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The Internet of Overhyped Things



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Brad Yale

Andrew Binstock As always, great read.

You raise some excellent points however I believe the word "meta" should be applied in this situation. You note:

"Judging by the amount of coverage, the high-visibility presence of high-profile vendors, the emerging crop of tradeshows, and the inevitable stream of books, you might be fooled into believing that the IoT was an imminent phenomenon for which you were perhaps already late. You're not. It's currently mostly babble about a future hoped-for phenomenon. It is like pre-teens and sex: They're all excitedly talking about it, while in fact no one is actually doing it."

Another way of saying this is it is the industry talking about the industry. Like a film about film, the reason you are seeing/hearing so much about the IoT is because everyone within the IT industry looks at Nest not as a one off, but as a real possibility for their IoT device. Everyone within the industry - engineers to press - chat about the IoT because they are interested in the tech working for the sake of:

A) Being intellectually validated, a sort of "see, we told you so"
B) Hoping a new IoT device they have a hand in gets purchased by the likes of Google.

The IoT, within the IT industry, is meta. It is being talked about because it is being talked about. I would wager this can be proven by walking down any street in New York City to ask strangers:

A) Do you know what the IoT is?
B) Do you know what the Internet of Things is?
C) Do you know what the IoT does? More specfically, do you know how the IoT can help you?
D) Do you know what Nest is?
E) Can you explain the Cloud?

The truth is, the vast majority of everyday consumers have no idea what the IoT is or how it can (eventually) help them. The additional truth is the IT industry as a whole has gone a piss poor job at selling solutions (Cloud) to the public in a meaningful manner.

The bottom line here is and should be - before you move onto another project, nail one down first. For all its possibilities, the IoT needs to grow up before it can be marketed, sold or passed along as the next great IT advance. Would I love a city wired with IoT parking meters to streamline parking? Sure.

Is it near reality? Not at all.

- Brad Yale
InformIT Community Specialist

DWilde1

MatthewH421, I very much agree with both you and Andrew B both. In short, there will be thousands of systems released out there which will put us at risk of the zombie mechs from Hell, and there will also be those companies that put in the time to ensure that security features work and that you're secure down to the chip level. Unfortunately, really good chips are like cars: you start working on the architecture several years before the product comes to market. We (Intel) are making chips more hardened than ever, and the ones coming will be even better. We also can secure a system post-bootloader such that no program can be introduced and still boot. There's even more, can't talk yet.

MatthewH421

You make some good points but when has absolutely terrible security ever slowed down IT adoption? :P

ValeriM

Internet of Things Hype Curve:
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|./....v.......
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....^---- SUN JavaME era
...........^---- Now we are here

DWilde1

[The following is my own opinion, not that of my employer Intel]

You know, Andrew, there's a lot of truth to what you say except for your statement that "no one is actually doing it." The industrial segment of the IoT is already alive and doing very well and Intel is in the thick of it with both hardware and cloud- and thing-based analytics software solutions. One of our ready-to-ship systems solutions will potentially be saving users of commercial HVAC systems between 15% and 30% of their heating and cooling energy bills and that's huge.

The IoT is already very much in play and our Wind River and McAfee groups are working with our silicon teams to give us rock-solid security solutions. It can be done and it will be done and, most importantly, what is do-able NOW is worth doing. Yes, there is hype, and yes the VCs are tossing stupid money around, but as the old saying goes, "dogs bark but the caravan passes."

Some Guy

Internet of Things Hype Curve:
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|...^..../.....
|../..\../......
|./....v.......
|/..............
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....^---- YOU ARE HERE