The First Article on How to Truly Implement the Internet of Things

My colleague, mobility and IoT (Internet of Things) guru Peter Rogers has written one of the first articles I have ever read that explains how consulting companies and developers can truly design, implement and support the Internet of Things ecosystem.  Mark your calendars with this historic day.
***
I was talking with friends today about the whole notion of wearable technology and soon stumbled upon the following important question, "What does a consultancy actually bring to the table in terms of wearable technologies?"

My opinion is that it is not about writing software for Google Glass, which seems to be the first thing anybody does at the mention of wearable technology. I mean firstly it is not (officially) on sale in Europe inside a retail outlet and secondly it does not actually have an official App Store.  I believe it is more about the hardware, the life cycle maintenance for wearable software and the supporting ecosystems. I also believe it is about the creative experiences that showcase the kinds of M2M scenarios that the film Terminator demonstrated. I aim to use the rest of this Blog to explain this argument clearly.

Firstly, it was interesting to see Samsung using Tizen as the operating system for their Gear 2 wearable devices. I have long mooted that it make little sense to have full operating systems on wearable devices and mobile handset vendors seem to want to keep their actual devices in the loop (the iCar and iWatch are both rumoured to work with an iPhone). If the iWatch ever appears then will it be running iOS 7.1? Even if it was running iOS 7.1 then I doubt you would build Apps using the same UI capabilities as for a standard phone or tablet. I would wager that the mobile device will continue to act as an arbitrator between the wearable device and the Internet (of Things) for some time to come and that the wearable devices will be running lightweight operating systems. In which case surely Ubuntu Mobile, Tizen and Firefox OS will make a play.

If that is indeed the case then the whole development cycle and life cycle maintenance of wearable device Apps is going to be a little bit different than before. It will be more constrained, but not in the earlier definition of the word, when wearable displays could only effectively display a pre-processed bitmap image. I would suggest that the Mobile Consumer Application Platform (MCAP) or Portable Native vendors who are geared up to supporting new operating systems quickly will be able to offer support for wearable devices faster than any other toolset vendor.

Proof of the pudding would appear to be Appcelerator's Titanium platform which already offers Tizen support. Whilst disappointingly Samsung say they will not commit to a Tizen powered mobile handset in 2014, at Mobile World Congress they most definitely did commit to Tizen powered wearable devices. Likewise, Marmalade supports the Tizen operating system, although this technology is predominantly (but not exclusively) used by game developers.

I would therefore conclude as my first point, that a consultancy wanting to get into the wearable technology space should first of all have a good knowledge of the MCAP / portable native platforms that are available to support both portability and the fast creation of applications for the wearable device market.

The second point I would make is that there is a definite need for ecosystems that support wearable devices. Such an ecosystem needs to support secure integration of remote devices, discoverability and messaging (to, from and between) disparate devices. I talk about SkyNet a lot at the moment as it is an actualisation of this concept and is available today. SkyNet is an open source Node.js based discovery, messaging and secure integration architecture for wearable devices. It can be hosted on a Mobile Back End as a Service (MBaaS) and acts to consolidate a vast amount of disparate technologies available in this space. As a solid example of this then in a few months you should be able to write JavaScript based Constrained RESTful servers that run on the SkyNet Node.js service tier and use them to discover and communicate with JavaScript based applications running as first class citizens on a Tizen OS powered Gear 2 device. That is one technology stack that covers the whole end to end architecture. It means that the solution architects can focus on security governance, as opposed to integrating disparate technologies, and worrying about what happens 3 months down the line (namely when a new version of the OS is released for the device). Likewise the creative experiences are empowered by a simple and powerful underlying framework.

SkyNet is not the only solution of course, but it is the best Blueprint I have seen so far and it is MIT licenced and available on GitHub today.

Here are two very cool 60 second videos of the Team SkyNet demonstrating their Internet of Things:

1. Bluetooth Low Energy integration. They appear to be messaging some custom built Pebble-type watch.
2. Voice control. They have a voice controlled remote lamp that can be called from a standard telephone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBNoSB_bac4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2emg81H6pI

Each connected device has its own 36 character UUID and a secret token.  These device credentials are required for authenticating and communicating with SkyNet. They also have TLS certificates available on the network by the time you read this. SkyNet can be deployed as a Private Cloud (in your enterprise or even in your home on a Raspberry Pi).  SkyNet networks also have UUIDs and can forward messages to other SkyNet networks.  You can also encrypt your messages if needed for additional security.  SkyNet currently supports 3 protocols over TCP (HTTP(S), WS/S, and MQTT).  They will be adding CoAP (a UDP protocol) this quarter for real-time communication. MQTT and CoAP are optimised protocols for constrained devices.  They are also working on a SkyNet Gateway device that can run in your home or office to communicate with local devices such as Nests, Phillips Hues, Wemos, Insteons, etc. The Gateway (and indeed SkyNet) are all open source and designed to support any protocol or transport layer.

If the right level of security can be applied by using acceptable levels of encryption and the Node.js implementation can be moved to nice Mobile Back End as a Service then you have a secure, scalable and maintainable Internet of Things. We often hear about REST being used but wearable devices introduces us to both Bluetooth Low Energy and Constrained RESTful environments (CoRE). It was in fact the CoRE Working Group that did the major standardization work for CoAP. I am sure instead of mobile architecture diagrams with JSON and REST, you will soon be seeing Bluetooth Low Energy and Constrained REST appearing on wearable architecture diagrams.

I would therefore conclude as a second point, that a consultancy needs to have a good idea of appropriate ecosystems that can match their customer's requirements.

http://skynet.im
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/02/skynet/

The final point was inspired when I saw the SkyNet Team building a Pebble-Watch-Replica from scratch, a light bulb that could be controlled by voice and talking about voice controlled drones. I have to wager that hardware skills are going to be just as important as software skills - at least in the Innovation and Proof of Concept stage. The final piece of the puzzle for a consultancy then is to bring some level of hardware skills to the table.

In summary, in my view you should not be looking for a consultancy who can purely write Google Glass 'Apps'. Instead you should be looking for a consultancy who can offer you the following: tools for the life cycle management of software on wearable devices; solution architecture around supporting ecosystems for wearable device integration; and even the ability to design custom hardware for innovation projects.

*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

The Internet of Things Comes to the Smartphone

Infrared Sensors for iPhones
For sometime now I have been pondering how the use of additional sensors on smartphones might be useful.  Today many smartphones contain the following sensors:
  • Proximity sensor
  • Motion sensor/accelerometer
  • Ambient light sensor
  • Moisture sensor
  • Gyroscopic sensor
  • Magnetometer
Those listed sensors are incredibly valuable, but there are more coming.  I read today about 3D photo sensors that Google is testing for smartphones, and other sensors like barometric sensors to help determine what floor of a building you are on, and biometric sensors to recognize finger prints for security purposes.  The 3D sensor would enable intelligent applications to understand the shape and layout of a room, the barometric sensor would help identify the floor of a building and the magnetometer to help an application to understand the direction the room is facing.  All of these sensors could contribute to interesting indoor retailing apps. They convert the physical into digital.  They represent the tip of the spear for digital transformation.  Once that is complete, software algorithms can be programmed and intelligence added to support revolutionary new business processes.

Evolution in Sensor Sizes
At the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona last week I discovered more interesting sensors.  I saw a sensor, the size of a pin head, for monitoring and reporting humidity and temperature (Sensirion). It connected to smartphones via bluetooth.  My favorite though, was the Thermal Imager sensor from Flir that connects to an iPhone via a sled (with extra batteries).  It let's you, among other things, point at a person walking by to see their body temperature (a must for determining the living from the dead and the human from an android), plus you can see warm blooded animals and warm objects light up your iPhone screen even in complete darkness.

Imagine you hear a loud noise in your backyard at night.  Reach for your thermal imager enabled iPhone and scan your backyard.  The mountain lion hiding behind your shrubbery is instantly exposed.  This can be useful in my neighborhood (see http://magicvalley.com/news/local/mountain-lion-killed-in-idaho-neighborhood/article_7b8e91ce-902a-11e3-a505-001a4bcf887a.html).  You can also scan your hardwood floor to see if a giraffe or anyone has walked across it in the past few minutes.

These sensors are just the tip of the iceberg.  There are hundreds of sensors that are being miniaturized today (see the Evolution in Sensor Size photo above I took at MWC14).  They capture information about your physical world and can wirelessly transmit this information to your smartphone or enterprise server.  How fun!

The Internet of Things is already massively increasing the amount of data flowing into servers from the physical world.  Our big task in 2014 is imagining all the ways this data can be used to make our world a better place.

*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview: SAP's Adam Stein on Enterprise Mobility Strategies

Last week I had the opportunity to interview SAP's Adam Stein at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.  In this interview we discuss mobile strategies, mobile platforms, cloud mobility, app development, HTML5, enterprise mobility and what SAP has to offer.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWs6nBTnCdI&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview: SAP's Martin Heisig at MWC14

Last week I met with and interviewed SAP's Senior VP of Infrastructure Services, Martin Heisig at the Mobile World Congress 2014. Martin manages how SAP runs SAP products and is responsible for SAP's internal mobile strategies.  In this interview I ask him to share advice on how to support over 70,000 mobile devices.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz_VIzjUuiM&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share



*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview: SAP's Dinesh Sharma at MWC14

All this week we will continue to publish interviews that I recorded from the Mobile World Congress 2014.  In this interview SAP's Dinesh Sharma, VP, Product Marketing, Internet of Things shares the latest developments and work that SAP is doing around M2M/Internet of Things.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDl7j-pRfaY&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw



*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview: SAP's Mimi Spier on Big Data, Analytics, IoT and Enterprise Mobility

I had the privilege this week to interview SAP's Mimi Spier on data strategies for IoT and enterprise mobility.  She also demonstrates how connected stadiums and 3D filming of live sports events can revolutionize professional sports.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kjqHIAyTTU&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview: Microsoft's Rob Tiffany on Mobile Strategies for Device Management

It is not everyday that I get to interview a mobility expert from Microsoft, but I got lucky at Mobile World Congress 2014.  It was with great pleasure that I cornered Rob Tiffany, Worldwide Technical Lead for Windows InTune, a mobile device management and services platform.  I follow Rob Tiffany on Twitter so recognized the honor. I have to admit I was ignorant of all the mobile device management services and solutions that Microsoft has.  No excuses now though!  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bv6kDfnUYNY&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share




*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview: Micron's Michael Rayfield on the Latest Developments in Mobility

I felt like buying stock in Micron after this interview I recorded today at the Mobile World Congress 2014 in Barcelona, Spain.  Disclaimer - I don't have any investments in Micron, but after Michael Rayfield helped me understand where Micron's products could be found in mobile devices today, I am second guessing my portfolio.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFNbb_HRmRg&feature=share&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw


*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview: VMware's Sanjay Poonen on Their Acquisition of AirWatch

I had the privilege of interviewing VMware's EVP and GM of End User Computing, Sanjay Poonen today on the strategy behind their recent acquisition of mobile device management and security vendor AirWatch.  In this interview we talk about enterprise mobility strategy, the future of mobility, cloud, social platforms and content.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC7pchre3sE&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share



*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Interview: Moshe BenBassat CEO of ClickSoftware

I surprised Moshe BenBassat at the Mobile World Congress 2014 with an ambush interview, but we have known each other for many years so he agreed to it.  In this interview we talk about artificial intelligence, ClickSoftware's latest acquisition and developments in the enterprise mobility market.  Enjoy!

Video Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN43jSvK1ao&list=UUGizQCw2Zbs3eTLwp7icoqw&feature=share


ATTENTION!  Cognizant is hosting a lunch and learn in Santa Clara, CA on February 27th from 12-2 PM on the subject of Beyond Digital Asset Management: An IT Roadmap for Next Generation Digital Marketing.  Forrester Analyst Anjali Yakkundi will be sharing from her research there as well. If you would like to attend, here are more details - http://app.certain.com/profile/web/index.cfm?PKWebId=0x5873675f2e.

*************************************************************
Kevin Benedict
Senior Analyst, Digital Transformation Cognizant
View my profile on LinkedIn
Learn about mobile strategies at MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com
Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict
Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Featured Post

Leadership Advice from a Futurist - A Reading

Leadership is hard.  So for all the leaders and want-to-be leaders out there, here is some advice that I hope you will find useful. ***...