Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2020. Read them in this 12th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
By Mike Skurla, Director of Product Strategy for BitBox USA
2020 Is the Year of IoT Platforms for Commercial Applications
IoT technology is everywhere in the consumer world enabled by mobile computing, yet in the commercial and industrial space it has remained in the realm of industrial automation -locked up, and private. This is changing rapidly with the sharp growth of commercially available connected devices. What was once specialized equipment for monitoring is now packaged goods turning automation and monitoring into a practical endeavor for companies of all shapes, sizes, and across all verticals.
The holdup to date to the adoption of advanced technology in the commercial space, compared to the residential and consumer world, has been the massive expenditure required to adopt ‘smart technology’. Everyone knows technology offers the key to data. But two hurdles were difficult pills to swallow:
- Gathering data in ways that allow an agnostic approach to already installed technology is not trivial. Rip and replace is not an option for companies with tangible investment in existing equipment. And equally unpalatable is getting everything from one vendor and being locked into an ecosystem.
- Even if you can get all the data, what is the tangible ROI story? The promises of data are everywhere. Tailoring it to a specific commercial application is more complex and traditionally involved custom development efforts, further abstracting the ROI potential.
These barriers are breaking down at a rapid clip with the concept of IoT platforms and the rise of micro-service AI and analytics – harnessing the data into actionable outcomes. And it will only speed up in 2020.
Emerging commercial IoT Platforms will expedite open connectivity within industrial, retail, and commercial property in 2020. Breaking down the systems silos that historically proliferated in these verticals, IoT Platforms will consolidate data from all subsystems in a building, and across global portfolios of locations offering a single source of truth for analytics services.
The rise of business intelligence analytics, or better referred to as micro-service analytics companies, will further proliferate in 2020. These analytics/AI providers use the consolidated data of the IoT platform to allow for refined business analytics tailored to hyper-focused and vertical relevant needs. One set of data can now easily be tapped by several analytics engines to impact different parts of an organization: from facility management, sustainability, marketing, to sales. Enterprises across all verticals will be empowered to make data-driven business decisions as IoT Platforms collect and organize data for actionable analytics.
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About the Author
Michael C. Skurla is Director of Product Strategy for BitBox USA, which offers an IoT platform for multi-site, distributed facilities’ operational intelligence. Mike’s in-depth industry knowledge in control automation and IoT product design sets cutting-edge product strategy for the company’s IoT platform which was recently recognized with a 2019 IoT Evolution Product of the Year award.
Mike brings 22+ years’ experience in control automation and IoT product design with Fortune 500 companies, focused on the intersection of software and hardware, with emphasis on outcome-based analytics for mission-critical industries across commercial building, retail, healthcare, and data center infrastructure management (DCIM). A well-recognized thought leader, and a contributor to several industry publications including Critical Facilities and LD+A, Mike is a frequent lecturer on advanced usage of analytics and emerging IT technologies to foster efficiency within the commercial facility design. He is a contributing member of ASHRAE and IES Education.
