Transport and logistics to lead internet of things charge

It’s been some years since we first heard of the internet of things. The subject is a regular feature of industry conferences and seminars.

Now things are coming to a head. Frost & Sullivan vice-president Andrew Milroy says thanks to low-cost sensors, cloud computing, advanced data analytics and mobility, the IoT is about to move centre stage.

And, he says, next year will see the rise of a professional services market centred on the Internet of things.

Transport, logistics first

Milroy says the big opportunities – at first – will be in the transport and logistics sectors.

He says it’s now relatively easy to put connected sensors in things that move as well as in things that are being moved. The Airbus A380 has sensors monitoring wear and tear on key components in real-time which means dynamic maintenance and make it easier to optimise performance.

Smart cities, connected cars, connected health and manufacturing are also at the front of the IoT queue.

Milroy names Salesforce, Microsoft, VMWare, Amazon and Google as the companies who will battle for IoT dominance. In particular, there will be opportunities for those who offer analytical tools capable of dealing with large volumes of real-time data. He also says there will be new cloud computing opportunities.