The Internet of Things (M2M)

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I read several very interesting articles on the Internet of Things today.  I found them on the website, http://www.readwriteweb.com/.  The Internet of Things (IoT) is described as, "A term for when everyday ordinary objects are connected to the Internet via microchips.  The technologies include sensors, RFID and smartphone standards like NFC.  The use cases are still evolving, but over 2010 we saw large organizations like HP and IBM build out impressive platforms for the Internet of Things."

Why are HP and IBM building out Internet of Things platforms?  According to Richard MacManus, "HP is building an 'Internet of Things' platform because it sees that the coming data explosion will lead to huge demand for more powerful computers and better processing of all that data."

I wonder if the folks at SAP working on in-memory, on-demand, business objects, EAM and the mobile business group are paying attention to the Internet of Things platforms?

HP's CeNSE lead Peter Hartwell commented, "One trillion nanoscale sensors and actuators will need the equivalent of 1000 internets:  the next huge demand for computing!"

Where will these M2M and embedded wireless sensors be located?  Parthasarathy Ranganathan, a Distinguished Technologist at HP Labs in Palo Alto, was quoted by MacManus as saying, "There will soon be millions of sensors working in real-time, with data sampled every second.  He said there'll be lots of different applications for this data; including retail, defense, traffic, seismic, oil, wildlife, weather and climate modeling."

One of SAP's Co-Innovation partners Syclo's key focus areas is developing mobile applications for enterprise asset management (EAM).  Companies with high value assets want to track them, secure them, monitor and maintain them.  All of these key tasks benefit from having low cost mobile and wireless sensors feeding regular data back to a central management application.  Since many of these assets are mobile and the people managing them are mobile, you can see the tie in between enterprise mobility, the Internet of Things and field services.

I have been writing a regular newsletter on the Internet of Things and M2M (machine to machine) that you can read here.

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Kevin Benedict, SAP Mentor, SAP Top Contributor, Mobile and M2M Industry Analyst
Phone +1 208-991-4410
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Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant, mobility analyst, writer and Web 2.0 marketing professional. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.