If you’ve ever dreamt of machines communicating with each other and becoming smart, your dream has come true. With IoT, technology machines can be more competent, and they can work on their own without human intervention.
IoT is a unique technology. Since machines were invented, people have thought of making them self-reliant. IoT not only powers commercial machines and such things, but it also lies at the core of intelligent home appliances and self-driving cars.
Before having a look at the trends that will emerge in 2021, you should have a clear deeper understanding of the IoT technology itself.
What is IoT?
IoT, when expanded, means the Internet of Things. This means that everything that can be networked comes under the IoT segment. IoT is an implementation of devices and connections, where they can store and transfer information between each other to provide meaningful information and take decisions. Also, with such connections, devices can be controlled from a central point.
Today many industries are embracing the power of IoT technology and IoT Development Services. Moreover, it seems like it is becoming necessary to use such technologies to stay abreast of the market and competitors.
Having known about what IoT is, now is the right time to have a look at the trends that will rule throughout 2021
Smart homes are a place where IoT will be used heavily in the coming years. Today, the smart appliance market is rising heavily, and many people like to have such systems installed in their homes.
With smart home appliances, users can control the devices and appliances using their voice or other central consoles.
Smart home devices like lights, speakers, and door locks are used to simplify routine tasks. Moreover, such devices might seem costly at the beginning, but the benefits they provide are endless. Some people have already lowered their costs and increased savings in light bills and other maintenance tasks with innovative home solutions.
Since cars were invented, people have dreamt of cars being self-reliant and autonomous. Autonomous technologies in cars have various levels, and each level is accomplished using IoT technology.
IoT enables the communication between different mechanical, electrical, and computer components in a car. With this real-time communication, cars can do pretty much everything on their own. Today, with advanced IoT applications, cars are autonomous, and you can just sit behind the steering wheel and get to your destination.
Autonomous cars are self-driven and are data-intensive. Moreover, their power to process data is super fast, and they are very accurate. Hence there is an increased reliance and usage of self-driving cars. This trend seems in the research stages, but it will surely pace up in the coming years.
Another trend that is rising rapidly is the use of IoT technology in factories. Today, as the skilled industrial workforce is becoming scarce, using equally intelligent and capable machines is essential. IoT helps business owners to make their industrial machines smart by allowing interconnection and communication.
With IoT in place, business owners can have complete control over their factory systems and operate them from anywhere. This benefit has led to increased control, production, and growth for most businesses. Moreover, smart factories are the leading application of IoT technology, and IoT will become more mainstream with the help of smart factories.
The supply chain is an area where most things are done manually, whether it is transporting the goods, storing them, or moving them from one place to another. But with IoT, businesses can automate their supply chain by infusing automated IoT-enabled machines that can replace human efforts. These machines can take care of the supply chain, and as they are fully connected with other business systems, the chances of errors are minimized.
A reasonable control over the supply chain can be exercised using IoT technology. Hence businesses are shifting towards this adoption of IoT rapidly.
As more and more devices get connected to the internet, the risk of security breaches increases exponentially. Moreover, most devices that are connected under the IoT technology are not so smart to protect themselves from cyberattacks on their own.
Hence, the need for IoT security will increase. In the coming years, people will surely give preference to secure IoT applications rather than loose ones.
There are many ways IoT security can be enhanced, but with all the different protocols in play, it becomes harder to choose the best. Hence, there is continuous research about extracting the best features of every protocol and combining them to create a new secure and end-to-end IoT protocol.
Data breaches and mishaps are increasing rapidly, and if these things are done in IoT-connected devices, the results can be terrifying. Thinking about such scenarios, people will surely give more preference to secure IoT applications.
Automation is simplified dramatically with the help of Artificial intelligence and machine learning models. When these technologies are combined with IoT, a whole new world of opportunities can be unlocked.
We still use this combination in our day-to-day lives today, but the trend to use them at a large scale is about to begin. Our smartwatches and intelligent personal assistants are clear examples of AI and ML capabilities infused with IoT devices.
With the use of AI and ML systems, IoT applications can be more accurate and deliver astonishing results. IoT systems can find out which parts need maintenance, and they can set up preventive measures with the help of machine learning prediction models.
There are numerous other benefits that can be obtained with the combination of these two technologies, but it is good to leave the applications for the future.
The trend for the usage of IoT technology in healthcare has started, and it has a long way to go. The pandemic has shown that doctors and other workers cannot be around patients all time; they might expose themselves to risk. So, to tackle such extreme conditions, IoT technology will be used.
Today, in the healthcare sector, with the use of connected IoT devices, doctors and nurses can monitor patients closely, no matter their geographic locations. Moreover, with IoT, there are applications using which a doctor can operate on a patient in other parts of the globe with connected medical devices.
The need for healthcare is increasing day by day; hence the usage of IoT will surely increase in the coming time.
Another trend that is likely to emerge in the coming years is smart cities. Large-scale implementation of IoT technology that leads to a connected comprehensive environment of devices throughout a large city is called smart city implementation.
Smart cities can include technologies like smart homes and automated transportation systems. Moreover, they can look futuristic, just like the sci-fi movies, but surprisingly, they will become a reality in a short period.
Smart cities will have automated management systems, and almost all devices in the city will share data with each other. Such cities will be entertaining to live in, and the living standard of people will also become better.
When a large number of devices are connected to the internet, our ordinary computing devices might get slower. Edge computing is an advanced layer of computing devices that can simulate real-time data transfer and processing.
Edge computing offers a significant performance boost, and this performance is crucial in making the IoT devices work in real-time scenarios. Moreover, edge computing is helpful for businesses that have a dynamic workforce. Also, it is pretty beneficial when you want to control devices from a more considerable geographical distance.
Currently, edge computing is in its starting stage. Still, as IoT adoption increases, the need to process large scales of generated data will increase, and edge computing will come in trend.
IoT needs high speed to run, and this will be possible only with the rollout of 5G networks. Many companies are trying to achieve this feat, and the research shows that once it is achieved, the internet will be 100 times faster than the current speeds.
High-speed internet means that machines can be connected all over the world, and they can communicate on a real-time basis. 5G will boost performance and coverage, hence even at remote places, everything can be connected, and an IoT network can be set up.
Once 5G services are open for usage, they’ll rule the markets and surely increase IoT usage.
Security is a genuine concern in IoT systems, and this can be solved to a great extent by using blockchain technology. Blockchain is a unique technology that can power IoT applications. Blockchain only allows adding data; no modifications can be done; hence all the data that passes through your IoT applications will be transparent. No one can change data once it is on the blockchain; hence chances of hacking and data breach are minimized.
Moreover, blockchain technology helps to store data in a decentralized manner, and decentralized data storage is preferred nowadays. Hence blockchain will surely trend within the IoT ecosystem.
With IoT, everything will become automated. Starting from homes to factories and even cities, everything that can be connected to IoT will become automated.
IoT is capable of robotic process automation, using which robots can be programmed and controlled as per their needs. Moreover, any electrical or mechanical thing that humans can perform can be performed by IoT-enabled devices.
Hence, automation is an IoT trend that is expected to rise.
Agriculture is a domain where innovative solutions can yield great results. Many people have understood this, and they are already running smart farms.
Smart farms are IoT-enabled farming areas where everything is controlled and monitored by connected devices. Such farming is highly beneficial in areas where human reach is hard. Moreover, with IoT, the agricultural produce will also increase as the farms are taken care of based on decisions derived from data-intensive applications.
Wastage of resources can be reduced to a large extent, and sustainable farming activities can be undertaken. Such processes will help people to preserve precious natural resources for a longer time. This is really important, and once people understand this, the trend of smart farms and IoT-backed agriculture will come into play.
By now, you’ve known about tons of IoT trends, and you are sure that it is a promising technology. While many of these trends are not mainstream, they’ll undoubtedly start exploding once a more significant segment of people understands IoT completely.
Be sure to keep following these IoT trends so that you can get an edge over everyone.
Biography:- Harikrishna Kundariya, a marketer, developer, IoT, ChatBot & Blockchain savvy, designer, co-founder, Director of eSparkBiz Technologies. His 10+ experience enables him to provide digital solutions to new start-ups based on IoT and ChatBot.
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