The Cloud + IoT: A Love Story
Most people familiar with internet jargon have heard of both “cloud computing” and the “Internet of Things.” The former, which refers to the use of remote servers to store and manage data, and the latter, which describes connected sensors being embedded in everyday objects. Combined they are two of the most consequential trends in the technology sector today, but how do they connect?
Drawing connections
The ways that the cloud and IoT intersect are varied and important, but not always incredibly clear. Distilled down to its most basic level, the relationship between IoT and the cloud can be described as interconnected as well as interdependent.
As Business Insider wrote: “Cloud computing and the IoT both serve to increase efficiency in our everyday tasks, and the two have a complementary relationship. The IoT generates massive amounts of data, and cloud computing provides a pathway for that data to travel to its destination.”
Cloud necessity
If we look to a future when every coffee mug, car and thermostat is connected to our smartphone, we can be sure the amount of data we generate is only likely to multiply exponentially. Managing all this data via the cloud is the only way we can continue our data consumption without complete gridlock. IoT manufacturers have known this from the very beginning; that’s why they’ve designed products to be dependent on the cloud. As InfoWorld put it, “Companies that make these devices understood early on that it does not make sense to keep all the smarts and storage in the device itself, and these devices must be instantly upgradable for them to have long-term value.”
This connectivity between the cloud and the IoT presents both challenges as well as exciting new opportunities. Here is a look at some of the ways that we can expect the cloud and IoT to interact very soon:
The rise of “fog computing”
Fog computing is a way to gather the data collected by IoT-connected devices at a local computing device, rather than remotely on a centralized or public cloud. The benefit of using a so-called gateway device to process and analyze all this data before it goes to a central cloud include “less bandwidth and networking strain, reduced costs, decreased latency, and greater access.” Business Insider predicts this is on the rise, writing that “5.8 billion IoT devices owned by enterprises and governments will use fog computing in 2020, up from 570 million devices in 2015. Many IoT devices don’t have their own computing power, and fog computing typically provides a better way to collect and process data from these devices than the cloud does.”
Increased focus on security by IoT manufacturers
At first, the novelty of connecting everyday objects to the internet was enough of a selling point for IoT companies to make headway. Now that it’s in more widespread use, manufacturers have to step up and make sure that all the data that’s being sent from IoT sensors to the cloud is protected. This data is, by its very nature, sensitive. As InfoWorld put it, “It’s going to take a few close calls for the industry to wake up and understand that anything connected must come with well-defined and well-implemented security.”
Major cloud providers are about to step up
As the relationship between IoT devices and the Cloud increases, cloud providers are likely to begin providing more and more cloud-based services especially designed for devices. InfoWorld predicts that we will see “growth in compute and storage services to support these devices, and we’ll see upgrades in communications networks, including higher-speed cellular systems that will rival the pace of home networks.”