The Internet of Things (IoT) is slowly but surely becoming a vital part of the lives of technologically-apt people. These IoT devices — normally regular objects that are enhanced by an internet connection — are making both personal and work lifestyles easier for the people that use them. As technology has evolved from the humble beginnings of the internet to what we see today, the rise of IoT devices has made a number of changes in both telecommunications and the network industries.
Humans are connecting everything to the internet — central air systems, washing machines, lights, watches, and even their cars. It is easy to see a ‘Jetson’s’-like future where nearly every object we can dream of will be connected to the world wide web. In the last few months, this change from a colloquially ‘dumb’ world to a ‘smart’ world has just begun, and has already changed the way that nearly everything in the industry is designed and produced.¹ The transcendence to a smart world has proven a worthy challenge for the networking industry and these challenges must be overcome before any additional growth continues.
A few weeks ago, we discussed the necessity for the switch from IPv4 to IPv6, and how that change would facilitate the growth of IoT. With connected devices more popular than ever before, and growing by the day, we will soon be forced to make this switch to allow for 128-bit IP generation.² Additionally, the rise of IoT devices will mark a beginning for the desire to package data and data traffic at an increased price-point — more people will be using more data, and thus the telecommunications industry will be forced to invest more money and inevitably charge customers more for data usage.³ This monetization of data has already begun, although thankfully there are still unlimited data options available at this time. Furthermore, as people connect many devices to the net and increase their data consumption, telecoms will be forced to more efficiently manage the increase in data usage and upgrade their currently semi-reliable infrastructures.
With the increase of IoT devices, the future is uncertain, but the requirement for additional security will probably rise. We have already seen hackers use IoT devices to gain access into networks without consent, and with security and privacy concerns at the forefront of most technological environments we must ensure that IoT devices are properly secured and maintained.⁴ Companies that successfully limit the intrusion of their IoT devices will be deemed at the top of their category, while others in the industry may fall or even cease to exist.
The Internet of Things offers many different applications — with nearly any object beginning to be improved by an internet connection — but while these devices may allow for easier lifestyles, they will continue to cause immutable changes to both telecommunications and network industries. Before we go around connecting everything we see to the internet, we should ask ourselves whether or not it would greatly benefit from a connection to the web. IoT will make our lives easier, but at the possible cost of privacy and security we must consider the opportunity cost — these luxuries IoT provides are quite nice, but do we really need machines to help us?
