The Week In Review: IoT

Analysis
Adam Greenfield writes about the privacy and technology issues raised by the Internet of Things in this piece, an adapted extract from his new book, “Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life.” “The Internet of Things presents many new possibilities, and it would be foolish to dismiss those possibilities out of hand. But we would also be wise to approach the entire domain with skepticism, and in particular to resist the attempts of companies to gather ever more data about our lives – no matter how much ease, convenience and self-mastery we are told they are offering us,” he concludes.

The Pew Research Center notes that there are an estimated 8.4 billion connected things operating around the world now. The organization surveyed about 1,200 people in a non-scientific canvassing about what the IoT cyberattacks and other issues mean for the general populace; of those responding, 15% said a significant number would disconnect as a result, while 85% said most people will move more deeply into the connected life.

Security
Cybersecurity is lacking in many IoT devices, according to Bruce Schneier, a cybersecurity expert. What’s the solution? “We’re going to get government intervention here because the market won’t fix this problem by itself,” he said at a conference in London, England.

Armis of Palo Alto, Calif., came out of stealth mode this week with an agentless IoT security platform for enterprises. Sequoia Capital and Tenaya Capital, along with several individual investors, have provided $17 million in private funding to the startup, whose founders served in Unit 8200 of the Israeli Defense Forces.

Altman Vilandrie reports that 48% of IoT networks have had at least one data breach, in a security survey of almost 400 organizations. Larger enterprises which have annual revenues of more than $2 billion typically have a loss of more than $20 million related to a single IoT security breach, the firm notes.

The Internet of Things has overtaken mobile technology as the potential conduit for cyberattacks, according to ISACA, a not-for-profit association involved in information systems. The group issued the second part of its report, State of Cyber Security 2017.

Technology
Evan Nisselson, the general partner of LDV Capital, said at a conference in Sofia, Bulgaria, that his firm is widely investing in advanced vision system technologies. “The Internet of Eyes is going to be a lot more important than the Internet of Things,” he said. “The question is who is going to analyze all of that data. There is a war over who owns the camera because they want to own the visual data.”

Protocols
Vodafone says it successfully tested narrowband IoT modules from Neul and Qualcomm, connecting them with networking equipment supplied by Ericsson, Huawei Technologies, and Nokia. The interoperability tests were carried out in multiple regions of the world.

Products/Services
Deloitte has worked with Hewlett Packard Enterprise to provide four joint IoT offerings. They are a Turnkey IoT solution for manufacturing; a Smart Retail solution to boost in-store conversion rates and to improve consumers’ shopping experiences; a Smart Workplace solution to digitally connect co-workers around the world; and a Smart Venue solution for stadiums to enhance the fan experience. Deloitte will provide the consulting services to go with each offering, including IoT and cybersecurity. For monitoring machine assets, Deloitte and HPE will turn to technology and services from National Instruments and PTC.

Apple made its move into IoT this week with the unveiling of the HomePod speaker and personal assistant, which will compete with the Amazon Echo and Google Home products. The home speaker is based upon Apple’s A8 processor and features a custom woofer, multichannel echo cancellation, and real-time acoustic modeling. HomePod will go on sale in December with a list price of $349.

Investing
Ryan McQueeney of Zacks Investment Research recommends three chip stocks for Internet of Things investors. They are STMicroelectronics, Marvell Technology Group, and Microchip Technology.

Market Research
MarketsandMarkets has a new report forecasting the worldwide IoT market will increase from $170.57 billion this year to $561.04 billion by 2022 for a compound annual growth rate of 26.9%. Details on the report are available here.

Automation, Big Data analysis, Industrial IoT technologies, and non-contact inspection will propel the global growth of metrology software for manufacturers, according to Frost & Sullivan, which predicts the metrology software market for inspection, analysis, and reverse engineering services will be valued at $526.6 million in 2021. Aerospace, automotive, electronics manufacturing, and other industries will be involved, the market research firm says.

Cisco Systems estimates worldwide Internet protocol traffic will reach 3.3 zettabytes by 2021, with video streams accounting for more than 80% of IP traffic. The Internet of Things, augmented/virtual reality, and software-defined wide-area networks will also be significant factors in increasing IP traffic, according to the company.

Plaudits
Seebo, which provides an IoT platform for manufacturing applications, was recognized by Gartner in its Cool Vendors in the Internet of Things, 2017 Report, published last month. Others recognized in the report include Exosite, Hiving Technology, Reekoh, and Rigado.