What is Internet of Things

Risk Group Founder, Jayshree Pandya PhD discusses “Internet of Things” with Maarten Ectors, Vice President at Canonical Limited based in United Kingdom.     Introduction There is a growing excitement that “The Internet of Things (IoT)” will bring nations “the next industrial revolution” because of the way it will transform the way, we the people, will live, work, entertain, shop, and travel, as well as how nations: its government, industries, organizations, and academia (NGIOA) will interact with each other, within and across nations boundaries in cyberspace, geospace and space (CGS). There is a growing belief that the revolution is already here. Irrespective of whether the revolution has already begun or will begin in the coming years, one thing remains certain –it will bring each nation: its government, industries, organizations, academia and individuals (NGIOA-I), each one of us great promise as well as great peril. When physical objects, from across industries, businesses, homes, and entire human ecosystem in CGS become embedded with sensors and gain the ability to communicate through connected computers, the new information networks will need to create new integrated: governance models, business models, technology, business processes, and way of doing things. While this will likely reduce costs, increase speed, efficiency, and bring new opportunities for NGIOA-I, it is also expected to create many new risks and bring each NGIOA complex challenges. IoT is expected to fundamentally change the way each NGIOA operates and does things. The, governance, management, and business models that are currently based on largely stationary and silo information architectures, will fundamentally face complex interconnected and integrated challenges, as new ways of creating value will emerge across NGIOA in the coming months and years. Of all the technology trends that are taking place right now, the IoT brings NGIOA the most complex challenges for which perhaps no nation is prepared for. While the Internet of Things has great promise; the business, policy, governance, security, privacy, operational and technical challenges must be tackled before these systems are widely embraced.  Now is the time for decision makers across NGIOA to structure their thoughts about the potential impact, opportunities and risks likely to emerge from the Internet of Things. What is Internet of Things? The Internet of Things (IoT) in simplest terms has been described as the “objects or things” embedded with electronics, software, sensors, intelligence and network connectivity, which enables these “objects or things” to collect and exchange data and information. When we say “Internet of Things” what we mean by “Things” is, a “thing”, in the Internet of Things, is an object or the network of physical objects that can be assigned an IP address and provided with the ability to transfer data or information over a network. These objects, devices or things; collect pre-defined- useful data with the help of various existing technologies, and then autonomously flow the data between other pre-defined devices. Some examples would be: a heart monitor implant, a biochip transponder, an automobile that has built-in sensors and so on. The core of “Internet of Things” is device-to-device communication through connected computers and internet networks. While it is being built on cloud computing and networks of data-gathering sensors; it’s mobile, virtual, and instantaneous connection is going to make everything in our lives, between, within and across NGIOA; in cyberspace, geospace and space “smart.” How does IoT work? As each device, object or thing is uniquely identifiable through its embedded computing system, it is able to interoperate within the existing Intern...