The Internet of things is a subject which is talked about regularly but what does it actually mean and who are the companies leading the charge?
It simply refers to any smart devices that send information, wirelessly, back to a computer server or smartphone app. IoT helps people make better decisions and keep tabs on machines to prevent problems and better use their resources. A personal favorite of my own is the Hive app, launched by British Gas. It means I can control my hot water and heating settings from my mobile phone at the touch of a button saving electricity and in turn doing my part for helping the environment.
Some other examples include when roads are most congested and public car parks are most popular, or to monitor operations on a remote oil rig in the middle of the ocean. Children are also getting involved with the IoT, I've got my eye on a start up called SAM Labs which was founded in 2014, SAM Labs creates tools and software to help kids get involved with the Internet of Things programming projects that allow them to build smart inventions. It got its first 800 or so customers via a successful Kickstarter campaign. It has tied up with more than 1,000 schools, which use its IoT learning kits as part of their learning or after-school programmes.
So we know start ups are launching in the field but who are the top 10 big IoT companies? I've researched a number of companies in the market and here are the top picks -
Amazon Web Services
The cloud is playing a big role in IoT, and the biggest cloud provider is Amazon Web Services (AWS). The cloud is a natural spot to store huge amounts of data, and Amazon is increasingly offering powerful services to gain insights on that data. In 2015 AWS launched its Internet of Things platform, which uses tools like Kinesis (a real-time streaming service), S3 (the Simple Storage Service), and DynamoDB (the massively-scalable NoSQL database).
Bosch
German conglomerate Bosch is perhaps best known for its automotive parts division, but it also makes products ranging from home appliances to enterprise software. Bosch says its range of products will be connected to the IoT to ease maintenance and monitoring of devices, making it one of the key enablers of IoT. Plus, the company has built an IoT cloud to process all that data.
Cisco
Cisco predicts that by 2020, there could be 50 million devices connected to what it calls the Internet of Everything. It’s hoping many of those devices will use the company’s networking equipment to communicate. Cisco has carved out a range of IoT services, from network connectivity (including switching, routing, wireless access and embedded network hardware), to fog computing services (which bring data collection, storage and analysis to the network edge), to data analytics, security, management and automation.
Dell
As an enterprise hardware manufacturer, Dell is preparing its infrastructure components for a world of IoT. It’s offering endpoint connectivity for devices plus back-end storage and analytics platforms to manage IoT data. In 2014 Dell opened its IoT Lab in Silicon Valley in partnership with Intel.
GE
GE is credited with coining the term the ‘Industrial Internet of Things’ to depict the idea of connecting devices used in manufacturing to the Internet. GE hopes to help facilitate that through its Asset Performance Management platform, which aims to use data and real-time analytics to prevent unplanned downtime. Predix, a cloud-based data and analytics service, is another pillar of GE’s IoT plans.
Google
Google’s IoT ambitions span consumer and enterprise-facing initiatives. Google paid $3.2 billion for smart thermostat maker Nest, which the company could expand to include a whole connected, smart-home system. On the business side, Google says its combination of fiber-optic back-end network, combined with its massive public cloud mean it is in a unique position to serve the needs of IoT.
Huawei
Chinese telecom/network vendor Huawei made a big push in the IoT market last year by releasing LiteOS, a micro operating system for IoT devices. It joined the Cloud Foundry open source community to help create an IoT application development platform, too. Huawei is taking on the IoT market in Asia and increasingly in the U.S., hoping a world of connected devices will usher in new opportunities for its core networking products.
Intel
In a world of connected devices, all those gadgets are going to need processor chips. Intel wants to be the company supplying silicon for the Internet of Everything. The company has rolled out a variety of products to serve IoT, from its Quark line that provides low-power computing for small-form factor appliances, to Atom processors that are ideal for rich graphic rendering.
Salesforce.com
While many other companies on this list are building ways for connected devices to impact industrial and commercial operations, Salesforce.com says that the IoT presents a new opportunity for marketers to gain deeper insights into their prospects and customers. Connected devices allow chief marketing officers (CMO) to learn how their products are being evaluated and used, what stage of the process the prospects are in and potentially what factors influence buying behavior. Salesforce.com has introduced its IoT Cloud, powered by its real-time processing engine named Thunder. IoT is not just about connected machines; it’s about connected products and marketing, too.
Oracle
Oracle wants its databases and applications to be the platform its customers use to manage and analyze IoT data. Oracle is building connections for its SQL, NoSQL and Hadoop databases to ingest IoT data and integrate data back into the company’s applications (Oracle Sales cloud, Service Cloud and CRM). Oracle has an IoT service and IoT cloud that prepackage these workflow services into a product.
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1 comment:
Very informative blog... I found valuable information on internet of things companies. Thanks for sharing
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