What is Internet of things? Discover how it’ll change our world
Hey! Do you know what is Internet of Things? The Internet of Things, or IoT (which stands for Internet of Things) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, home appliances and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and connectivity which enables these objects to connect and exchange data.
The Internet of Things is a buzzword when it comes to IT and new technologies, we all know that. We are pretty sure that you’ve heard about it. This term is everywhere. But what is Internet of things? Let’s answer that question now.
The Internet of Things will be a massive part of our lives and we won’t even notice it.
But what is Internet of things? Well, the concept of Internet of Things first appeared in 1999, in the vicinity of the Auto-ID Centre at MIT, and it was developed by one of its cofounders, Kevin Ashton, who subsequently expanded and supplemented the Internet of things during the following years.
But what is the Internet of things? Do you actually know? In order to better understand all about the Internet of Things and its scope we will go to Wikipedia. According to this,
The Internet of things would encode 50 to 100 trillion objects, and be able to follow the movement of those objects. Human beings in surveyed urban environments are each surrounded by 1000 to 5000 trackable objects.
In 2015 there were already 83 million smart devices in people`s homes. This number is about to grow up to 193 million devices in 2020 and will for sure go on growing in the near future.
In order to understand what this would mean, we will make the following observation: throughout history, most of the generated information has been in the hands of human beings. During the last few years, an important fraction of that information generated has fallen into the hands of computers. The expansion of the Internet of Things would cause a huge increase in both the volume of information generated and the amount of information shared, at levels never before seen in history.
How can we see the real consequences of all this? Let’s have a look at some examples:
- The domestic use and especially in the field of home automation, this is one of the first uses that comes to mind when we talk about IoT. Some IoT applications are already quite popular, while many others are still in development. Now you can, for example, turn on the heating through a mobile phone before you get home. But not only that, the IoT will allow the automation of new tasks. For example, your fridge will be able to discover your needs according to your tastes and order online so that you receive what you need as soon as it detects that your stocks are about to run out.
- Public services will reach an incredible dimension thanks to the IoT. The immense amount of data that is generated (coming, for example, from sensors distributed by the city) will improve the safety, transport or even health of citizens. For example, these will be used to measure the level of environmental pollution in a given area, or to detect accidents caused by a flood.
- At a personal level, and through the use of wearables, the devices that we will wear will acquire all kinds of functions. For example, the smart watch that you will carry on your wrist will be able to guide you inside a department store and lead you directly to the product you are looking for.
- At a business level, the IoT will be quite useful. From the field of marketing to industrial production, the number of IoT uses for the company will be endless, and this is something that we are currently witnessing.
And these are just a few examples. As the Internet of Things develops, new applications will be created, based on the idea behind the IoT: the exchange of information without human intervention (or with minimal intervention). In addition to this, technological improvements such as 5G and the next generation of phones will allow the operation of the IoT to be faster and more effective over time.
But, as you can imagine, an infrastructure that involves billions of devices running simultaneously will always be exposed to failures. And this is when good monitoring is needed. With good IoT monitoring it will be possible to control specific aspects, such as the status of the devices, their firmware version or their battery levels. In addition to this, one of the key factors when monitoring IoT will be flexibility, considering the diversity of devices and environments in which the Internet of Things will be developed.
And now, do you know what Pandora FMS is? Pandora FMS is a flexible monitoring software, which is capable of monitoring devices, infrastructures, applications, services and business processes. And, it is also capable of monitoring IoT devices.
The best way to learn all about the IoT monitoring of Pandora FMS is to ask our team who created it, don’t you think? For example, do you want to know what Pandora FMS can monitor? You can do that using the contact form that can be found at the following address: https://pandorafms.com/company/contact/
Our Pandora FMS team will be happy to help you!
So then, what is Internet of things? We hope we have answered question with this article. Do you want to find out more? Then check any of our other articles about monitoring, these are all published in our blog, and don’t forget to leave a comment in the comment section, what are your thoughts on the Internet of things? Do you think this will be useful? Do you think it will be worth it? And if you have read any of our other articles, which one was your favourite? We want to know!
Let us know by leaving a comment in the comment section down below, we look forward to hearing from you! Thank you very much.
El equipo de redacción de Pandora FMS está formado por un conjunto de escritores y profesionales de las TI con una cosa en común: su pasión por la monitorización de sistemas informáticos.
Pandora FMS’s editorial team is made up of a group of writers and IT professionals with one thing in common: their passion for computer system monitoring.