In a three-part series, Cisco Investments and McRock Capital are partnering to share their predictions on top trends for the next decade of Industrial IoT. Stay tuned for the next edition.
The implementation of Internet of Things (IoT) has become widespread over the last decade. Before then, Machine to Machine (M2M) communication was the standard for machine connectivity. It started in the 1990s, when low-cost RFID tags were first placed on products to track them through the supply chain. By leveraging innovations in low-cost sensors, connectivity standards, the cloud and big data, IoT became a standard mass-market technology with applications in both consumer and enterprise settings.
Many IoT startups, IT product and service vendors, and industrial solution vendors initially tried to approach Industrial IoT from a more horizontal perspective by combining IoT projects with broader enterprise digital transformation projects, in an effort to find solutions that worked across multiple industries and applications. However, over the past 5–7 years, and after several billion dollars spent on deployments, that perspective has evolved. Today, many have come to understand the wisdom of a more vertical approach for addressing specific customer pain points and use cases in an effort to deliver tailored solutions and measurable outcomes.