About Bob McIlvride

Bob McIlvride is the Communications Manager at Cogent Real-Time Systems, and is responsible for writing and editing technical documentation and marketing communications, as well as keeping in touch with sales partners and customers. He has a Master's degree in Professional Writing, and 15 years experience writing and publishing in the natural gas and process control industries. He has lived on three continents, speaks three languages, and considers the whole world his home.

The Magnitude of the Internet of Things

Posted on May 23, 2013 by Bob McIlvride

For the past few years leaders of thought in major companies and research firms have been creating a number of market forecasts for the Internet of Things. Pulling together some of the best of this analysis into an Internet of Things Market Forecast is an organization called Postscapes, whose mission is to “aggregate and connect the ideas, people and companies creating the Internet of Things.”

Contributors to the forecast include some of the big players in the game, such as Cisco, Intel, GE, Freescale, ARM, and Ericsson. In addition are a number of independent analysts and paid researchers like Harbor Research, Arthur D. Little, Smith & Associates, and Forrester Consulting, to name a few.

What strikes me as a common thread running through most of this resarch is the sheer magnitude of the Internet of Things, which seems to be building from a distant ocean swell into a breaking wave, promising to push society forward at a highly accelerated pace. The word “magnitude” itself conjures up different meanings, many of which seem applicable. Here are some examples, based on reports from the forecast:

Greatness of rank or position

“Estimates of the future market size of the Internet of Things cover a broad range, but most pundits agree it will dwarf any other market.” – Freescale/ARM
“The ‘Internet of Things’ is among the hottest topics currently being debated, with the projected potential in turnover whetting the appetite of industry experts around the globe.” – Arther D. Little

Greatness in size or extent

“Global machine-to-machine connections will rise from two billion at the end of 2011 to 12 billion at the end of 2020.” – Machina Research
“… between 2013 and 2022, $14.4 trillion of value (net profit) will be ‘up for grabs’ for enterprises globally — driven by IoE (Internet of Everything).” – Cisco
“Consider your own household, and count the number of mobile phones you currently have. Then count the number of windows, doors, electrical outlets, lights, appliances and heating and AC units you have. You’ll quickly see why the IoT market will surpass the mobile phone market, at least in the western world.” – Freescale/ARM

Greatness in significance or influence

“The vision of more than 50 billion connected devices will see profound changes in the way people, businesses and society interact.” - Ericsson
“We have entered an era where people, businesses and social organizations are beginning to understand the profound impacts awareness, collaboration, and intelligence will bring. In the not too distant future, hundreds of millions, then billions, of individuals and businesses, with billions, then trillions, of smart, communicating devices, will stretch the boundaries of today’s business and social systems and create the potential to change the way we work, learn, entertain and innovate.” – Harbor Research

A measure of energy from an earthquake

“The compounding effects of even relatively small changes in efficiency across industries of massive global scale should not be ignored.” – GE
“The opportunities this opens up to forward thinking product and service organizations are nearly infinite. Businesses can begin to explore many new possibilities for system solutions unthinkable just a few years ago.” – Harbor Research
“Just as the Internet phenomenon happened not so long ago and caught like a wildfire, the Internet of Things will touch every aspect of our lives in less than a decade. Are you ready for it?” – Freescale/ARM

That’s a good question: Are we ready for it? In a few upcoming blogs we will take a closer look at some of the ideas and opinions of these leaders of thought and see how they relate to real-time cloud computing—and what we can do to ride the growing wave of the Internet of Things.

Investing in the Internet of Things

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Bob McIlvride

As the Internet of Things becomes more and more a reality, and as the world sits up and takes notice, we can expect an increasing amount of capital to flow towards the underlying technologies. A recent report from Technavio, a London-based technology research and advisory company, predicts that the machine-to-machine (M2M) market worldwide will grow at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of over 25% from 2012 to 2016.

There are currently many industries using M2M devices and services, such as RFID readers for product tracking, location-based services for fleet management, and M2M sensors that track inventory in the manufacturing sector. When you add to that the applications now coming online like smart meters, security cameras, vending machines, and even home appliances, there are clearly abundant investment opportunities opening in the near future.

The Technavio report points out that one of the main driving forces behind this rapid growth of the Internet of Things and M2M communication is the drop in prices of the devices themselves, as well as the costs involved in connecting them. As chip manufacturers continue to miniaturize their products and reduce costs, the price of the hardware shrinks to insignificance. At the same time, according to the report, the cost of M2M services is also going down.

However, the report states that there is still one aspect of the Internet of Things that presents challenges: data integration. Simply connecting all of these devices presents challenges, as many of them are not capable of sustaining a TCP link to the Internet. Even for those that can connect, there are dozens of communications protocols in use, and no agreement yet on which is best. And finally there is the question of how to manage all the data traffic that results from so many connected devices trying to talk to each other.

Despite these integration challenges, investment in the Internet of Things makes a good deal of sense. Significant growth is expected in the electronics and semiconductor sector, and for those seeking greater opportunities, investing in technology that can provide the core requirements for real-time cloud computing might prove to be a wise decision.

Exposure on the Internet of Things

Posted on April 25, 2013 by Bob McIlvride

David Goldman at CNN recently published a story about Shodan, a search engine for the things on the Internet of Things. A Shodan search yields a URL that would allow a knowledgeable person to connect to a machine or device, and interact with it. There are things you would expect, like routers, printers, and webcams of unsuspecting homeowners, along with things we might hope could not be accessed, like traffic lights, power plant control systems, and particle accelerators.

The point of the story is not to put fear and trembling into the hearts of the masses, nor to turn people away from the Internet—or against the Internet of Things. It’s a wake-up call to consumers and industrial users to keep their guard up.

The story recounts how equipment as diverse as a hockey rink cooling system, a car wash, and a hydroelectric power plant could be switched on and off remotely, through an insecure connection on the Internet. Then there are the more mundane systems like household water heaters and garage door openers. Who knew that your new iPhone-controlled door locking system might be so available on an Internet search?

Actually, that is the purpose of Shodan—to give security experts a way to find holes, and plug them. The site allows very limited access to anonymous users. To summon its full power you must first identify yourself and your purpose in using the engine, and pay a fee.

Unfortunately, dedicated hackers and cyber criminals have other means to get this kind of information. What’s important is to be aware that devices on the Internet of Things can be exposed, and to take the necessary precautions for protecting them. We can understand how a homeowner might leave himself open, as recent leaps in technology and gadgetry are hard for most people to keep up with. But no mission-critical industrial system should permit this kind of access.

This underscores the importance of removing any chance of an unauthorized inbound connection in a real-time cloud system. At the very least, you need the ability to keep firewalls closed to any incoming traffic. Devices should be configured to make outbound-only connections to the cloud, or else aggregated behind a firewall to a server that can make an outbound-only connection.

As more and more devices get connected to the Internet of Things, we hope that those responsible will use Shodan or something similar to find the vulnerabilities in their systems, and then take measures to ensure that they are no longer exposed to search.

Is Your Country Cloud-Ready?

Posted on March 28, 2013 by Bob McIlvride

Just as the clouds in the sky have no geographic limits and glide over all borders, we might hope that cloud computing would also be an international phenomenon. At the very least, as the various countries around the world go increasingly digital, cloud computing and real-time data interconnectivity should begin to take on a greater significance worldwide. The question then comes to mind: Which countries are best prepared for cloud computing?

A few weeks ago the BSA Global Cloud Scorecard was released, the first report of its kind. The BSA (Business Software Alliance) positions itself as an advocate for the software industry, and its membership is made up of many leading firms such as Micrsoft, Apple, Oracle, Intel, Siemens, Sybase, and Dell. The Global Cloud Scorecard is an attempt to rate the top 24 ICT (Information and Communication Technology) countries in the world in terms of their readiness for cloud computing.

The results are interesting, indeed surprising in some ways. Although we would expect the more “developed” countries to be more advanced in their ability to support cloud computing, “troubling obstacles emerge when you examine the lack of alignment in the legal and regulatory environments in many of those advanced countries,” according to the report. At the same time, the strong desire for ICT in advancing countries like China, India, and Brazil doesn’t necessarily make them ideal environments for cloud computing either. Each country has its own legal dynamic that plays out in unique ways.

The 24 countries were evaluated in three broad areas:

1. The legal environment that ensures privacy and security, defines and restricts cybercrime, and upholds the rights of intellectual property.

2. Policies and support for international standards, e-commerce, and free trade.

3. ICT readiness of the general infrastructure, and policies for broadband Internet support.

The printed report provides the detailed scorecard for each country, by category, as well as some graphs for making quick comparisons. The website also features a page in which you can get a verbal summary of the situation, country by country.

Some of the trends that caught my eye included:

Japan is at the top of the chart, as the country is active in cybercrime treaties, IP laws, and international standards. They also have high broadband penetration, and plan to provide access to 100% of households by 2015.

Most European countries scored reasonably well. Germany is near the top, but may drop in the standings if they begin interpreting laws to restrict the flow of data across borders.

The USA is a leader in cybercrime laws, privacy protection good at the individual level, but inconsistent at the state level. The country has high Internet use, but broadband coverage is not consistent.

China, India, Brazil, and Thailand all exhibit a strong and growing interest in ICT, but some significant gaps in privacy protection and cybercrime legislation.

Although there may be a few setbacks, my guess is that all of the countries in the report will have made substantial improvements in their scores in the next few years, and there may be new ones added. We look forward to seeing next year’s report.

Smart Computing in Real Time

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Bob McIlvride

We’re hearing plenty of talk these days about smart phones, smart homes, and smart cities. “Smart” in this sense means adding computing power to our phones, houses, or public facilities, and connecting them to a network or the Internet. So in that context, what could “smart computing” possibly mean? How do computers get smart? And what does smart computing have to do with real-time cloud computing, if anything?

A few years ago Andrew H. Bartels wrote a white paper for Forbes titled Smart Computing Drives The New Era of IT Growth. In this paper Bartels defines what he means by “smart computing” as “a new generation of integrated hardware, software, and network technologies that provide IT systems with real-time awareness of the real world and advanced analytics to help people make more intelligent decisions about alternatives and actions that will optimize business processes and business balance sheet results.“

Can we simplify that a bit? How about saying that just as something in the real world gets “smart” by connecting it to a computer, computers get “smart” by connecting them to the real world, which ultimately helps us to make better decisions.

As we would expect in a white paper from Forrester Research, there are some well-thought-out projections on where this trend might take us. It states that smart computing is the next big wave, a fourth wave coming after mainframe, personal, and networked computing. Does that sound familiar? We’ve heard people saying pretty much the same thing about cloud computing. This should not be surprising, since Bartels identifies cloud computing as “one of the underpinnings of smart computing.“

What strikes me is how much benefit smart computing can gain from real-time cloud capabilities. Consider this list of the Five A’s of Smart Computing that Bartels suggests:

Awareness means connectivity to the world, pretty much as we’ve seen in the Internet of Things – sensors, embedded chips, video, and so on. Bartels says: “Unified communications technologies such as third-generation (3G) wireless networks will transport this data from these client devices back to central servers for analysis.“ In many scenarios, the closer to real time that the data transport takes place, the more useful the information will be.

Analysis is done using standard business intelligence tools, and Bartels points out the value of feeding real-time data into these tools: “Businesses and governments have already been using these analytical tools … But now, they will be deployed against the real-time data being transmitted from the new awareness devices.“

Alternatives refers to the decision-making process: evaluating alternatives and making decisions. Bartels foresees a need for a significant increase in data transfer rates to keep pace with the real world in real time. “The basic function of rules engines and workflow will stay constant — seismic leaps will be necessary in the data flow and analytical inputs in a world of vastly expanded real-time awareness.“

Actions are based on the results of analysis, either automatic or with human intervention. In either case, Bartels suggests: “These actions will be executed through integrated links to the appropriate process applications.“ Real-time cloud systems can provide two-way data communication to support control functionality when required.

Auditability is a feedback system to ensure that the action has taken place, complies with legal regulations and company policies, and also provides some way to evaluate for improvement. “Using data on activity at each stage, record what happened and analyze for purposes of compliance and improvement.“ A real-time cloud system should be readily able to support that capability.

To sum up, new technologies are necessary to support smart computing. These include the ability to capture data from the real world and send it in real time for high-speed analysis and feedback. This is what real-time cloud computing is all about.

About Bob McIlvride

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: