When checking possible uses for local gateway servers, I eventually found the IoT sphere as an interesting field. There you need to bridge various API standards. And – as internet access may fail – a controlling instance in the same local network as the devices might turn out helpful. So this is indeed one natural role for our personal care-free server concept – we call it ChuseBox – as a local gateway. At this point I was simply thinking about controlling central heating or connecting to weather sensors. But then I found more, much more.
Quite recently a wave of articles emerged that connected IoT with Big Data processes. Even a new catchy phrase was coined, called “Edge Data”. This means, that the huge streams of data that many IoT devices like cameras or transportation (cars, planes, trains) generate are processed locally or even inside the device – the edge of the graph – instead of sending it over the internet to a cloud-based central processing instance. This makes perfect sense, also in the light of potential network failure. And luckily it is also exactly what I need for my gateway scenario – for the same reason Intel is simply naming their product line “IoT Gateway”.
One important aspect here is the local nature. As opposed to central data processing. Meaning a decentralized system, which actually is the next buzzword covered here. It’s interesting that the word “decentralization” slowly replaces the more specific name “blockchain”, which is probably too close to the actual BitCoin product. My gut feeling says that blockchains are not the ideal means for decentralization needs, but the concept itself is intriguing. And there are APIs and libraries available, so there is no harm done in supporting what’s already there.
To complete the trio of the current most hyped technologies besides IoT, AI is of course part of the game. Boiled down to basics, all the deep learning algorithms center around traditional but improved neural network cores. In short, this means pattern processing – matching, transforming, adapting. And applied to the IoT sphere this sits at the same spot as Edge Data. Incoming streams are processed in order to reduce the amount of data and generate triggers for subsequent local actions. This is clearly important stuff.
There is a line that is often seen on feeds like Twitter, saying “there is no Cloud, it’s just somebody else’s computer”. This is catchy, but not exactly true in most cases – in the Cloud your own personal server actually exists, but you just can’t see it. It can even be pure virtual. So the phrase should better read “the Cloud is where somebody else manages your servers”.
Which leads to the next hype: the DevOps. Without any doubt the benefits of an effective integration of development, deployment and operation processes will be equally important in a decentralized world. Fortunately part of our Chuse project is a system that supports plug and play distribution, in the mobile appstore style.
Let’s stay with development. A lot of transformation is going on with the rise of microservices. Most discussions cover the classic “old vs. new” one, but IoT computing, which we learned above is inherently decentralized and auto-managed, is a place where microservice concepts are more than just an option. Maybe the next buzzword will be “Internet of Services”…
There are other fancy technologies like AR/VR (think massive VR backpack computers, the ultimate wearable). Health tech too, of course. They all have strong IoT influence. And beyond IoT the long-familiar cloud, hybrid/native mobile apps, web sites and web apps still exist and are far from being perfect.
So I think there is a very unique quality to IoT that makes it the buzzword magnet in the first place. And that is the absolute need to integrate – in my view this is the biggest challenge. Make systems work together. Reliable, intuitive, maintenance-free. Customers won’t accept incomprehensible configuration procedures or systems that talk different languages.
So IoT is not only the huge market that everyone wants to participate in. It is also the place where new concepts of information processing will be forged, that will deeply influence the whole IT industry.