The birth of the Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the most remarkable events of the past century. The IoT is disrupting virtually every industry across every continent. According to Gartner, there will be approximately 20 billion connected IoT devices within the next year.
While the IoT has had a profound influence on the lives of consumers and daily operations of businesses, it has also faced some scalability challenges. The biggest hurdle has been ensuring compatibility between various devices. Some IoT devices are not designed to go together. However, they may have supplemental features that could make them ideal partners in an age of globally connected digital devices.
This problem is addressed with IoT middleware. Middleware is an application that bridges the connection between two otherwise unrelated IoT devices. The development of middleware has improved the scalability of IoT development. The paper Middleware technologies for a cloud of things: a survey delves into these issues in detail.
However, IoT developers have faced some logistical issues deploying middleware technology. These issues are rapidly being resolved, largely due to improvements in cloud technology. The cloud has provided several benefits for middleware applications:
- Middleware applications consume a substantial amount of memory. Without a large, easily accessible storage space to access these applications, IoT developers would not be able to use them to connect as many devices. This would bottleneck growth for IoT connectivity and limit uses in large organizations.
- Without the cloud, devices would need to be synced with middleware applications on the same intranet connection. There are some scenarios where this would be feasible. However, the Internet of Things is made up of billions of devices that are randomly geographically dispersed across thousands of miles.
- Advances in cloud technology have provided an extra hub for cybersecurity protection. This can help reduce the risks of IoT devices being hacked, which is a growing concern.
Future advances in cloud computing are likely to further stimulate the market for IoT middleware.
Outlook for IoT middleware market over the next few years
The benefits of IoT middleware cannot be overstated. Sceptics might be tempted to dismiss news reports about market growth as the hype. A recent analysis by the Trusted IoT Alliance suggests otherwise. The authors predict that the market for IoT middleware will exceed $18 billion by 2024.
As the market for IoT middleware grows, its impact is becoming clearer. There are countless ways that IoT devices are going to transform our world, which is facilitated by middleware. Here are some key examples.
The emergence of driverless cars
The development of driverless cars is possibly the most significant development in the Internet of Things. Driverless cars rely on in-built sensors that communicate with a central cloud database. They need to communicate with a central cloud database. They must process input from signs, vehicles, obstacles and weather patterns to understand driving conditions and the geographical layout of the roads they use. The safety of the drivers depends on the algorithms processing this data with a very high level of precision. Easily accessible cloud databases and middleware technology make this easier.
A new generation of smart manufacturing facilities
There are also many changes brought by the Internet of Things in manufacturing. Numerous factory machines that have not been historically physically connected, now link through the Internet of Things.
This is streamlining production in unanticipated ways. Higher efficiency should drive down prices in the near future, as the IoT lowers costs.
Cloud Technology and Middleware Drive New Developments of the IoT
The IoT will continue undergoing a rapid transformation in the coming years. These changes are largely being driven by new middleware technology, which would not have been possible without improvements in cloud computing.