AI-generated summary
The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to the pervasive connectivity of everyday objects to the Internet through sensors and devices embedded in them. This integration, enabled by both fixed and wireless networks, allows objects to collect and exchange data anytime and anywhere. The widespread availability of the Internet, combined with the miniaturization and affordability of sensors, facilitates the adoption of IoT across homes, workplaces, and public spaces. As a result, IoT is transforming businesses, public sector operations, and daily life by turning ordinary objects into data sources that communicate in new ways.
Beyond mere ubiquity, IoT represents a profound shift in how the world is instrumented and interconnected. Technologies like RFID sensors enable objects, machines, and people to interact differently, creating an extensive ecosystem. This ecosystem, as defined by the Computer Technology Industry Association (ComTIA), includes hardware (sensors and devices), software platforms (often cloud-based), regulations and standards for connectivity and data usage, and the resulting services that deliver IoT’s benefits. Each component is essential for the system’s functionality and growth.
IoT’s expansion is rapid and widespread. According to Gartner, there were 14.2 billion connected devices in 2019, projected to reach 25 billion by 2021. ComTIA estimated around 50.1 billion connected devices in 2020, with a market value nearing $1.9 trillion globally. This explosive growth highlights IoT’s increasing impact on the global economy and everyday life.
What is the Internet of Things and what parts make it up: hardware, connectivity and data. Small brushstroke of the growth of the IoT until 2021.
What is the Internet of Things? IoT is about things having an Internet connection anytime, anywhere. In a more technical sense, it consists of the integration of sensors and devices into everyday objects that are connected to the Internet through fixed and wireless networks. The fact that the Internet is present at the same time everywhere allows the mass adoption of this technology to be more feasible. Given their size and cost, sensors are easily integrated into homes, work environments and public places. In this way, any object is susceptible to being connected and “manifesting” on the Net. In addition, the IoT implies that every object can be a source of data. This is beginning to transform the way we do business, the organization of the public sector and the day-to-day lives of millions of people.
But the Internet of Things is much more than ubiquity. For starters, it’s a way to instrument the planet. As everyday objects come to life thanks to RFID sensors and tags, the world becomes more interconnected and those objects, along with machines and people, communicate in a radically different way.
Thus begins our FTF report on the Internet of Things (hereinafter IoT) that we published in 2010. Below we will show how this trend has developed in the last 10 years.
Even at a basic level, there are many pieces, both technical and non-technical, that must be combined for the IoT to work, the Computer Technology Industry Association (ComTIA) has defined an ecosystem that integrates all the elements involved in the IoT:
Hardware is the IoT stuff. The advancement of miniaturization and its materials allows sensors to be in any device or computer component. Sensors that can measure any parameter and turn it into a digital data.
The IoT depends on new software platforms that manage the hardware and data that derives from them. In this case, the cloud (Cloud computing) has been unmarked as a fundamental element to facilitate the availability and access to this software.
IoT regulation and standards will allow both connectivity and data usage to become ubiquitous, just as they did with the development of Internet protocols.
The services that are derived from the IoT are very involved in the ecosystem, since they are the essential ingredient for the achievement of all the benefits of this system.
Access the full article on the IoT ecosystem in ComTIA here.
IoT Growth
It is difficult to get exact figures of the growth of the IoT because it is a trend that is present everywhere.
To get an idea, Gartner forecasts that 14.2 billion connected things will be in use this year 2019, and that it will reach 25 billion by 2021.
Again, the Computer Technology Industry Association (ComTIA) has published an article on IoT market size where it was estimated that in 2020 there will be about 50,100 million connected devices and the market will reach a global economic value of 1.9 trillion dollars. The following graph, in addition, allows to see the evolution of the growth of things connected to IoT.