Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Cloud
    • Cloud
    • Innovation
    • IT Management
    • Mobile
    • Networking

    Internet of Things Gets Real, Now Has Its Own Consortium

    By
    Chris Preimesberger
    -
    April 1, 2014
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      The so-called Internet of things, or IoT for short, is officially a trend. We know this because it now has its own industry consortium.

      A group of household-name industrial giants that include Intel, IBM, AT&T, Cisco Systems and General Electric — along with the U.S. government — revealed March 26 that they are going to work together to establish engineering standards so that the IoT will work optimally for users and vendors alike.

      The Industrial Internet Consortium will establish common blueprints that machines can use to share information and move data from one place to another — or from one location to several locations. These standards will include not only Internet protocol standards but also metrics such as power levels within connected or non-connected machines, data storage capacity in IT systems, and data traffic control in large networks.

      These standards, which almost certainly will take three to five years or more to create and approve, will help software and hardware developers create products with a maximum of efficiency in order to connect the IoT. This means tying together sensors, networks, personal computers, cloud systems, vehicles, retail businesses, large enterprise systems and thousands of other entities.

      White House Will Play Key Role

      The White House and several other federal offices are also helping to build the consortium, which certainly will strive to attract many other companies and organizations.

      Another clue as to why the IoT is fast earning legitimacy is that it also has its own conference, the Internet of Things World Forum. Cisco Systems, which has hitched its star to the concept, hosted the event last fall in Barcelona.

      The Internet of things refers to the rapid growth in the number of smart devices—from industrial machines to cars to appliances to mobile devices—that currently are or will be connected to the Internet, communicating with each other and generating massive amounts of data.

      In a report last year, Cisco forecast that by 2017, there will be 3.6 billion Internet users and more than 19 billion network connections—both fixed and mobile—as well as machine-to-machine (M2M) connections. By 2020, there will be 50 billion devices connected to the Internet.

      Today, there are about 12.5 billion devices connected, according to Inbar Lasser-Raab, senior director of enterprise networking marketing at Cisco. In the IoT scenario, Cisco will build on its networking strengths.

      ‘Sweeping Industrial Cooperation’

      “I don’t think anything this big has been tried before, in terms of sweeping industrial cooperation,” GE Vice President William Ruh, who runs the company’s global software center, told The New York Times. “This is how we will make machines, people and data work together.”

      If the Industrial Internet Consortium had been started, say, five or six years ago, there already might be answers to a current mystery that has stymied scientists, military and government experts for three weeks: The fate of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370.

      The group’s first executive director, Richard Soley, is the chief executive of the Object Management Group, a global technology standards group. He told The Times that the new consortium was already seeing interest from overseas companies, including Fujitsu (Japan), Siemens (Germany) and Huawei (China).

      “What we have got to do is get all of the standards working together,” Soley said. “If Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 had had full interoperability with the world’s tracking systems, we’d know where it is to a square meter.”

      Chris Preimesberger
      https://www.eweek.com/author/cpreimesberger/
      Chris J. Preimesberger is Editor Emeritus of eWEEK. In his 16 years and more than 5,000 articles at eWEEK, he distinguished himself in reporting and analysis of the business use of new-gen IT in a variety of sectors, including cloud computing, data center systems, storage, edge systems, security and others. In February 2017 and September 2018, Chris was named among the 250 most influential business journalists in the world (https://richtopia.com/inspirational-people/top-250-business-journalists/) by Richtopia, a UK research firm that used analytics to compile the ranking. He has won several national and regional awards for his work, including a 2011 Folio Award for a profile (https://www.eweek.com/cloud/marc-benioff-trend-seer-and-business-socialist/) of Salesforce founder/CEO Marc Benioff--the only time he has entered the competition. Previously, Chris was a founding editor of both IT Manager's Journal and DevX.com and was managing editor of Software Development magazine. He has been a stringer for the Associated Press since 1983 and resides in Silicon Valley.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×