It’s no secret, and to nobody’s surprise, that more and more electronic pieces are being connected to the internet every day. It’s a technology company’s dream to have all possible units talking to each, but while we aren’t just there yet, Gartner predicts that at least 50 billion units will be connected by 2020.
That is a massive increase, and really show the growth path, as Gartner’s David Cuppucio explained that that 1984 there were only around 1000 connected device and by 2012 there was 17 billion. How will we get to that leap? Well, people have been adding at least one more unit to their repertoire from last year, as currently there are 3.9 connected things per person.
Not only has technology become faster, but it’s also consumed at a quicker pace than before. Gartner estimates that 90% of all text messages are read within the first three minutes. “If someone doesn’t reply to a message quickly, and I can see that they have read it, I’m going to think that something is wrong,” said Cuppucio.
In terms of information consumption, 3.3 billion Google search are done daily. “I call it the Great Oracle. If you had to do a search about 10 years ago, you had to do some actual research. Today everything is as far as the click of a button.”
He also added that 60 billion emails are sent out daily, but the biggest clogger of inboxes are spam, as of the 60 billion emails, around 97% of that is spam.
For practical purposes, he used those examples, but stressed that users are in need of all the information, all the time – and it’s something the businesses need to take note of.
“These are all things that are coming at us, and we need to be aware of it. Business expectations are that we need access to everything, all the time, from any device from anywhere. What we think is strange today, will become the norm tomorrow, and that is what businesses need to realise.”
Tapping into information is one of the biggest buzz words this side of 2012 and related to the speed and consumption of information, is the Internet of Things – a simple concept that one day even the smallest of technology pieces will connect to something, somewhere, but most notably is that there will be a plethora of sensors all around us to monitor the smallest things.
“If we can analyse the data (from them), we can get some good things from it. Some of the stuff that is happening is really good, as some are really small that you can even swallow them, while some are self-discovering and create networks.”
Plastering sensor all over the place might seem like a strange concept now, but Cuppucio makes a compelling case.
“It’s more efficient to monitor things (with sensors) and gather a large amount of data that humans can’t get. We are talking here about massive amounts of data, but luckily the more Gartner mentions it, the more companies are doing amazing things with it.”
