Johannesburg, 11 Dec 2019
The latest Gartner projections suggest that by 2025, the Internet of things will be so prevalent that there will be more than 80 billion connected devices around the globe. Each of these, in turn, requires energy in order to operate, so the key to building a successful IOT world is to ensure everything is as energy efficient as possible, while still providing the capabilities required for these new devices to be effective.
According to George Senzere, pre-sales manager for anglophone countries at Schneider Electric, today there is not a single aspect of life and business that is not impacted in some manner by IOT, with such technology in use across sectors as diverse as industry, farming, healthcare and wildlife management.
“Our world is becoming more electric and more digital, with the demand for electricity being driven by sustainability, intelligent devices and the evolution of key energy consumers. In turn, this drives a need for more efficiency, and IOT is the disruptor that is providing a golden opportunity to redefine this landscape,” he says.
“With an open, interoperable, IOT-enabled system architecture or backbone in place, enterprises are quick to realise the enhanced value this provides around aspects such as safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability and connectivity.”
Of course, continues Senzere, all the IOT does is generate data from its vast network of sensors, and it then falls to the data scientists and analysts to make sense of this information. These experts are able to use the data received to draw conclusions and use this knowledge for predictive analysis. This means providing clients with more informed data and helping them to reduce costs through predictive maintenance. After all, being able to predict failures makes it easier to schedule maintenance and reduces their impact, since one can essentially fix the problem before it occurs.
“A good example here is modern electric cars. Because these have IOT sensors built-in, it is possible for the manufacturer to identify a potential problem and immediately deploy a firmware update to solve it. This means no costly recall of thousands of vehicles, and also means that for the majority of the drivers, the problem is identified and solved before they are even aware it existed.
“Of course, Schneider is aware that as the IOT continues to proliferate, taking real advantage of it also requires other tools, like machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), as these are necessary to take the information supplied and turn it into useful data. For us, this principle of ‘closing the loop’ is the key to the true benefits offered by the IoT.”
He adds that the one issue with IOT is the skills requirements, which are significant – where in the past, a vehicle with a problem would have to be brought into the mechanic to be checked, today we need an analyst or data scientist sitting between the sensor and the mechanic, to properly interpret the data being delivered.
Senzere further suggests the evolution being driven by the IOT and AI is so rapid that the only way to stay on top of it is to always be learning. Schneider, in fact, encourages employees to undertake what it describes as ‘continuous learning’. He indicates there are myriad courses available for employees who seek to upskill and plenty of other resources to leverage as well. This includes the Schneider Academy, which also provides additional skills and training to partners and customers.
“For us, the nature of IOT is such that the key to success is to have an all-encompassing framework that addresses all the customers’ requirements. This means having a layer that not only collects all the IOT data and moves it into the cloud, but then also offers analytics as a service that can then do the data-crunching. Once this information is parsed and the insights formulated, it can then provide customers with the data needed to make those critical business decisions that lead to increased efficiencies, reduced costs and enable predictive maintenance,” he concludes.
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