Analysis of a White Paper: Creating the Internet of Your Things

This paper is authored by Microsoft to give the concept of Internet of Things(IoT) implementation a new approach . It is to be viewed not as a new platform entirely but one that is built on existing infrastructure with re-use of IT systems leveraged to provide an IoT experience here and now.

The paper points out the causes for this change of climate in information systems; the falling costs of devices, increased demand for devices and numerous options, advances in software and the economic potential. A new concept is introduced; the concept of Internet of “Your” Things. This concept that easily mirrors similar ideas that have already been expressed by Prater (2012) and the description of automated factories and homes to enhance productivity and ease lifestyles. The author proceeds to market Microsoft’s capability to provide businesses with tools, technologies and infrastructure to leverage the data businesses have for their benefit. This is not new as it has been shown that even novices can create their own IoT applications using available data and sensors (Radhesh, 2015) and this puts into focus the ease with which experts can start connectivity of things within organizations.

The concept of big data is at the heart of this marketing and it is upon this that the reader gets to appreciate the scale of data that can be collected, stored and analyzed for organizations. The paper however, does not discuss the issue of information security and how the company looks to protect the data it collects or analyzes. Cloud systems have been hacked in the past and it is a real threat as highlighted by Crawford & Plesse (2014). Security is an issue seldom discussed on marketing papers and this is no exception.

Overall the points are put across in a fluid and connected manner, however, the article uses no diagrams to aid its description of solutions and how it integrates with the customers’ existing infrastructure as marketed. This makes it a little difficult for the reader to conceptualize the overall solution on offer if one is not technical.

In summary, it seems that IoT is not something that business will need to make new investments to have, yet it is something that can be achieved with available systems. The goal is to make the most out of the data collected from these systems. This is an idea worth exploring, guess it will be the subject of another paper or review.

References

• Edson, B., (2013) Microsoft Internet of Things. Microsoft Corporation, viewed on 17th June 2016 download.microsoft.com/.../E/1/.../Microsoft_Internet_of_Things_White_Paper.pdf

• Prater, J., (2012) Internet of Making Things, viewed on 19th June 2016, http://www.wired.com/insights/2015/03/internet-making-things/

• Radhesh, K., (2015) Create your first Internet of Things Application in under 30 minutes with IBM Bluemix. viewed on 19th June 2015 http://yourstory.com/2015/03/internet-of-things-application/

• Crawford, S. & Plesse, D. (2014) Cyber insurance, security and data integrity, Ernest and Young, viewed 15 June 2016 http://www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/EY_-_Insights_into_cyber_security_and_risk/$FILE/ey-cyber-insurance-thought-leadership.pdf