By Aaron Kamphuis, data analytics and IoT practice manager at OST

3 Trends Shaping IoT in 2020

In 2020, Aaron Kamphuis, data analytics and IoT practice manager at OST, sees three large trends impacting the IoT space: platform migration, 5G rollout, and increased capability for edge computing.

An explosion of niche IoT cloud platform startups launched between 2009 and 2016, peaking in 2013. Now, seven years later, there is a lot of consolidation among IoT platforms forcing companies with smart products in their portfolio to reconsider their current IoT platform. Specifically, we are seeing consolidation in the marketplace to public cloud IoT architectures such as AWS and Microsoft Azure. Moving to one of these larger platform providers implement the chance to scale while saving money and driving new value through features added by the larger platform entities. The switch is also a reduction in risk as players like Microsoft and AWS continue to invest heavily into their IoT solutions, making it unlikely you will need to migrate your smart product platform again.

IoT manufacturers and developers will also be keeping an eye on the rollout of 5G in 2020. While undefined cost models, service availability and coverage limit most of the 5G adoption to Hotspots and Smartphones in the coming year, smart product manufactures will be looking for ways to drive increased value in their products in the years to come. Since it takes one to two years to develop a smart product, the earliest wide-scale adoption of 5G in IoT won't be seen until 2021 and into 2022. In addition to 5G, the availability of cheaper and lower power chips will also drive more computing at the edge. These devices will now be able to utilize Machine Learning and AI for more efficient decision making at the device level.  Also, with this additional computing power, edge devices will be able to process and make decisions on more complex data sources, such as voice and video.  We will see more autonomous control and decision making by the device as the cost and availability of these chips improve in 2020.

Overall, 2020 will continue to bring advancement in capabilities and enhancements to IoT and smart products. The improvements in costs and platform features will allow manufacturers to release smarter and more capable products over time, many of which we will see in the new year.

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About the Author

Aaron Kamphuis is the data analytics and IoT practice manager at OST. He has worked in professional services and custom software almost his entire career. At OST, Aaron focuses on building and maintaining an IoT and data analytics practice, creating and executing go to market strategies, managing a team of consultants and supporting sales pursuits.