The Internet of Things, or IoT, is a network of physical objects, the "things," that are embedded with sensors, software, and other technologies to connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the internet.
These artificial intelligence devices and things can be anything from household objects to sophisticated industrial tools. From smart home devices, to wearable technology, to security systems, there's a vast amount of IoT technologies out there.
There are billions of IoT-connected devices today, and this number will only continue to grow.
Organizations in various industries, including construction, use IoT to operate more efficiently.
They can use IoT to deliver enhanced customer service, improve both decision-making and supply chains, and increase the value of the business.
In the article below, we will learn more about the internet of things and their vast amount of uses.
Table Of Contents
- What Is The Internet Of Things?
- How Does The IoT Work?
- Why Is The Internet of Things Important?
- How Does The IoT Benefit Organizations?
- What Is Industrial IoT (IIoT)?
- Contact CDMG
What Is The Internet Of Things?
The IoT combines the power of the internet, data processing, and analytics with real-world physical objects to create smart technologies.
This means you can interact with the global information network without the intermediary of a keyboard or screen. Like talking to your smart speaker to ask about the weather or turn on your home's air conditioning.
Many everyday devices and appliances take instructions from the network connectivity with minimal human intervention.
IoT can bring the same efficiencies to physical manufacturing and distribution that the internet has long delivered for knowledge work.
Billions of embedded internet-enabled sensors worldwide provide a rich set of data and access control that companies can use to their advantage.
With this data, they can learn about the safety of their operations, track assets, and reduce manual processes.
The IoT can also gather data about people's preferences and behavior, though that can have profound implications for privacy and security.
How Does The IoT Work?
The primary elements of the IoT are devices that gather data.
They are internet-connected devices, so they each have an IP address.
These devices could be autonomous vehicles in factories, sensors that monitor temperatures in buildings, security cameras and even medical devices in hospitals.
IoT devices also include smartwatches or fitness trackers that monitor the number of steps you take each day, or even a smart lighting device.
For the data from these smart devices to be helpful, it has to be collected, processed, filtered, and analyzed. The data it collects is stored in the company's cloud services.
Each of these processes can be handled in a variety of ways.
Collecting the massive amounts of data is done by transmitting it from the devices to a gathering point, usually wirelessly using various technologies or wired networks.
The data is sent over the internet to a data center or a cloud server with intermediary devices aggregating it before sending it along.
Processing the data can occur in real-time in data centers or the cloud.
However, sometimes that's not an option.
With critical devices such as shutoffs in industrial settings, the delay of sending data from the device to a remote data center is too significant.
The round-trip time for sending data, processing it, analyzing it, and returning instructions can take too long.
In situations like this, you can use edge computing to aggregate data, analyze it, and fashion responses if necessary, all within close physical distance, reducing delay.
Edge devices also have upstream connectivity for sending data to be further processed and stored.
Why Is The Internet of Things Important?
We can now connect everyday physical devices like kitchen appliances, cars, thermostats, baby monitors, and other smart objects to the internet via embedded devices.
Because of internet connectivity, seamless communication is possible between people, processes, and things.
With low-cost computing, the cloud, big data, analytics, and mobile technologies, physical things and electrical devices can share and collect data with little to no human intervention.
In our new hyperconnected world, interconnected devices can record, monitor, and adjust each interaction between connected things.
The physical world can now cooperate with the digital world.
The IoT can make connected cities safer, asset tracking more cost-effective, healthcare more personalized, and energy consumption more efficient.
Businesses can use the data generated by the Internet of Things to thrive in the future, while keeping an eye on their energy usage.
Using the IoT, businesses will have a significant competitive advantage.
How Does The IoT Benefit Organizations?
Business stand to gain a lot from the IoT.
Some benefits will only apply to specific industries, while others can be shared across every industry.
The most common benefits of IoT allow businesses to:
- monitor business processes
- improve customer experience
- save time and money
- enhance productivity
- adapt business models
- improve supply chain management
- make sounder business decisions
- lower operating costs
- generate more revenue
IoT solutions encourage companies to rethink the ways they approach their businesses.
It also gives them the tools to improve their business strategies.
IoT is most abundant in construction, manufacturing, transportation, and utility organizations, using sensors and other IoT devices.
But IoT has found use cases for organizations within the agriculture, infrastructure, and home automation industries.
IoT makes farming easier by collecting data on rainfall, humidity, temperature, and soil content to help automate farming techniques.
Connected sensors can also monitor events or changes within structural buildings, bridges, and other infrastructure through wireless networks.
This allows for cost-saving, saved time, quality-of-life workflow changes, and paperless workflow.
IoT touches every industry, including healthcare, finance, retail, and manufacturing businesses.
What Is Industrial IoT (IIoT)?
Industrial internet of things (IIoT) uses connected machines, devices, and built-in sensors in industrial applications compared to just everyday devices.
With AI and machine learning capabilities, data generated by IIoT devices can improve efficiency, operational costs, response times, productivity, visibility, operational technology and more.
IIoT networks support machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, device management and transmit data and receive automation programming from the central system.
Many people believe we are in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Game-changing technologies drove each previous revolution.
This revolution comes in the form of an industrial, digital transformation and cyber-physical systems.
IoT is at its foundation.
Contact CDMG
The experts at CDMG are well known throughout our industry for their proven track record of success on industrial projects.
They do this in various ways, including staying up to date with the latest industry trends and technologies, like IoT and the various cloud computing platforms.
CDMG serves clients nationwide as a link between our clients, equipment suppliers, engineering service providers, and other stakeholders.
CDMG believes that the success of a project can only be achieved when everyone involved is communicating clearly and working together toward common goals.
Our project managers take responsibility for overseeing projects from concept to completion.
To get started with CDMG, click the button below.
References:
https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/Internet-of-Things-IoT
https://www.oracle.com/internet-of-things/what-is-iot/
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3207535/what-is-iot-the-internet-of-things-explained.html
https://www.aeris.com/in/what-is-iot/
https://www.sap.com/insights/what-is-iot-internet-of-things.html
I'm Ben Sparhawk, the Content Writer and Marketing Account Manager for CDMG. I write to showcase the work that CDMG does and everything related to the pre-engineered metal building industry as well as their engineering capabilities. When I'm not working on content, you can find me spending time with my wife and children. You can also find me in the gym, trying to better myself, and I also enjoy spending time outdoors hiking or checking out local parks.