IOT Trends in 2017

IOT simply means Internet of Things and is a very fast-rising technology that is going to grow even more massively in 2017. IOT began around 2014, and by then 87% of customers had no awareness. But fast forward to 2016, 18% of professionals were vaguely familiar with it and only 1% had no idea about it. This article is just a short write up to enlighten you on IOT trends to look out for this year. The trends in this list are not arranged in order of importance.IOT includes artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, wearables and amongst others and can be applied in almost all sectors, not limited to technology only, ranging from healthcare to industry to commercial to environment etc.

1. Fully autonomous cars will become a reality: Although many city officials see these vehicles as a threat, many technology and automotive factories are working hard daily to officially launch self driving cars massively. Tesla’s Elon Musk got people talking recently when he promised that, a car that can drive itself from Los Angeles to New York will be ready by the end of 2017. The city officials are said to be against this because there is a lot of revenue generated from parking tickets, traffic violations etc. in many cities.
2. More IOT security breaches and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) Attacks and a bigger push for IOT security standards: With the recent DDoS attacks that took place in October, 2016, it is just a confirmation of the vulnerability of IOT devices. This attack shook the IOT industry so bad because hackers used IOT devices to overwhelm servers at Dns (Domain Name System provider). This lead to the closing of more than 1,500 sites including Netflix, Facebook and Twitter. However, the IOT market will continue to expand despite security risks. This 2017, more IOT professionals will work harder to enforce strict rules and regulations to ensure the safety of all connected devices. IOT security is one area that will be massively explored this year to avoid more DDoS attacks. The government will also step in to improve IOT security.
3. Exploration of more wireless connectivity methods: In 2017, IOT decision makers are going to have to evaluate more than 15 wireless connectivity techniques and protocols, hence setting a standard for this. This is because connecting different parts of IOT to the sensors are done by Wireless Connections such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Max, Low Power Mac, and some emerging technologies such as Li-Fi and even those that are yet to be tested (Sigfox, 3GPP’s NB-IOT, and LoRaWAN)
4. IOT training: It is not surprising that many organizations that have embraced the Internet of Things find it hard to find trained workers (e.g. digital marketers, security professionals etc.) when recruiting. In 2017, more training and certification will be done in this field and it will soon be a general requirement in the IT industry.
5. Data Analytics Tools will gain importance: Recently, people have begun to realize that it is not really a big deal to just collect accurate and current data but to analyze it has become more important as this helps in getting necessary business insights and is also useful in strategizing.
6. Inclusion of more cities in this technology and rapid adoption in the consumer market: IOT will spread widely to more developed countries across different continents and even the developing countries will begin to adopt it slowly.
7. Increased collaboration between IT and OT: In 2017, IOT will move from the consumer market to the manufacturing and factory markets. IT professionals will begin to move closer to Operational Technology workers on the Industrial floor. This is as a result of the realization that connected factories will reduce costs a lot and make manufacturing floors more efficient.