Connecting the Dots with IoT

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs), like SoftServe’s own Sense, help businesses track shipments, monitoring factors such as temperature, light, and motion from anywhere in the world. Businesses now know when a shipment is compromised, or to adjust conditions so that the product can be saved.

But WSNs aren’t the only application for IoT. The two fastest industries to adopt IoT are currently retail and healthcare—two fields where a relevant, actionable data exchange is most invaluable. Retail uses IoT for restocking, tracking shipments, and speeding customer reorders, among other things. And IoT is useful for healthcare, as patients are able to monitor wellness and track medication regimens without having to touch a keyboard or a phone.

The biggest challenge to IoT adoption is security. More connected devices means more attack vectors and more possibilities for cybercriminals. However, with improving security awareness more companies are building in security measures at both the device and application layers.

Fragmentation is also a challenge that grows in step with the number of available IoT devices and SaaS (software as a service) solutions. Standardization improves the value that IoT devices can lend both the user and the business, and unifying systems will require eliminating siloed technologies for more effective use.

As data increases, demand on the cloud poses a challenge as well, but there is a growing number of developers and experts advocating for the integration of edge servers as a buffer. These servers would serve at a local level while filtering what data is or isn’t cloud relevant.

Despite these challenges, the internet of things will continue its growth at a steady trajectory. Forrester Research predicts that IoT will become “the backbone” of customer value.

To learn more about how IoT serves customized experiences, read “The Future of Intelligent Personalization,” the latest white paper from SoftServe.