Eseye, a world leader in IoT connectivity solutions, today launched its fifth consecutive IoT Predictions report which boldly coins 2024 ‘The Year of IoT Intelligence at the Edge’.
This is off the back of the industry starting to see a massive shift in power from the mobile network operator to the Enterprise in 2023. According to the predictions, this year IoT will also see an increased focus on resiliency and trust – a development that has been signalled for many years.
According to Nick Earle, CEO at Eseye, “In 2023 we noted a control shift from the network operator to the Enterprise and the device. This will continue into 2024 where we anticipate an increased focus on the shift from the traditional data centre to the Edge. This will allow for more intelligent connectivity and for IoT to embrace ‘Connected by Design’ principles which will increase device and Edge intelligence. This is a major leap forward for the technology and its users as data at the Edge becomes more business, mission, and life critical.”
Already industries such as healthcare, financial payments and the energy sector are experiencing the benefits of IoT and this is set to improve significantly as intelligence moves to the Edge and ultimately to the device itself, disrupting the IoT landscape further.
Based on this, Eseye’s 2024 predictions centre around connectivity intelligence shifting to the IoT device. To achieve this, Eseye anticipates three key developments to unfold in the industry this year.
First, new ‘Smart Connectivity’ software will link the Edge and the cloud, which will aid in combining full-stack integration enabling IoT devices to gather and process information to provide secure, resilient device-to-cloud connectivity.
Larry Socher, SVP Strategy & Alliances comments, “This connectivity software will seamlessly provide enhanced device connectivity to deliver an uninterrupted experience that maximises the device health and improves security.”
Second, Eseye predicts that in 2024 we will see the emergence of on-device communications software solutions that will provide the ‘Smart Connectivity’ that powers distributed data processing for IoT and sets the groundwork for 5G. This will be significant for various industries such as smart cars, security, and healthcare as it unlocks new capabilities for IoT.
“This year we will start to lay the foundations for challenging applications, such as augmented reality (AR) for telemedicine and remote surgery as we unlock the power of 5G,” continues Socher. “Implementing these capabilities can only be made possible by enabling core components of the intelligence at the one common architectural component – the device.”
Eseye’s third prediction for 2024 focuses on ‘Smart Connectivity’ as the foundation for Device-to-Cloud security, compliance, and trust. As the world prioritises securing data from malicious actors to make sure it cannot be stolen or altered, as well as implementing measures to adhere to data sovereignty and other mandated compliance, IoT will need to evolve to offer on-device security that is integrated into connectivity.
To enable this, IoT will need intelligent, device resident connectivity software which will protect the device, network, and applications, along with their keys. It will act as an implicit agent on the device providing instrumentation that can be used to manage the device and security (i.e. SIEM) and integrate with underlying network technologies and operators. Further, it should work with a Software Defined Network (SDN) to provide secure, in-region routing and auditability to enable security and compliance leveraging blockchain or similar technologies.
This could be extremely beneficial for new use cases such as the emerging carbon exchange market which has experienced a high rate of fraud in the carbon credit markets. To counter this an EV charger, or other device that wants to participate in carbon exchanges, will need to ensure that data generated from a device is fully auditable, accurate and has not been tampered with in transit from the device to the exchange. This will require a combination of full-stack security on the device, complete device-to-cloud encryption with secure routing, and blockchain or similar technologies to ensure integrity and auditability.
Earle concludes:
“By focusing on delivering a secure experience, ‘Smart Connectivity’ will lay the foundation for device-to-cloud security, compliance and preserve trust in 2024, which is critical for the future of IoT in 2024 and beyond.”
