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Cisco Systems officials for much of the year have been talking about what they are calling the Internet of Everything.
According to the networking giant, the Internet of Everything (IoE) goes beyond the more commonly known Internet of Things. The Internet of Everything certainly includes things, but it also includes people, data and processes—essentially whatever is connected to or crosses over the Internet, according to Rob Lloyd, president of development and sales at Cisco.
And for organizations and countries worldwide, IoE increasingly will represent significant business opportunities. “The value increases as more things are connected,” Lloyd said during a recent conference call with journalists about IoE.
CEO John Chambers and other company executives for the past few months have talked about what it will mean to the global economy in the coming years: $14.4 trillion by 2020. However, according to Cisco’s IoE Value Index released June 19, the impact is already being felt: private-sector businesses worldwide will generate as much as $613 billion in profits this year, and those organizations optimizing their businesses for IoE will grab the bulk of that.
In addition, there is another $544 billion that could be captured this year if organizations work to optimize their businesses to take advantage of IoE.
“The Internet of Everything is actually … happening today and … firms are seeing value today,” Joseph Bradley, general manager of Cisco Consulting Services, said during the conference call.
Bradley noted that only “1 percent of things are connected today.” As more connections are made, the value to businesses and the global economy will only go up.
Already there are about 10 billion devices and systems connected to the Internet, and more connections will be made. According to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index, released in February, by 2017 there will be 5.2 billion mobile users, a jump from 4.3 billion in 2012. The number of mobile connections—including M2M connections—will grow to 10 billion, from 7 billion last year. And those connections will run over mobile networks that will be seven times faster, from 0.5M bps in 2012 to 3.9M bps in 2017.
In addition, video will play an increasingly larger role in mobile Internet traffic. In 2012, video accounted for 51 percent of all traffic; by 2017, that number will climb to 66 percent.
According to the company’s IoE Value Index—in which 7,500 business and IT decision-makers from 12 countries were surveyed—organizations should take several steps to ensure they are getting all the value that the Internet of Everything has to offer. Those steps include investing in high-quality tech infrastructure and tools and adopting inclusive business practices that let all employees contribute, Cisco officials said.
In addition, companies need to develop solid practices for managing their information.
Currently, companies in the United States are gaining the most advantages from IoE, realizing $253 billion in profits this year. China is second at $76.9 billion, with Germany coming in third at $54.4 billion. However, business leaders in emerging markets, including India, China, Brazil and Mexico, are highly optimistic about the value their companies could see from IoE, according to Cisco’s study.
Worldwide, 69 percent of the survey’s respondents said the global job market would stay the same or improve due to IoE, while 89 percent thought wages would stay the same or improve.
Among industries, services—at $158.8 billion—and manufacturing—at $103.1 billion—should realize the most profits from IoE this year, with the key drivers being supply chain, customer experience, innovation, asset utilization and employee productivity.
Cisco is not the only tech company that sees opportunity as more people, systems and devices get connected. Everyone from system makers like IBM and Hewlett-Packard to chip vendors like Intel and ARM has talked about the Internet of Things, and are offering products designed to better enable it.
Cisco’s IoE survey came out a week before the vendor’s Cisco Live 2013 show in Orlando, Fla., which kicks off June 24.