Throughout 2014, those of you in the tech industry began hearing more and more about the “Internet of Things”. There is no doubt that the Internet of Things opens up fantastic new possibilities and new services that were not possible before. The new opportunities in terms of automation and tracking stand to revolutionize industries as diverse as healthcare, automotive, information technology, and more.
However, we must also consider the ramifications of this new technology. The ethical problems about privacy and problems brought by automation are well known and not going to be elaborated upon here. The issue faced by the expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) is logistical: how do businesses keep up?
Processing Requirements of IoT
One of the primary concerns dealing with the Internet of Things for business owners is keeping up with the processing demands. An app developer may need to process data requests from millions of devices every second. Even those not in application development have information that is being collected from IoT enabled devices in an attempt to function. The minimum required computing power to do business these days is staggering compared to that of the previous decade.
For companies that still keep their IT work in-house, this represents a serious financial concern. How can a business keep up with the demands of an industry that innovation seems to be demanding they compete in?
Cloud Hosting Solutions
The advent of cloud computing over the past few years has stepped in to provide a solution for businesses. Rather than depend upon in-house server rooms that must be maintained and upgraded periodically, the best approach is to shift these requirements to third-party specialists. The specialization of labor is one of the defining features of civilization. It makes perfect sense for a business specializing in home appliances (as an example) to allow a third-party cloud hosting firm to handle server maintenance and logistics for them.
The net result of this symbiosis is that each company can focus the bulk of their revenue on doing what businesses do best: making a better product.
