The Internet of Things (IoT) offers many opportunities and a new world of data management and security challenges for organizations. First, IoT changes the breadth of what we connect regarding the type of devices. These devices could be as simple as a sensor or as complex as a supercomputer. The move to mobile and IoT means IT Managers must support a broad range of operating systems, various device protocols and multiple types of wireless networks. For example, there are new wireless networks to support IoT such as Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) and Ultra Narrow Band. There is also a wide range of protocols and messaging systems that extend from legacy systems such as Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) to the Message Queue Telemetry Transport (MQTT) that targets device data collection and messaging. One of the exciting areas of the IoT is its potential to change how we engage with technology and transact business. The move to IoT is providing unprecedented access to data that either didn’t exist before, or was too complicated and expensive to collect. While the Machine to Machine (M2M) era focused mainly on the challenges of connecting devices, the IoT era concentrates on the opportunities presented to businesses who use connected data. This data can provide valuable context for business processes. By collecting and analyzing IoT data, groups within an organization can increase efficiencies with services such as predictive maintenance and route optimization. It can also improve the customer experience by supporting new service experiences such as omnichannel retail and smart home applications.
Why IoT Needs a Data Integration Strategy
