INDUSTRIAL

The world of IoT is moving fast. Here are five stories from the last week you may have missed.

Industrial IoT Faces Big Challenges

At MWC Americas, Ericsson argued that there aren’t just two types of IoT, but four—Massive, High-Performance, Critical, and Industrial—each with unique use cases and opportunities. The company maintains that the Industrial and Critical IoT scenarios will be the most challenging to implement.

More than the others, these two will require ultra-high reliability, always-on availability, and extremely low latency. An additional challenge for the Industrial IoT category will be the need to tie 5G into traditional, existing wired networks.

Connected Car M&A on Track to Hit 100 Deals in 2018

How do you tell which emerging markets will lead the pack? One way is to look at the level of investments. M&A analysts Hampleton Partners predict that the connected car market is set to hit 100 deals by the end of 2018. Such investments are accelerating the adoption of IoT business models and technology.

For manufacturers, IoT helps them enter new markets as mobility providers. Conversely, tech giants and Silicon Valley startups want to provide innovative designs for this nascent market. Their interest is understandable as the latest Automotive M&A Market Report sites deal values up 54% in the first half of 2018 compared with the same time last year.

Is Data the New Oil?

Is data the next oil—in other words, an expensive resource—or an asset that should be free? It depends who you ask. In the past, Airbus’s VP of Engineering has said data will be the new oil, while Boeing executives want free data to unshackle their designs. The question is one of context.

Still, open data access, tool interoperability, and systems connectivity are necessary to enable the next generation design, cross-discipline engineering, and supplier collaboration processes. Marc Lind, an SVP Strategist at Aras, explores the data question in terms of the tools needed to develop large avionic IoT systems.

Implementing BLE Security in IoT Applications

Want to get technical about implementing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) security into IoT applications? Check out this industrial automation article that provides the details to protect apps against passive eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, and hiding device identity from unauthorized devices—all while minimizing power consumption. Without such design protections, IoT devices that connect over-the-air may potentially expose all control and status information, as well as private user data.

Should I Get Certified?

Convincing your current or future employer of your IoT skills can be a challenge. But it’s one worth addressing as, according to Gartner, 75% of executives are currently pursuing IoT related products and/or processes in their organization to drive business value.

A recognized certificate from an established educational leader can help—such as the University of California at Irvine’s (UCI) online IoT Certificate program. Online, yet hands-on courses (using Arduino and Raspberry Pi platforms) provide students with the knowledge and skills required to take advantage of this next major shift in technologies.