IoT to transit from a ‘bragging right’ to an essential tech

30 billion connected devices churning out 44 zettabytes of data. This gives you a dekko at how big the Internet of Things will be by 2020.

A digital mesh is enveloping the individual – an ever-expanding set of devices, information, and services that are fluidly and dynamically interconnected.

From connected devices to machines talking to each other, a technology that was initially conceptualized for the manufacturing space has made inroads into transportation, healthcare, and defence.

By 2020, the amount of information produced by machines, will account for about 10 percent of data on earth.

Although IoT in India is still at a nascent stage, Nasscom predicts that the IoT market in India is expected to grow up to USD 15 billion by 2020 from USD 5.6 billion this year, driven by adoption across sectors like manufacturing, automotive, transportation, and logistics.

It’s going to be a while before we see our refrigerators placing an order for milk and eggs, aye. But make no mistake, all the la-di-da surrounding IoT is well founded.

IDC estimates that there will be 30 billion connected devices in the market by 2020, with an economic value pegged at around USD 1.46 trillion. By 2018, Nasscom predicts IoT spend will grow at 1.5x and over 200,000 new IoT apps and services will be developed.

According to a recently released, TechSci Research report, the IoT market in India is projected to grow at a CAGR more than 28 percent during 2015 – 2020.

An EY India report indicates that in an IDC decision-maker survey, 73 percent of respondents indicated that they have already deployed IoT solutions, or plan to do so in the next 12 months

Consider this: a self-driving car produces one terabyte of data per hour. That gives you a measure of the data generated by 30 billion connected devices – 44 zettabytes of data, in case you’re wondering.

Through the year 2018, 75 percent of the IoT projects will take up to twice as long as planned, as per Gartner reports.

It’s not just money and data, here’s a brand new moniker!

And it’s not just the market growth that’s got the industry in a tizzy. There are new designations being created to cater to the IoT demand. Machina Research, an established analyst for IoT technologies, predicts that at least one Fortune 500 company will appoint a Chief IoT Officer in 2017.

Currently, revenue from IoT accounts for less than one percent of most operators’ total revenue. It will take until 2025 for IoT to exceed 5 percent of operators’ total revenue, even starting from 1 percent and growing by 20 percent per annum.

In addition to this, various government projects such as smart cities, smart transportation, and smart grids are also expected to further boost the use of IoT in the country over the next five years, as per Nasscom’s predictions.

In the IoT landscape, number of connected devices have also been increasing at a tremendous rate over the last few years. Various companies across India have realized that they can use data to optimize costs, deliver better services, and boost revenues.

What kindles the IoT flare?

In 2016, consumer electronics dominated the India IoT market, followed by automotive, transportation and BFSI sectors.

As per the EY India report, sensors will be one of the key drivers of IoT expansion. Sensors measure physical inputs and transform them into raw data.

Now, miniaturization of these sensors has enabled integration with smart devices, expanding their capacity beyond data measurement and analytics to transmitting information over the internet.

Eventually, IoT will lead to widespread replacement of simple and repetitive jobs in areas such as manufacturing, administration, quality control and planning. But more importantly, IoT will lead to the creation of new jobs, such as the Chief IoT Officer, that will help organizations champion and pioneer not only their personal success with IoT, but the success of the business as well.