Are you prepared for the hottest IoT trends of 2021?

Internet of Things, a term coined back in 1999 and a technology conceptualized back in the ‘70s, have now become one of the most prominent technology trends of the 21^st century.

If we look at the last three decades, the IoT development, adoption, and application have been underwhelming. But, as digital transformation became all the rage, IoT technology turned out to be a smart choice. Today, IoT plays a key role in the digital transformation journey of any organization.

Kevin Ashton, who is known as the father of the Internet of Things, says, “What the Internet of Things is really about is information technology that can gather its own information. Often what it does with that information is not tell a human being something, it [just] does something”.

For organizations trying to embrace ‘smart’ in a digital-first world, IoT deployment became a key element of their digital transformation strategy. The Internet of Things form a network of things with the purpose of exchanging and connecting data in real-time. The modern IoT model comprises four main components – sensors, networks, analytics, and applications. This four-pronged model offers a comprehensive solution to collect, distribute, analyze, and implement the gathered data.

Earlier, the application of IoT was limited in the practical usage. But their benefits have become evident when the world faced a sudden overturn of operations and mandatory lockdowns due to the ongoing pandemic. The IoT technology is continuously evolving the face of the digital landscape in each sector, enabling them with unprecedented capabilities to achieve business resilience.

As the Internet of Things gain higher prominence across industries, it is only fair to have a look at how the technology will evolve further as we approach the beginning of the next year. IoT has rightfully made it to the list of popular technology trends for 2021 released by the major analysts. However, let us dive a little deeper and explore the IoT-related trends that will shape the digital transformation strategy for organizations in 2021.

1. Internet of Behavior

Internet of Behavior is the top-most trend in Gartner’s ‘Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021”. The analyst explains it as –

“The Internet of Behaviors (IoB) captures the “digital dust” of people’s lives from a variety of sources, and that information can be used by public or private entities to influence behavior. The data can come from a range of sources, from commercial customer data to social media to facial recognition, and as more and more data becomes available, the IoB will capture increasing amounts of information.  Additionally, the technology that puts all the data together and draws insights is growing increasingly sophisticated.”

“The IoB presents significant and pervasive social and ethical implications. Collecting data to influence behaviors has the potential to be a powerful tool, and its social reception might depend on just how heavy-handed organizations are with what they’re trying to do”.

Internet of Behaviors can be perceived as a people-centric approach to the Internet of Things. This trend emphasizes the importance of keeping the customers at the center of each and every organizational strategy to succeed in the long term.

2. Predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance is undoubtedly the most critical use case of the IoT technology. Having the ability to predict when or if a machine or system or device is going to falter, and fixing the error before it even occurs – imagine the amount of maintenance costs and downtime it can save!

Although this use case has been known for a while now, the reason it is being brought up now is the accelerated digital transformation and smart city initiatives all across the world.

The trends in 2021 have a major influence from the pandemic’s impact in 2020, and that is why some of the older trends are now becoming the hot topic for the coming year.

Also read: Predictive Maintenance with IoT & Why Testing will be Critical

As several government agencies kick start new smart city initiatives, or remove the roadblock from the ones that were put on hold, both IoT and IoT-driven predictive maintenance will be integral in ensuring smooth city operations.

3. Smart at scale

What has been more of a fad in the pre-pandemic era has now become a necessity and will soon become a reality too. As per a recent study, the global market for smart cities will be worth $236 billion by 2025, which indicates a much-needed upward curve.

With the increasing number of smart city projects, the demand for IoT technology is also going to see a tremendous upsurge. IoT technology forms the backbone of any successful and seamlessly-operating smart city. During the lockdown period, the importance of a smart city network with anytime-anywhere availability has become clear – leading to the growing number of relevant projects.

As digital transformation journey accelerates for organizations to sustain in the new normal, smart cities will prove incredibly efficient in sustaining the normal itself if such a situation ever arises again.

Are you prepared?

Both the technology trends and the IoT trends indicate a connected, digital future. IoT has a gargantuan role to play in realizing this vision of all-time connectivity. But at the same time, IoT also faces technical challenges related to data security, access management, compliance requirements, and hardware challenges, among others, which may hinder their capability to support the seamless operations of a connected network. This makes adopting IoT testing more critical than ever before.

Cigniti’s experience in IoT app Testing as a Service (TaaS), a team of IoT-skilled testers, and a robust IoT testing infrastructure support real-time testing of Big Data, Compatibility, IoT Security, Performance, Pilot, Regulatory, Reliability, Upgrade, Usability, and smart devices in a dynamic environment (RFID, Sensors).

Schedule a discussion with our IoT testing experts to know more.