IoT Talks 2023 review: an Insightful event about the Internet of Things.
Our IoT team recently attended Tele2’s IoT Talks 2023 conference, in Stockholm.
This post details their learnings, take aways, and their IoT Talks 2023 review.
IoT Talks 2023 review: key takeaway – the IoT is now a reality.
While the conference covered a range of subjects, the core take away was:
- The first ten years of the IoT was about scoping, planning and enabling.
- The next decade will be about necessity, provisioning, and engineering, as connected environments go live and IoT ideas become IoT reality.
One statistic that captures the looming maturity of the IoT is that by 2033 there will be 40 billion connected devices on the planet.
What is IoT Talks?
IoT Talks is an annual conference, that brings together subject matter experts at the cutting edge of the Internet of Things thinking, and commercial organisations wanting to find out how they can support, enable, and benefit from the latest IoT developments. It is hosted by Tele2.
The next ten years in the Internet of Things
At the end of 2022, there was just over 13 billion IoT connected devices, worldwide. By 2033 that figure is forecast to grow to over 40 billion, or a growth rate of more than 10% every year.
However, because of the diversity of IoT use and projects, there is no overall hockey-stick growth forecast, as was seen with mobile and smart phones. Instead the growth will be strong, consistent, and steady.
Yes, certain niches will have spectacular growth, but overall, as the applications of IoT will have differing growth trajectories, growth will be linear.
Additional key take aways in this IoT Talks 2023 review are:
AI will be used to manage data better.
The step change in data that the IoT brings will force a change in how the data is analysed, reviewed, and insights derived.
No matter how skilled the human analyst is, the sheer volume of data means they won’t be able to keep up, and AI will have to be deployed to the task.
That doesn’t necessarily take the human out of the loop, instead it moves the human to being the decision maker on key actions, while less significant decisions are taken by AI. With AI bringing a choice of solution options to the human director, when a key decision is needed.
Which is pretty much how most large corporations have run, albeit with people at each point, for the last century or more. That is, the CEO makes the key decisions, delegates lesser decisions to staff, and those staff bring the CEO a choice of options when a decision needs to be made which is above their pay grade.
iSIM will massively enable IoT
eSIM technology is currently impacting the SIM market and industry, as it replaces the use of conventional SIM cards.
eSIM only phones such as iPhone 14 have been shipping for over twelve months now, so by 2026/27 the eSIM will be the common currency for SIMs in most business’ and consumers mind sets.
However, the next step, iSIM is on the horizon.
Standing for integrated SIM, iSIM integrates directly into the processor of the device. That is, it enables devices to connect without the need for a physical SIM card or even the soldered eSIM in a printed circuit board.
This step change creates benefits and opportunities that will significantly help IoT projects deployment.
- iSIM saves space by eliminating the need for a separate component, allowing for the secure connection of smaller devices.
- iSIM requires significantly less power than eSIMs, making, IoT projects that use massive numbers of SIMs operationally and economically possible.
- iSIM makes devices more secure, as there is no SIM card to be taken out of the device, which minimises the risk for unauthorised access to the network.
- iSIM (and eSIM) enable over-the-air provisioning, making it easier for connectivity management, both for updates and use of different carriers.
Making IoT simpler for end users which will enable scalability
A common theme in the presentations at IoT Talks 2023, was the need for the IoT to be made simple for the end user.
That is, the users project and outcomes should be easily served by the IoT, and not hampered by the user having to get technical with the technology of the IoT.
A result of “I have a watch, with it I can tell the time, but I don’t need to know how the watch works” being an expression of what needs to be aimed for.
Without this simplicity, the scalability and development of IoT projects will be held back
New challenges in IoT
The accepted challenges of IoT, security, coverage, scalability, interoperability, battery life, and bandwidth availability, were all covered at the conference, but it also highlighted specific elements:
The sunsetting of old technologies (2G, 3G)
As older technologies reach end of their life, there will always be edge cases that are impacted. Be that in coverage, compatibility, or interoperability.
This will lead to outages in areas of the IoT, with consequent impacts on data flow, or a need for a well-planned and regular upgrade exercise to prevent this. The second element will always be subject to economics and return on investment, which in itself will be a new financial area for business, public, and other organisations to consider and integrate.
As the situation progresses, there will need to be some form of regulation to cover those impacted by the changes. Discussion and planning of that regulation needs to be on the agenda of regulatory bodies now, rather than too far into the future, when the problems could be large and immediate.
Managing large amounts of data generated from IoT devices and by IoT devices
As mentioned above in the section on AI, the sheer size of the data being gathered, stored, and analysed because of the IoT will be unprecedented in human history. And with a compounding growth of 10% a year in IoT devices, those data oceans will be growing at a phenomenal rate.
All of which begs the questions, where and how will it be stored? For what length of time? And, perhaps the most crucial question, who will own it and use it?
For example, will traffic information from 3am to 4am on a Tuesday in February, in Birmingham, have any value three years later? Use cases for yes and no can be made, but who will decide, and who will pay for its storage, or deletion?
Managing large amounts of data generated from IoT devices and by IoT devices
As mentioned above in the section on AI, the sheer size of the data being gathered, stored, and analysed because of the IoT will be unprecedented in human history. And with a compounding growth of 10% a year in IoT devices, those data oceans will be growing at a phenomenal rate.
All of which begs the questions, where and how will it be stored? For what length of time? And, perhaps the most crucial question, who will own it and use it?
For example, will traffic information from 3am to 4am on a Tuesday in February, in Birmingham, have any value three years later? Use cases for yes and no can be made, but who will decide, and who will pay for its storage, or deletion?
Enhancing security on IoT data
While security impacts all the elements of IoT, from device management, to data, to staff training, IoT Talks 2023 focussed on the security aspects of the data generated by IoT devices.
Data from IoT devices can be intercepted/stolen/leaked via the cloud application they feed into, and when the data is in transit to that application.
To manage these points of weakness, data management should be to mandated data security and compliance requirements/regulation. This will include back-up and recovery protocols data classification and encryption, and secure data storage.
With IoT devices deployed into highly regulated, and/or critical infrastructure environments, such as nuclear power plants, routine penetration tests will be required. These will test not only the security of the network but also its vulnerability to cyber attack and spoofing. A classic, but real life example being intercepting and replacing data feeds to indicate that all is right, when in fact it is not. Something that is now a common element in military simulation training exercises, where video and data feeds from drones have proven to be vulnerable to interception and spoofing.
The nature of the data is also important, which leads to data classification based on sensitivity and value. By reviewing data in this manner, organisations can prioritise their security approach.
For example, the interception of data from a single IoT device monitoring traffic may not be that important to defend against. But the aggregation of that data from all the IoT devices monitoring traffic is important to protect and secure, meaning the point of aggregation in the network rather than the points of transmission, needs to be prioritised for data security.
Not only are tools such as encryption, fire walls, network segmentation and intrusion detection systems important, the management of the process is also vitally important.
Processes need to be in place for regular management checks that the system is working, is defendable, and also training for what to-do if there has been a data leak, a cyber-attack, or other data security problems. This last part is critical, as the reaction to a threat needs to be as fast as possible, so training teams to the point when they detect a threat their training kicks in as a reflex, is the paradigm to be aimed for.
Skills and the skill shortage needed to support IoT opportunities
The skills and technologies gaps that the IoT is highlighting was also discussed at IoT Talks 2023.
There has been a huge, but unsurprising, demand for IoT software developers.
Which is still largely unfulfilled, meaning there is not enough skilled talent for many companies to develop, execute, and manage their IoT projects.
This has led to a priority list of skills that an IoT project needs to have in its development team.
AI and Machine Learning.
As mentioned above the complexity and depth of data from IoT projects will require AI to manage, classify and create insight. But that capability requires machine learning algorithms to be developed in the first place. Which is why demand for developers with machine learning skills, on job boards etc, has seen an over 200% increase in the last few years.
UI and UX Design
With web and mobile applications needing user interfaces (UI), be they screen, gesture, voice or VR/AR based, good UI and user experience (UX) skills, which are already in high demand, are only set to increase with the IoT.
Data Analysis
While the end game will be the use of AI to analyse data and generate insight, developers will be needed to create the initial protocols for the AI to use. While machine learning skills are needed, data analysis skills are needed to inform how/to what end, the machine learning will be coded.
Skills here include Spark, Hadoop, NoSQL databases. Which work together to create, store, and query big-data analytics platforms.
IP Networking
While not a new skill, as the IoT relies on the ability of devices to connect and work with one another, IP networking is a fundamental skill for IoT Projects.
If developers are to design reliable and secure networks, they need to fully understand how the connectivity protocols will work, and be up-to date with IoT communications standards. So as to make sure that the system they are building will work with the system of systems that is the IoT.
Information/Data Security
As detailed above, the need for data security spans all elements of the IoT so developers working on IoT projects need both a solid working knowledge of information security and how that applies across all elements of the domain they are responsible for.
Specifically, skills and knowledge in network vulnerability assessment, white hat/ethical hacking, wireless network security and public key infrastructure, are required.
IoT Talks 2023 review: It’s all about the data.
If the internet was revolutionised by Google monetising search, the IoT will revolutionise the situation again with mass data oceans becoming the next revenue opportunity.
The data will exist for direct management tasks, which will result in efficiencies, but the data has a secondary value which once realised will again create new markets, industries and revenue streams.
IoT Talks 2023 review: How does vM2M fit in?
vM2M, from Fidelity Group, is built to address, and solve the IoT data connectivity management challenges of operating in silos, and bringing connectivity options rapidly to IoT projects.
With its supplier agnostic approach, vM2M enables faster, easier and more effective IoT connectivity management, than other IoT data solutions.
Get in touch to discuss your project and find out how vM2M can support it.