At some point or other you have probably seen or unknowingly glanced over the term “IoT”. But like most people you may not have known what it actually means. In this blog post we are going to explain in simple terms where the term came from, what it means, and how it can positively impact your role as an FM or site operator.
The technical definition of IoT is below, however it’s not the easiest to understand:
“The Internet of Things (IoT) is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.”
If this has just confused you more, don’t worry, we are going to attempt to break this down into a more simpler explanation that will hopefully help you understand better.
IoT (internet of things) explained in simpler terms:
The internet of things essentially means taking all the things in the world and connecting them to the internet. Because this is so simplistic it can be easy for many to over generalise and not see or understand the true meaning.
The best way to understand IoT is to look at what the benefits are and why it matters…
By something being connected to the internet, this means that it can send information or receive information, or in most cases, both. This capability to send and/or receive information makes things smart, and smarter is for the most part, always better.
Take smartphones for example, you can stream and listen to basically any song in the world on your phone. This isn’t capable because every song in the world is stored on your smartphone. It is capable because every song in the world is stored somewhere digitally on what we call “the cloud”. Our smartphones can then request a song from there, and in turn receive the required information to stream songs.
To be classified as smart, something doesn’t need to have mega storage or a supercomputer inside of it. All that “thing” has to do is have the ability to connect to a super storage or to a supercomputer.
To summarise, In the Internet of Things, all the things can be put into three categories:
• Sensors that collect information and then send it.
• Computers that receive information and then act on it.
• Things that do both.
These all work together and feed off of each other.
A takeaway definition of IoT:
What is IoT?
The Internet of Things, or IoT, is about extending the power of internet connectivity beyond just computers to a whole range of other things, processes, and environments. Those connected, smarter, things are used to gather information, send information, or do both.
Why does IoT matter?
IoT provides businesses and people better insight into and control over objects and environments that are currently beyond the reach of the internet. By doing so, IoT helps businesses and people to be more connected to the world around them and to do more meaningful, higher-level work.
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