IoT is changing both the IT (information Technology) and OT (operational Technology) landscape with the integration of IT and OT and, especially, with the increasing deluge of IoT data changing technological paradigms and impacting IT infrastructure. IoT data and IT infrastructure – state and outlook 2018 and a bit of 2019.
Is there something that is not affected by IoT and related technologies and the impact of the ways they are combined and leveraged? We’re not talking about industries, applications or IoT use cases for a change but about the technological landscape and, more particular, IoT data and the IT infrastructure.
With IoT, IT infrastructure and the overall IT landscape as such is complemented. We have a broad range of new hardware, software, connectivity solutions and services, that seems obvious. From software such as IoT platforms and hardware such as all the smart ‘things’, the sensors, the actuators, IoT gateways or IoT edge devices to a bunch of predominantly wireless IoT connectivity solutions, a big market of new services on top of service platforms and service providers and new ways to process and analyze IoT data such as edge computing. What they all have in common are obviously the many aspects of ever more IoT data and how to get, leverage and combine them to turn them in good old actionable Intelligence and, more importantly, into intelligent actions and outcomes.
However, IoT and IoT data are not just adding to our IT infrastructure, IoT is also impacting the existing IT infrastructure as much as it is affecting the overall landscape of technologies and solutions. And then there are all the technological aspects regarding IT and OT convergence and new technological possibilities that arise once you start combining IoT, AI and big data analytics to name a few. Yes, again that boils all down to data.
In this article we mainly take a look at where IoT is impacting existing technologies and IT infrastructure and leading to higher IT infrastructure and resources spending or changing spending priorities. Just looking at all what is needed to handle, process, store, analyze, let alone fully leverage, monetize or utilize the sheer volume of IoT data for myriad possible applications, one sees how far it all stretches.
Moreover it is not just about the spend and priorities regarding IoT and IT infrastructure (did we mention security and privacy yet?)but also about how IoT and certainly IT and OT integration are disrupting technology solutions that have existed since like forever.
Let’s just look at some examples in the more software-oriented space (although there are is hardware and there are services, cloud and so forth coming with that software). If you look at the evolutions of building management in the age of IoT you see how building management systems are becoming the hub of the smart building. Thank IoT, IoT data and related technologies and possibilities for that.
Or take manufacturing: IoT, again the integration of IT and OT and, indeed again, associated technologies and evolutions to leverage IoT and other data with a purpose are, according to IDC, about to disrupt ERP with intelligent ERP. The evolutions in the manufacturing environment where we find solutions such as manufacturing execution systems (MES) and thus MES software and SCADA systems and thus SCADA software, are all influenced by Industrial IoT, IoT and the broader technological picture of what is known as Industry 4.0.
It doesn’t stop there. Smart supply chain management, smart this, smart that; all across various industries, including less OT-intensive ones than those just mentioned, IoT and all the related digital transformation technologies and, more importantly, priorities and goals change existing solutions, practices, vendor strategies and the overall enterprise IT architecture.
Leaving OT and specific industries aside, time for a look at the IoT IT infrastructure perspective.
