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The Internet of Things has evolved from a futurology trend to a technical and social phenomenon. Gartner Research estimates that the number of connected objects will reach 20.4 billion in 2020 and 25 billion by 2021 by ongoing coverage.
People can already feel the impact of IoT on their daily lives. All of these smart devices, including smartphones, smart bulbs and cars, household appliances, smart security systems, smart home appliances, etc., can function without the need for human interaction. The IoT concept relies on "things" collecting, storing and analyzing data and adapting their algorithms and programs to human desires.
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According to Gartner's research, IoT sensors are expected to become cheaper. The cost is one of the factors that encourage the development of this technology. It makes the devices more affordable and increases the manufacturers' vehemence.
IoT is a major step in changing our perceptions of the world around us. The future is promising. Let's look at the IoT trends that will continue to grow in 2019.
General IoT Observations for 2019
Security is the Primary Concern
In 2016, the Mirai botnet was used to launch full-scale DDoS attacks, demonstrating that IoT devices must be protected in the same way as computers. Mirai was a bot that captured over 5,000 devices, including thermostats and routers. It also included DVR systems, I.P. Cameras and other items. During the DDoS attacks, servers from such large companies as Xbox Live, Spotify and BBC were affected.
2019 will be the Year that manufacturers must take action to secure users' data if they are to remain competitive. IoT devices could be protected by privacy-by-design mechanisms that are built into the device. These include data encryption at rest and in motion. Cloud storage developers will tighten authentication and data exchange procedures to ensure all traffic between cloud resources and devices is authenticated.
IoT will be Expanded by 5G Networks
The lack of fast, stable mobile data networks is one of the major factors that hinder the growth of the Internet of Things. This makes smart connected technology less operative and accessible. The situation will drastically change when 5G networks are widely available. This technology is new and has already shown fantastic results. It is 20 times faster than current mobile networks.
Mobile networks, which are faster and more reliable than cable networks in terms of connection stability and speed, offer a huge opportunity for the development of IoT. Smart cities, where all public amenities are grouped together and collected, analyzed and transmitted to each other to create an efficient, clean, safe and convenient environment, become feasible.
The Rapid Growth of IoT
IoT is being used to benefit smart manufacturing. The Industrial Internet of Things market is expected to reach $124B in 2021. This rapid growth is primarily driven by improved operational efficiency, increased productivity, optimized asset utilization, the creation of new businesses, and a reduction in downtime. The industrial sector continues to be a hotbed of smart technologies.
IoT in agriculture would reduce the risk of losses. Tracking parameters like temperature and humidity, for example, in the poultry sector, allows manufacturers to monitor the breeding conditions of birds and the storage conditions of raw materials. A signal is sent immediately to the dispatcher if there is a deviation or anomaly. This would enable manufacturers to take the appropriate actions at the correct time, improve the availability of products and minimize losses.
Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Collaboration
In 2008, there were more connected devices than people. Most of these devices run on a single processor with a tiny amount of memory. The IoT will be even more powerful when A.I. and local data processing are enabled.
Artificial intelligence in conjunction with IoT and sometimes blockchain, has a great deal of potential. These technologies are perfectly complementary. In the next decade, A.I. could help facilitate and make sense of the myriad of connected devices. It would analyze an otherwise insurmountable volume of data to manage the IoT.
Autonomous vehicles are already available. These cars are capable of bringing passengers to their destinations safely, almost without human interaction. They analyze data on traffic jams and stoplights and can react immediately if a problem arises. Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that his hands-free car is part of a "network". "When one car learns a new thing, they all do." Isn't this the perfect example of IoT and Machine Learning working together?
The number and complexity of networks and devices will increase. This will make them more dependent on machine learning and A.I. projects.
Digital Twin Technology is a Growing Field
Gartner predicts that by 2022 at least two-thirds (or more) of IoT firms will have deployed a digital twin. Digital twins are not a new concept, but they have become more popular as IoT, and Al, have developed.
A digital twin is an electronic simulation of something real (people, places or devices), whether it's a complex system, a process, or the entire enterprise. A digital twin allows the manufacturer to simulate the workings of a physical item when planning a project. The prototype also continuously collects online data about the real-life analogue throughout its entire lifecycle.
The space industry is a good example of how a digital model can be used. Engineers can identify potential problems and fix them before they happen by performing real-time analyses on a spaceship.
It is not surprising to see this technology on the list of trends, given that IoT sensors and cloud computing are becoming cheaper.
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Edge Computing versus Clouds Computing
Cloud computing seemed to be the most convenient, fast, and efficient solution available. The shift to edge architectures from centralized storage is a hot topic today. Thomas Bittman, an analyst team at Gartner, said that "the cloud will be eaten by the edge." What does he mean by this?
Edge computing is a type of architecture that stores data locally in micro-centres to be processed. Instead of sending data mindlessly to cloud storage, primary processing is carried out on the processors in the devices themselves.
Much of the data sent to the cloud by IoT devices is useless. Take an outdoor home surveillance camera, for example. It transfers terabytes to the server. However, a few megabytes that show suspicious activity could be useful. Edge computing would reduce the amount of useless data on networks, traffic and bandwidth costs.
Edge computing is a technology that will impact industries such as public security and manufacturing, as well as other spheres in which cloud connectivity might be difficult and complex data analyses are needed (logistics and shipping).
IoT Device usage Growth Faster than Expected - 9.5 Billion Active IoT Devices
IoT Analytics estimates that there will be approximately 9.5 billion IoT devices connected by the end of 2019. This number is much higher than the expected 8.3B devices. The three main drivers are:
- The explosion of consumer devices (especially Smart Home)
- Stronger than expected connections for cellular IoT/M2M
- China has seen particularly strong growth in device connectivity.
The number of connected IoT devices will reach 28 billion by 2025. This is due to the new low-power-wide-area (LPWAN), as well as 5G. Please note that the number of IoT-connected devices does not include smartphones, tablets, laptops or other similar devices.
There will be more and Larger-Scale Deployments
The aIoT market continued to grow despite global manufacturing softening throughout 2019. (Note: Manufacturing represents the largest IoT sector on a dollar basis.)
The rollouts happen at scale (in the hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of devices). Recent announcements like the Landis+Gyr rollout of 1 million smart N.B. IoT meters in Sweden are not rare anymore. ThyssenKrupp now has more than 100,000 elevators connected, Tesla has more than 0.5 million cars on the roads that can perform over-the-air updates, and Maersk now has 380,000 connected refrigerator containers deployed around the globe. IoT platforms are responsible for a large portion of these device connections. The Bosch IoT Suite (one of the 620 IoT Platforms available) connects, for example, 8.5 million devices.
A Positive Outlook with Caution
Although the overall outlook for IoT technology in 2020 looks promising, macro-concerns about global economic conditions and weaknesses in certain industries, such as automotive, should be closely monitored.
We have been tracking major IoT developments throughout 2019. These are our top 10 IoT stories (in chronological order).
The most exciting New IoT Technology
In our article on the Year 2018, we talked about the first commercial launch for 5G networks. We did not see 5G as the biggest connectivity story in 2019 despite the fact that more 5G networks went live. This was because the global rollout of 5G network technology was predictable.
It is exciting to see that a number of companies are launching IoT Nanosatellite Services that will provide ubiquitous connectivity even in areas where connectivity was not available before. Eutelsat announced in November that it would launch 25 satellites for the IoT. The company has partnered with Sigfox to target transport, oil, gas, and agricultural deployments. Eutelsat's announcement comes after several startups, including Myriota from Australia and Fleet Space Technologies from Switzerland, hope to take advantage of the same opportunity. Fleet Space announced that within 24 hours of launching "Project Galaxy", its Lora-based network, in February 2019, 1 million devices had been registered for connection. Myriota was one of the very first companies in May 2019 to connect to the new AWS satellite service, called "AWS ground station". The service allows users to manage satellite data and communication. It can also be used in IoT scenarios.
In April 2019, Amazon announced its plans to launch 3,236 satellites in low-Earth orbit to bring the Internet to "underserved or unserved communities" around the globe. The company didn't mention IoT as a specific target.
Most controversial IoT story: Huawei 5G equipment ban
IoT 2019 was dominated by the Chinese company Huawei and its 5G technology. In May 2019, the U.S. government banned Huawei over accusations that it was helping the Chinese government in espionage. The U.S. is concerned about the rollout of 5G in the U.S. and suspects Huawei could be sharing data with China's government.
The U.S. blacklisting was not followed by other countries, as some experts predicted. Huawei has managed to ignore the blow that the blacklisting caused to its international business. The company's top-line revenues grew by 18% in 2019 compared to last Year. The Chinese consumers were a major factor in this, as they backed Huawei heavily during the US-China dispute.
It is not a good story for the U.S. Huawei was a major client of several US-based semiconductor manufacturers but has switched to Chinese, Taiwanese and European companies as its main chip suppliers.
Microsoft IoT Signals: Most Influential Publication
In July 2019, Microsoft released a comprehensive IoT report called IoT Signals. This report is unique due to the large sample of n=3,000 IoT users. The report gives a candid view of the current state of IoT adoption. It highlights the top use cases across various verticals. The report found that "Security" is less of a problem and that one-third of IoT projects failed at a proof of concept stage (POC). This is in stark contrast to a study by Cisco published in 2017 which claimed that "60% of IoT Initiatives Stall at Proof of Concept Stage (POC)."
Read More: Cloud Computing Benefits And Challenges - Detail Guide
Most important IoT Technology Evolution: Containers/Kubernetes
I.T. architectures have fundamentally changed. Modern (cloud-based applications) are built on containers. This brings a new level of performance and flexibility to deployments. This also applies to any IoT deployment, whether centralized or at the edge.
Google's Kubernetes is now the dominant container orchestration platform, while Docker remains the most popular container runtime (despite the financial problems of the company).
In 2019, several major players in the IT/OT industry refined their container strategy.
- VMWare, a leading virtualization software company, announced a Kubernetes-centric strategy at VMworld 2019 in August 2019. The company believes "Kubernetes is the cloud normalization layer for the future". It has launched VMware Tanzu - a cloud platform which manages Kubernetes container distribution and allows for the building and deployment of applications.
- Cisco, which launched its "Cisco Container Platform" in early 2018, and announced joint projects for Google Cloud and AWS in July 2019, completed its portfolio of cloud partnerships by announcing Microsoft's Azure Kubernetes Services natively integrated into the Cisco platform.
- Siemens, the industrial giant, bought Pixeom in October 2019. The platform is a software-defined edge, and its goal is to adopt container technology in edge applications for factories. Pixeom is based on Docker, a runtime environment.
Further noteworthy news included HPE launching its own Kubernetes Container Platform in November 2019. High-flying startup Mesosphere changed its name to "D2iQ" in August 2019 and shifted its focus away from its proprietary "Mesos" to further Kubernetes deployments.
Samsara: Largest Startup Funding
In September 2019, Samsara raised $300M in Series F funding. The San Francisco-based manufacturer of IoT Hardware and Software, Samsara is a maker of IoT Hardware and Software. This is the largest startup funding round for IoT 2019 to date.
Samsara is quite a story. In less than five years since its founding in 2015, Andreessen Horowitz, a well-known V.C. firm, has helped the startup grow from 0 employees to more than 1,500. Samsara produces both IoT hardware and software components. Hardware portfolio includes, among other things, cloud-based machine vision systems, industrial processes controllers and gateways, as well as HMIs and environmental sensors. The company has a focus on IoT for transportation and fleet management. Samsara says it serves over 10,000 customers in 10 countries. Samsara has many case studies of IoT projects that involve logistics, trucking and cities. This is because Samsara was initially geared toward these companies.
Other Notable Investment Rounds in 2019 that are Relevant to IoT Include:
The largest M&A deal: None (but there are many smaller acquisitions)
In 2019, there were no mega deals in IoT as we saw in previous years (for instance, the $34B Red Hat purchase by IBM last Year).
Two factors may have contributed to the lack of large-scale acquisitions in IoT 2019. First, many publicly listed companies have achieved new highs in valuation, making acquisitions more expensive than ever before.
Second, most of the popular IPOs of 2018 and 2019 were disappointing in their first year as public companies. The most notable examples are the ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft, which have both seen their value decline by 30-40% since their initial public offerings in 2019. Last Year, we highlighted Sonos as an IoT-related story. That stock has fallen 25% since its IPO. In talking with investors, we also learn that the story about the failed WeWork (which saw WeWork's valuation drop from $47B down to $10B within a few weeks) has overshadowed investment decisions.
Consumer IoT Breakthrough - Micro Mobility
In 2019, IoT enabled light vehicles, such as smart skateboards and electric scooters, and shared bikes, flooded the streets of many cities around the world. Micro Mobility Solutions is a growing category of products that includes these new modes of transport. Uber Jump, Lime, Bird, and Spin are leading providers in Europe and North America, as well as Meituan / Mobile, Ofo, Hellobike, and Didi Qingju, in China.
Micro Mobility is experiencing explosive growth in 2019. Lime, now operating in 120 cities worldwide, celebrated its 100-millionth ride in September. This is a 16 times increase compared to its 6-million ride milestone achieved only 14 months ago.
The growth of micro mobility services is impressive, but questions remain about whether they are just a fad, whether companies that supply the bikes will be profitable and if regulation will hinder their success by 2020. Micro Mobility is being targeted by regulators around the globe. France has imposed speed limits of 25 km/h and banned scooters on pavements, while Singapore has imposed a "zero tolerance" ban on personal mobility devices on footpaths. Meituan has already pulled out of non Chinese markets in March 2019 to retrace its growth ambitions.
New Technology that is Most Promising: Cloud-Ready Chips
In October 2019 Microsoft revealed that the Azure Sphere Microcontroller (MCU), would be available to all in February 2020. Microsoft Azure Sphere, a new microchip that is promising for any device manufacturer, allows them to integrate cloud services natively and securely. The new offering is a way of securely connecting the billions of MCU-based devices which are currently unable to be connected in a safe manner due to their limited computing and storage capabilities. MediaTek, NXP and Qualcomm are among the hardware partners for this technology, as well as Avnet and seeed.
Starbucks was an early adopter. The company retrofitted a few of its coffee machines with a device called 'guardian modules' to aggregate data securely and identify machine problems proactively.
Cisco announced in December 2019 its own silicon architecture called Cisco Silicon One, as part of the new "Internet of the Future Initiative". Silicon One, according to the company, is the first networking chip that can be used by both service providers and web-scale platforms. It was designed for fixed and modular platforms. Cisco will no longer maintain multiple chip architectures for different devices. Instead, it will focus on a single ASIC. Cisco's plan will lead to networks becoming more converged and cloud-enhanced.
The most Promising New Theme is IoT and Environment
2019 will be remembered as the Year that a new awareness of climate change began. Greta Thunberg's Friday's For Future campaign and two global coordinated protests in multiple cities involving more than 1 million students per protest, drove 2019 to its conclusion. Thunberg appeared on the front cover of Time in May 2019. The magazine called her a "next-generation leader" and said that many people see her as an inspiration.
This new awareness of climate action and sustainability has not only reached millions but also led large corporations (in IoT) to reprioritize top-level strategy.
In September, Libelium, a provider of wireless sensor networks hardware and software, published a study that examined how IoT contributed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, and how it provided the technology necessary to achieve these goals.
The company also stated that "environmental efficiency" is now as important as flexibility, productivity and time-to market size. This was something that the company had not previously stated explicitly. Siemens showed how IoT technology adoption and related technologies helped a chocolate maker reduce its primary energy consumption by 20 percent. It also explained how Digital Twins, the MindSphere IoT Platform and Grundfos could save 50 billion liters of fresh water with the help of the MindSphere IoT Platform.
IoT providers have now added sections to their websites dedicated to sustainability, the environment or "IoT For Good". Examples include Aeris Communications and AT&T. Lora/Semtech is another example.
Smart Home Security Cameras: Consumer IoT fail of the Year
A series of hacks on the popular home surveillance camera system Ring (which Amazon purchased in 2018) shocked the world. Hackers from various U.S. cities were able to access the live video stream of Ring users. In some cases, they talked to or scared children in their rooms. Amazon is now suing the first victims who were affected by the hacks.
On December 30, 2019 another major Smart Home Security company, Wyze in Seattle, announced that they were also the victim of a major cyber-attack that affected an estimated 2.4 million users. Hack exposed email addresses of users and the last time that they logged on. Some customers' health data was also leaked.
While Ring and Wyze, two home security companies, may have received the most attention for IoT device hackers in recent years, there are many other attacks that affect consumer IoT devices. These attacks were given much less publicity. Kaspersky has reported that they have detected more than 100 million IoT devices hacks during the first half Year of 2019. This is a 9x rise from the same period last Year.
Two security issue researchers found that in July a database of users belonging to a Chinese firm called Orvibo which operates an Internet of Things management platform was left unprotected on the Internet. The database contained more than 2 billion logs, including everything from passwords and account reset codes to a recorded "smart camera" conversation.
Microsoft revealed in August that a group of Russian hackers were responsible for an IoT attack against a number Microsoft customers.
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The conclusion of the article is:
IoT is a world trend that has been around for many years. It's expected to get even more popular in the future. Vendors, manufacturers and other stakeholders are facilitating the growth of this technology by focusing on solutions and business outcomes.
