The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to drive headlines in early 2017. It seems like every day we are seeing a flow of news stories about a more connected world. We’ve been watching some of the IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT) headlines across the trades and have compiled some of our recent favorites.
IoT News Headlines
Forbes: HR can use big data to drive engagement, predict success
By Valerie Bolden-Barrett| Published on @hrdive
“Forbes Human Resource Council says HR can use big data in the same manner as key performance indicators and retention metrics to carry out organizational goals. The council offers six ways HR can leverage data.”
“With all the big data and technological advances at HR’s disposal, over reliance on metrics can ignore employees’ human needs. Engaging employees sometimes can be a simple as acknowledging them for a job well done or asking for their input in a major decision affecting their work.”
Lady Gaga’s Halftime Show Drones Have a Bright Future
By @brbarrett | Published on @WIRED
“Each drone communicates wirelessly with a central computer to execute its dance routine, oblivious to what the hundreds of machines around it are doing. The system can adapt on the, er, fly, too. Just before showtime, the computer checks the battery level and GPS signal strength of each drone, and assigns roles accordingly. Should a drone falter during the show, a reserve unit takes over within seconds.
All of which is pretty cool in its own right. But making it work for the biggest television event of the year takes a whole different level of planning.”
How Service Relationship Management and the IIoT Are Keeping Transportation on the Right Road
By Michael Riemer | Published on @IoTJournal
“In 2016, the Internet of Things went mainstream, but in 2017 we expect the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to transform operations across numerous industries. Also known as the Industrial Internet, the IIoT enables machine-to-machine (M2M) communication of usage, performance and health metrics. There is quite a buzz around using this data, along with machine learning and other predictive algorithms, to help anticipate and eliminate potential causes of downtime.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the commercial asset service ecosystem. Trucking fleets, construction assets, agriculture and power-generation equipment are all susceptible to costly unscheduled downtime and generally long repair cycles.”
China is Now the World’s Largest Solar Power Producer
By @luchanglu| Published on @DigitalTrends
“As it stands, solar energy represents only one percent of the country’s energy output. But this may soon change as China devotes more and more of its attention towards clean energy. The NEA says that China will seek to add more than 110 gigawatts within the next three years, which could help the nation up the proportion of its renewable energy use to 20 percent by 2030. Today, it stands at 11 percent.”
We predicted that 2017 would be a transformative year with a lot of innovation and smarter data, especially within the IIoT realm. These recent headlines are certainly tracking along with those insights. It will be interesting to see how IIoT continues to shape markets and change the way we do things.