Internet of Things Architectures of Jelly

Rob Bamforth, Principal Analyst

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In todays world of acronyms and jargon, there are increasing references to the Internet of things (IoT), machine to machine (M2M) or a steel collar workforce. It doesnt really matter what you call it, as long as you recognise its going to be BIG. That is certainly the way the hype is looking billions of connected devices all generating information no wonder some call it big data, although really volume is only part of the equation. Little wonder that everyone wants to be involved in this latest digital gold rush, but lets look a little closer at what big really means. Commercially it means low margins. The first wave of mobile connectivity - mobile email delivered to a device like a BlackBerry, typically carried by a pink collar executive (because they bought their stripy shirts in Thomas Pinks in London or New York) was high margin and simple. Mobilising white-collar knowledge workers with their Office tools was the next surge, followed by mobilising the mass processes and tasks that support blue-collar workers. With each wave volumes rise, but so too do the challenges of scale - integration, security and reliability whilst the technology commoditises and the margins fall. Steel collar will only push this concept further. Ok, but the opportunity is BIG, so what is the problem? The problem is right there in the word big. IoT applications need to scale sometimes preposterously so much so that many of the application architectures that are currently in place or being developed are not adequately taking this into account. Does this mean the current crop of IoT/M2M platforms are inadequate? Not really, as the design fault is not there, but generally further up in the application architectures. IoT/M2M platforms are designed to support the management and deployment of huge numbers of devices, with cloud, billing and other services that support mass rollouts especially for service providers. Reliably scaling the data capture and its usage is the real challenge, and if or when it goes wrong, Garbage in, Garbage out (GiGo) will be the least of all concerns. Several Vs are mentioned when referring to big data; volume of course is top of mind (some think thats why its called big data), generally followed by velocity for the real-timeliness and trends, then variety for the different forms or media that will be mashed together. Sneaking along in last but one place is the one often forgotten, but without which the whole of the final V - value - is lost veracity. It has to be accurate, correct and complete. When scaling to massive numbers of chattering devices, poor architectural design will mean that messages are lost, packets dropped and the resulting data may be not quite right. Ok, so my fitness band lost a few bytes of data, big deal, even if a day is lost, right? Or my car tracking system skipped a few miles of road whats the problem? It really depends on the application, how it was architected and how it deals with exceptions and loss. This is not even a new problem in the world of connected things supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) - that has been in existence since well before the internet and its things. The recent example of problem data from misaligned electro-mechanical electricity meters in the UK shows just how easy this can happen, and how quickly the numbers can get out of hand. Tens of thousands of precision instruments had inaccurate clocks, but consumers and supplier alike thought they were ok, until a

Internet of Things Architectures of Jelly

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2014 Quocirca Ltd

retired engineer discovered a fault in his own home that led to the unearthing that thousands of people had been overcharged for their electricity. And here is the problem, its digital now and therefore perceived to be better; companies think the data is ok, so they extrapolate from it and base decisions on it, and in the massively connected world of IoT, so perhaps does everyone else. The perception of reality overpowers the actual reality. How long ago did your data become unreliable; do you know, did you check, who else has made decisions based on it? The challenge of car manufacturers recalling vehicles will seem tiny compared to the need for terabyte recalls.

Most are rightly concerned about the vulnerability of data on the internet of people and how that will become an even bigger problem with the internet of things. However, that aside, there is a pressing need to get application developers thinking about resilient, scalable and error-correcting architectures, otherwise the IoT revolution could have collars of lead, not steel and its big data could turn out to be really big GiGo. This article first appeared http://www.computerweekly.com on

Internet of Things Architectures of Jelly

http://www.quocirca.com

2014 Quocirca Ltd

About Quocirca
Quocirca is a primary research and analysis company specialising in the business impact of information technology and communications (ITC). With world-wide, native language reach, Quocirca provides in-depth insights into the views of buyers and influencers in large, mid-sized and small organisations. Its analyst team is made up of realworld practitioners with first-hand experience of ITC delivery who continuously research and track the industry and its real usage in the markets. Through researching perceptions, Quocirca uncovers the real hurdles to technology adoption the personal and political aspects of an organisations environment and the pressures of the need for demonstrable business value in any implementation. This capability to uncover and report back on the end-user perceptions in the market enables Quocirca to advise on the realities of technology adoption, not the promises. Quocirca research is always pragmatic, business orientated and conducted in the context of the bigger picture. ITC has the ability to transform businesses and the processes that drive them, but often fails to do so. Quocircas mission is to help organisations improve their success rate in process enablement through better levels of understanding and the adoption of the correct technologies at the correct time. Quocirca has a pro-active primary research programme, regularly surveying users, purchasers and resellers of ITC products and services on emerging, evolving and maturing technologies. Over time, Quocirca has built a picture of long term investment trends, providing invaluable information for the whole of the ITC community. Quocirca works with global and local providers of ITC products and services to help them deliver on the promise that ITC holds for business. Quocircas clients include Oracle, IBM, CA, O2, T-Mobile, HP, Xerox, Ricoh and Symantec, along with other large and medium sized vendors, service providers and more specialist firms.

Full access to all of Quocircas public output (reports, articles, presentations, blogs and videos) can be made at http://www.quocirca.com

Internet of Things Architectures of Jelly

http://www.quocirca.com

2014 Quocirca Ltd