What Is IoT Devices

In the past few decades, technology has developed by leaps and bounds. Organizations of all sizes and industries are using various IT solutions to help drive growth, profit, and productivity. A key innovation that many companies rely on is IoT devices. What is an IoT device? How do they help companies? What should you know about these devices?

What is IoT devices?

The Internet of Things is abbreviated as "IOT", and Internet of Things devices are connected devices that can communicate with other devices and networks.
Depending on their shape and function, these devices can perform various tasks. Many IoT devices use their network connections to allow users to remotely access and operate the device, remotely access databases to obtain information, or receive manufacturer firmware updates.

List of common IoT devices

There are many types of IoT devices on the market. Below is a list of IoT devices, covering several major categories:

Smart home equipment. These are consumer-centric devices designed to help automate home functions, including smart speakers (Amazon Echo, Google Home, etc.), refrigerators, Wi-Fi-enabled lights, and electronic locks (and many other devices). According to Statista's data, the "smart home" device market is expected to reach USD 23.328 billion by 2020, which will become a major contributor to the entire IoT device market.
Industrial sensors. Manufacturers can use networked sensor devices to collect data on their factory equipment and monitor potential problems in the assembly line. IoT sensors can help improve operational visibility, maintenance planning, and logistics by monitoring the consumption rate of equipment and specific resources.
Smart cars. As part of the ever-evolving self-driving cars, IoT capabilities can be seen in various models of cars and trucks. According to the "International Business Times" report, as automakers scramble to become the first company to release self-driving cars, "investments in the self-driving car industry have exceeded 100 billion US dollars."
Smart camera. Private owners and businesses are increasingly investing in remotely controlled Internet cameras and storing their records in safe and secure off-site locations. Some IoT smart cameras can use software to help identify intruders and weapons, and send alerts when they detect intruders and weapons.
Manufacturing robots. Networking automation on assembly lines is increasing. Manufacturing robots with IoT capabilities can be remotely controlled and programmed, allowing manufacturers to remotely control their assembly lines and change the production queue at any time.
Medical/fitness equipment. From smart watches that monitor heart rate to hospital equipment, the Internet of Things technology has made it easier to collect important health information, thereby revolutionizing the fields of healthcare and fitness. The collected data can be used to help people track the progress of their health and fitness goals, or to generate alerts for healthcare providers in emergencies.

This list is far from comprehensive-new IoT devices are constantly being created, and they will also have new uses. Although IoT devices are useful, they also have some major problems. In most companies, the biggest concern about IoT devices is usually their security.

About the security of IoT devices

There are many security issues with IoT devices, including:

Expand the attack surface of the network. In network security, keeping the attack surface as small as possible (which means that cybercriminals have almost no targets) is very important to avoid security breaches. Insecure IoT devices with wireless connections increase the company’s attack surface and make it easier for hackers to find a way to enter the network. In the past, hackers used IoT devices to create botnets for DDoS attacks.
Software vulnerabilities on IoT devices. Different IoT devices will have different firmware, operating systems, and security systems. The problem is that the security of different IoT devices may be extremely uneven, and some devices have obvious vulnerabilities, making them easy targets for cybercriminals. For example, many IoT devices use open source software, which can be used to access and manipulate these devices.
Network visibility is reduced. For IoT devices, this may sound strange-these devices work exclusively by connecting to the network and collecting data-but excessive use of these devices can make it more difficult to track all IT assets on the network. This in turn increases the risk of security breaches, because some IoT devices are ignored and they are not considered in IT change management, security patches, or network security review processes.

Edge computing and IoT devices

Although security is the main concern of IoT devices, what about the aforementioned connection bottlenecks? When IoT devices send information requests to servers, they consume an astonishing amount of network bandwidth. In fact, IDC predicts that "by 2025, 41.6 billion connected devices or'things' will be in use and 79.4 megabytes (ZB) of data will be generated."

If the 79.4 megabytes (ZB) of data is divided by 41.6 billion IoT devices, this means that each device will generate an average of 1908.65 GB of data per year. In a year’s time, the proliferation of this situation means that the actual impact of any single device at any given moment may be minimal, but when multiple IoT devices are in a "high consumption" mode at the same time, this will Cause data bandwidth bottlenecks and congest the network.

One way to solve the problem of high bandwidth consumption of IoT devices is to spread the load. Instead of relying on a single central data center, companies can use hosted data centers at the edge of the distributed network to process data requests from IoT devices.

By placing additional data centers close to IoT devices, organizations can minimize the time between when these devices send a request and get a response. This helps prevent delays in workflows that rely on IoT devices.

In addition, by providing additional edge data centers, organizations can build some IT resilience and system redundancy. In this way, if a data center fails (due to a power outage, network infrastructure failure, cyber attack, or natural disaster), traffic and requests to that data center can be rerouted to other data centers. This can eliminate certain single points of failure and improve overall network reliability.

A common objection to using outsourced data centers at the edge of the network is that some data center service providers do not provide their customers with sufficient control or visibility into the data production environment, which leaves companies ignorant of their actual bandwidth requirements.

However, for some data providers (such as vXchnge), this is not a problem. Its on-site solution can provide companies with in-depth analysis of their hosted data center environment and provide reports on bandwidth, power consumption, and server processor usage. These reports enable companies to easily determine when they need to deploy more (or more Less) resources.

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What Is IoT Devices