3 Barriers to Achieving Internet of Things Nirvana

1. BARRIERS
TO ACHIEVING
INTERNET
OF THINGS
NIRVANA
B Y T H O M A S C R A M P T O N ,
G L O B A L M A N A G I N G
D I R E C T O R
O F S O C I A L @ O G I LV Y

2. F
EW DOUBT THE POTENTIAL of the IoT, but the
slower-than-expected growth may stem from some
key challenges—3 of them, in fact—that are yet to
be solved. Nevertheless, the IoT is dominating CES
this year. The amazing IoT scenarios the boosters predict all
depend on one thing: the nirvana of Network effect, wherein
small changes at an individual level are harnessed for larger
effect. The network effect benefits may be plentiful, but the
three main barriers to IoT reaching it still look daunting.
INTERNET
OF
THINGS

3. THE DAYS of the gmail hack look quaint now
that whole tranches of personal information
get heisted from huge global retailers. Scare
stories of computer viruses have been replaced
by the truly terrifying prospect of having your
computer held for ransom. That’s all digital
ephemera. Losses like that don’t keep you out in
the cold. Things get freakier when your house
gets involved. Getting your house hacked could
be a far more personal and consequential
violation. Imagine coming home from work to
find your house is locked down unless you pay
some gang of cyber criminals an exorbitant fee!
PRIVACY CONCERNS,
TRUST ISSUES, AND
CYBERSECURITY
BARRIER 1

4. YOUR DEVICES CAN’T speak to one
another yet. They need to start. The “Works
with nest” program is starting to bring
other manufacturers together into a shared
language, but that requires you to choose your
car or washing machine based on its ability
to speak nest. That’s not real interoperability.
That will come when the sensor on your
Nest that sees no internal motion can cross
check to detect if your phone is on the wifi
network to make sure you are actually out
of the home. Armed with that information,
the refrigerator slows down the cooling
since it is unlikely to get opened and the
Roomba vacuum starts cleaning the house.
INTERNAL
INTEROPERABILITY
BARRIER 2

5. THINGS WILL GET INTERESTING
when the IoT starts interfacing with large-
scale external systems. Right now, these
individual, small-scale IoT networks are
like the early computer systems—small,
local networks that barely connected
with one another. The internet brought
external interoperability, and just look
at what happened as a result. We’re at
an inflection point with the IoT. Mobile
phone carriers, for example, know
population density and location. They
could use that to increase the frequency
of subway trains or buses—if only they
were motivated and able to share.
EXTERNAL
INTEROPERABILITY
BARRIER 3

6. PROFOUND though they may be, those
barriers can be overcome. It’s going
to take two big developments:
FIRST, we need a
Switzerland-like platform
allowing connected
devices to communicate
with one another, making
collaboration easy
and advantageous.
SECOND, manufactures
need rewards to encourage
creation of devices that
are more interoperable.