Image from Wikipedia Commons. Statue of Christopher Columbus, at the corner of Elmwood Ave and Reservoir Ave, Providence, RI. This statue is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Out with IT, In with IoT

Two things, first, IoT isn’t IT, and second, the promise of IoT applications for making enterprise improvements now approaches fairytale proportions. So, here’s an IoT story as Columbus might’ve seen it.

When Christopher Columbus finally reached that fabled New World, he must have realized what he found was actually a vast, unexplored expanse rather than the well-defined world’s edge everyone predicted. Similarly, in terms of IoT, Edge Computing isn’t a single device devoted to one task or solution. The Internet of Things goes beyond refrigerators that tell you food is spoiling. Consider the usefulness, worth and meaningful application of IoT in this case use example.

Stream DX, a company founded and run by a group of University of Utah bioengineering students and faculty are busy using the Internet of Things to develop an at-home, “IoT cup” to improve treatment and diagnosis of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) common to men fifty years of age and older, affecting more than 16.5 million men in the U.S. To date, they have raised over $700K in investments and grants.

The flow rate and volume data collected by Stream Dx is wirelessly transferred to a mobile device and uploaded to a cloud server where detailed frequency, voiding diary and voiding score can be generated and then integrated into a patient’s electronic medical record.

Reports can be produced before office visits, saving both office and clinic time, while providing convenience for the patient and opportunity for expedited review by urologists or Primary Care Physicians (PCP). With this kind of development in mind, today’s word from the IoT Guru is about IoT perspective. Differing outlooks abound concerning what the Internet of Things (IoT) is; what IoT does, and perhaps more importantly, what the IoT has potential to do.

Lots of people are asking, “What’s the “edge” of IoT?” Sometimes the answer to such questions is found in the questions themselves. IoT is no different. The scope and reach of IoT is truly staggering. IoT connectivity happens right off the production line, and “Things” just aren’t the same things anymore. They’re smarter.

This means IoT is a long way from the complete dominance of medium-range computers IBM once predicted, at which point, incidentally, the PC promptly made its debut. Long story short, many an IoT braggart is actually no more than an IT juggernaut reaching for answers.

In this sense, IT perspective is flawed because the PC under your desk and that internet-enabled phone in your pocket amount to the same thing. The main point to keep in mind is this: IoT isn’t IT. It never has been. IoT creates its own unique value.

IoT questions are no exception to the previously mentioned rule. The answers lie in the many questions, which means, IoT is so much more than what we are currently able to see.