There's been an enormous amount of hype around the Internet of Things (IoT) and, for applications within the industrial sector, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Predictions are rife that the power of connecting dumb machines with smart sensors enabling them to transmit data over a network and communicate with us and one another, is significant enough to warrant being hailed as the fourth industrial revolution. With the previous three being mechanization (powered by steam engines in the 1800s), mass production (powered by electricity and the assembly line in the early 1900s) and automation (powered by computers in the late 1900s), connected industry – or industry 4.0 – has a lot to live up to.
I personally believe it will and I'm certainly not the only one. The growing drive to realize IoT- and IIoT-promised benefits, such as improved health and security for consumers and increased operational efficiency and automation within industry, has led to near hockey-stick global growth in devices being connected via the Internet. According to research from International Data Corporation, the worldwide IoT market will grow from $655.8-billion (U.S.) in 2014 to $1.7-trillion in 2020 with a compound annual growth rate of 16.9 per cent.
Top IoT adopters
While the output from Silicon Valley and other U.S. technology hot spots have meant that America is positioned within the top five global IoT adopters, heavy and sustained investment in IoT technologies from nations such as China, India, Singapore, South Korea and several within Western Europe, has positioned them well to lead the next wave of industrialization and computing and, as a result, potentially relegate North America to the unfamiliar role of a minority player.
Given what is a surging momentum within the global IoT race, the lack of a Canadian presence within the list of top countries and cities that are both developing and implementing IoT technology, is concerning and appears to be the result of a combination of factors, which I believe includes a widespread lack of awareness and an underdeveloped technological infrastructure.
According to a survey of top-level Canadian executives conducted on behalf of Microsoft Canada, data showed a "black hole for C-level executive suites" when it came to IoT. Over half said they were completely unaware of IoT, 72 per cent were confused by it and 24 per cent said they had no sense of how it could impact their businesses.
It could be argued that IoT is still a nascent industry and for business leaders who are evaluating opportunities, clearly defining returns on implementations can remain hard to do. However, with the stakes higher than ever for Canadian businesses to compete on a global scale, the significant role IIoT is starting to play within emerging industrial nations must quickly move beyond being a curiosity as continued latency could have the potential to take many years to recover from.
Infrastructure limitations
Beyond awareness, the proliferation of IoT and IIoT also relies heavily on strong technical infrastructure. As well as the need for skilled developers, IoT systems are reliant on robust communication networks able to transmit high volumes of captured data in real time, as well as cloud computing infrastructure able to facilitate the types of complex data analysis needed to power large scale systems.
It's no coincidence that within countries leading the IoT race, the availability of these services is extensive. As an example, within "mobile first" countries such as India, sophisticated 4G mobile network coverage is already becoming commonplace and next-generation 5G networks, able to handle innumerable heightened IoT use cases, are expected to see commercial availability by 2020.
With significantly larger customer bases to service, aggressive competition between providers and often, less stringent regulatory environments, technical infrastructure supporting IoT proliferation is being established and scaled at rapid rates in emerging economies giving developers an agility and opportunity their Canadian counterparts can only dream of.
With each of the three major mobile carriers in the Canadian market, Telus, Rogers and Bell, all seemingly balancing real concerns over network security with the desire to provide a knockout blow and steal market share from their rivals, the ability for IoT-designed platforms to cut through red tape in order to partner and utilize existing networking infrastructure, has so far been severely limited.
Extensive cloud computing infrastructure is also only set to make a real appearance within Canada this year, with both Amazon and Microsoft recently announcing data centres are to be set up within our borders during 2016 to offer their respective AWS and Azure cloud platforms that support IoT.
For Canadians, the expected results of closer proximity to this specialist infrastructure include enhanced performance of cloud-based IoT applications as well as quicker delivery of data. While undoubtedly this new level of support for IoT systems is positive and represents recognition of a growing Canadian market, the truth is that these services have been widely available and extensively used in the US and numerous other countries for several years.
While Canada's position in the future IoT race is obviously yet to be determined, within our industrial sector, to thrive will undoubtedly depend on the continued development and refinement of innovative solutions that deliver to business leaders a clear and compelling advantage, as well as a competitive and scalable technical infrastructure able to support and propel the true emergence of Canadian industry 4.0.
Nav Dhunay is president and CEO of Ambyint, a company bringing the Industrial Internet of Things to the oil patch.