FEATURE: IOT
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A fundamental difference between conventional software and IoT
systems is the lack of control you have over the environment in which
your creation is deployed. The real world is a strange, confusing and
erratic place, and this oddness will impose itself on your system.
Bizarre, one-off events will happen frequently.
Assuming you have 100 million devices deployed, an annual
million-to-one event will be happening roughly twice a week.
Coping with this requires a fundamental change of mindset for
many developers. Software, which is insufficiently paranoid, will
allow errors to enter the system and spread chaos. Chaos will
lead to poor user experience, which will in turn lead to negative
perceptions – or worse.
As your physical environment becomes more complicated, your
software stack will follow it. What might have been a nice, clean
deployment will become old and wrinkly over time, with chunks of
obsolete code and increasingly convoluted data paths through the
system as you try to cope with the unavoidable fact that you can
never, ever stop supporting anything you’ve shipped. n
The future is bright for IoT
The addressable market opportunity for the Internet of Things (IoT) in South Africa
is predicted to grow to R24.5 billion by 2021 according to the IDC and, although
businesses understand the value it offers, some still tend to view it as a concept
rather than a business solution. However, Craig Freer, Executive Head: Cloud at Vox
explains that IoT’s future is bright as there is a valid return in almost every instance.
T
he technology encompasses an
entire ecosystem, from devices right
through to business intelligence,
and requires a considerable investment if a
business wants to see value at each layer. necessary outlay. Before embarking on an
IoT journey, businesses must ask a few tough
questions that will ensure that they do their
homework and the answers will help guide
the journey.
Locally, the technology is on the cusp of
becoming mainstream. It is currently where
cloud was a few years ago – businesses have
their own definition of it, they’re uncertain
and confused, but they are learning as the
technology is evolving and starting to make
sense of how it can be used to solve real-
world business challenges. The first question they should ask is
whether they are going to invest and
build an IoT deployment themselves or
if they are going to collaborate with a
specialist partner.
Ask the right questions
Craig Freer, Executive Head; Cloud at Vox
IoT requires significant investment and skills
and is not something a business should
jump into if it is not serious about adopting
the technology and prepared to make the
ONE OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES
CURRENTLY IS THAT THERE ISN’T A
ONE SIZE FITS ALL PLAY TO IOT.
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INTELLIGENTCIO
If a business has deep pockets, it can
consider embarking on the journey itself,
but it must keep in mind that this process
requires substantial research, development
and time before the business will see
tangible results. It is all well and good to do
the research and have a plan on paper, but
to realise it takes an in-depth understanding
of what is required at each layer, from
network availability right through to the
business intelligence layer.
Consider the challenges
The main challenges to keep in mind are
around network availability, devices and
custom development. IoT networks are in the
process of rolling out and can be compared
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