According to new research from Cisco's Cloud Index, data created by the Internet of Things is now predicted to hit 507.5 zettabytes by 2019. With countless “things” connecting consumers' lives to the Internet, organizations across all industries have little choice but to follow their customers into the vast, uncharted Internet of Everything future that lies ahead.
While this is an exciting trend, it can be scary for some, particularly due to the unknowns around security and privacy. In the spirit of Halloween, we face this unknown future head on as we bring you the latest Internet of Things news references and articles for CIOs and IT pros.
Cisco predicts Internet of Things will generate 500 zettabytes of traffic by 2019 (Silicon Angle): “Cisco forecasts that total cloud consumption will quadruple within the next five years to account for 8.6 zettabytes of traffic by the end of 2019, much of which will originate from organizations moving more and more of their workloads off-premise. Enterprises are set to transfer 56 percent of their applications and data to the public cloud, while providers, for their part, will step up investment in their infrastructure to keep up with the usage increase. As a result, the study estimates that the number of workloads running on any given server in a cloud data center will increase from an average of 5.1 in 2014 to 8.4 by 2020.”
S.F. Internet of Things Wireless Network Open for Business (Government Tech): “City officials agreed to run a one-year pilot project with Sigfox, a French company that is building a low-power Internet of Things wireless network now in hopes of someday cashing in on the boom. The city plans to encourage entrepreneurs to invent more devices that will connect with the network. Miguel Gamiño, the city’s technology department director and chief information officer, compared San Francisco to ancient governments, which built networks of roads specifically to move armies.”
Verizon courts developers with new Internet of Things platform (Mashable): “At the heart of Verizon's strategy is a new web-based developer platform called Thingspace, which helps companies create apps services to manage connected devices. During the event Wednesday, Mike Lanman, Verizon's senior vice president of Enterprise products, said the company's goal is to make it easier for developers and companies of all sizes to build for Internet of Things and to combat the current fragmentation within the ecosystem.”
The (nettlesome) Internet of Things (Software Development Times): “From a security perspective, the Internet of Things offers snooping noses plenty of Things to sniff. Kevin Surace, CEO of Appvance, said that security is tough in an IoT environment. 'You don’t want that data to get in the wrong hands, or to execute against your service in the wrong way. The security [standard] is higher than for a website. The overall service has to not be taken over, the data can’t be stolen, and people can’t create mischief with these things. We’re not making IoT toasters, but if someone did, you can imagine what’d happen. These are really serious issues from a technology perspective,' he said.”
Why IoT Security Is So Critical (TechCrunch): “While the effort to tackle security issues regarding IoT devices is laudable, it isn’t enough to ensure that we can leverage the full power of this new technology in a secure environment. There also must be a sound plan for installing security updates on IoT devices. Each consumer will likely soon own scores — if not hundreds — of connected devices. The idea of manually installing updates on so many devices is definitely out of the question, but having them automatically pushed by manufacturers also can be a risky business. Proper safeguards must be put in place to prevent updating interfaces from becoming security holes themselves.”
What all executives need to know about the Internet of things (Fortune): “Hepplemann’s first piece of advice for CEOs almost feels intuitive in an era when technology is changing everything from hotels to taxis. Realize that your IT group is becoming an integral part of your entire business. They aren’t just the people keeping your servers or your email up. They should instead be bringing technology into all aspects of your business.”
