud, it is then processed and some sort of action is performed on the same. There are several ways of performing any sort of action on the same such as sending out a signal, alarm, etc.

However, in case any changes or amendments are needed for the same alert, it can be done with the help of the user interface. It also allows you to make any sort of adjustments to the message retrieved by the device.

The future of IoT

There have been many developments in the IoT ever since it came into being. The graph of the use of this technology has been going up and there have innumerable smart devices that have made an entrance in our personal and professional lives. Take a look at some future predictions of IoT technology:

• There is an increase in the number of IoT devices and in the coming years it has been predicted that there will be a lot more usage of the same. It has been estimated that the number of devices connected with the internet and come under IoT will be more than 21 billion.
• More smart cities: Every city’s administration looks up to the cities that have already become smart and equipped with IoT. That is where they derive inspiration from and have also started using some of the other IoT devices. This will help more cities fall under the category of smart cities. Apart from offering a healthy lifestyle to the people living in the city, it also enhances their living conditions and accessibility to technology.
• Growth of AI (Artificial Intelligence): Most people have IoT household appliances that they are very dependent on. From simple coffee machines, that understand your preferences, to the lighting system of the house and the washing machines, everything can now be monitored by just giving voice commands, due to their connection with the internet. In the coming years, our dependency on AI is going to increase to a great level.
• Easy searching: It should have a search bar, enabling the users to look up something without any issue. One should get options for a keyword in the dropdown of any search bar.
• More installation of routers for securing the path: IoT devices are vulnerable to cyber threats and there are chances of hackers to get to your data easily. This is mostly because of the device manufacturers who do not pay much heed to the device from the security point of view. Therefore, people have routers set up at their homes which stops any sort of hacking activities from the entry-level itself.
• 5G networks to increase growth: Most carriers are on the verge of introducing 5G networks which have given a rise to the IoT devices as more of these can be connected to one single connection.
• Smart cars: Well, there are several big brands and countries that have already introduced smart cars, and with the introduction of the 5G network, it is highly likely for the cars to use more IoT devices making cars smart.

Top 10 IoT development trends in 2020

It takes a great deal of effort to develop IoT apps for your business. Take a look at the top trends of IoT development:

• Use of IoT in providing customer services.
• Evolution of Big data and IoT, which go together in most cases these days.
• Machine learning and IoT.
• IoT in the field of agriculture.
• The use of this technology with proper security in customer appliances.
• Edge computing and processing of the data.
• Use of IoT devices in the healthcare sector.
• Use of Blockchain in the sector for enhancing the security of the entire system.
• Implementation of IoT in the manufacturing sector.
• Providing a helping hand in managing the workforce.

How to develop an app for the Internet of Things (IoT)?

To get into the competition and give a tough fight, it is essential to keep up with the technology and embracing the latest devices that help you pace up and stand out. This can happen if you get a mobile or web application made for IoT. This simplifies a lot of things for you as everything can be operated from your dashboard and interface.

Below mentioned are some easy steps that can guide you through building an app for the IoT:

• With the availability of several platforms, it becomes difficult for you to zero in upon the platform you want to develop the IoT app for. You should have proper knowledge of the technology supported by each device and the amount you will have to spend on each one of them. Also, it is important for you to see if it fits your budget or not?
• Make a list of the hardware devices that you will connect to your app. You should know the need of your products and then list down the devices that can support IoT and the application that you are developing for the same.
• Expansion is on everyone’s mind, therefore, you should think of the scalability of the IoT app as well. You should be able to reach the masses in less time. The relevance of any device also depends on your scalability.
• In the era of growing technology, you must make sure that the app is light and fast to load as people would not want to wait for it to load, rather they would switch to some other app that serves their purpose.
• The most important aspect that should be covered well in an IoT app is the security of the data. Since most IoT devices lack security as they are highly susceptible to cybercrimes, more emphasis should be laid on how to protect the data again cyber theft.

Conclusion

Internet of Things (IoT) has been doing wonders in creating smart cities, smart appliances among other things, but there are certain loopholes that have to be taken care of. Businesses much fix this issue by creating tight security to the data of their devices. Also, the practice of getting an application made for IoT for your business can help you get all possible benefits. Hiring an app development company that has prior experience in the same can help you reach the masses and developing a competitive app.