Inter-Mesh of Technologies

Various technologies or innovations have had a profound impact on the way we live, communicate, operate and consume. At different points of time in human history these technologies have shaped our life and society to varying degrees, but the impact of Digital has been more disruptive compared to the incremental impact of other technologies in the past. In this context, digital is not a single technology rather it is a domain of technologies. These technologies come together and help interconnect unconnected dots of physical and virtual world, through various means. This connected world of physical things tends to unravel many mysteries and secrets which only a deeply analytical mind can recognize and analyze. This interconnected web of technologies brings domains like the Internet of Things, Analytics (Image & Data), Machine Learning, Data Science, Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence together, to weave this connected world creating an Inter-Mesh of Technologies. The value generated by bringing these technologies together is much more than the sum of individual values these bring.

This digital world has the potential to improve efficiency, reduce waste, remove uncertainty, improve uptime, establish trust and improve the overall experience for users and consumers. However, as much this world appears to be complex, the role various technologies play is getting defined and refined with each passing day.

Internet of Things is a stack of connected things communicating information over various connectivity technologies and connecting the real world to the virtual world. This real world can be a general environment monitoring scenario or it can be connecting shop floor machinery in a manufacturing plant with IT network and making the information available. This information can be thing's telematics, health data, environment data to which things are subjected to or can be some management information to control and manage things. At the outset connecting various things in the real world has limited scope in terms of what can be monitored and what significance can be created out of it. However, when other technologies interconnect value can be created in many ways.

IoT relies on sensors to connect things to the digital world, but there are scenarios when sensors can't be connected on things, in such scenarios other technologies like Image Analytics can be used to create an image of the asset in the virtual world, and physical parameter can be monitored and reported. Such solutions can be used to monitor the gas and oil leakage in pipeline, or damage assessment for the power transmission industry. Thus, image analytics can act as data input in such scenarios.

Once data is captured from things through sensors or vision based technologies, the way data is stored or processed can help in solving for real-world business challenges. For example, by capturing the data from physical environment and maintaining as well as establishing its integrity, it can be used for compliance as per regulatory requirements. Thus in a way it can help reduce the compliance cost for the business. Utility industry is using Blockchain along with image analytics to comply with regulatory requirements like FAC03-4 for vegetation management around transmission lines. In these scenarios, Blockchain technologies add trust to the data. The value generated goes beyond compliance requirement in other cases, where analytics can add value to the bottom-line of business, for example using a combination of IoT, OCR and Mobile technologies, utility industry is improving the accuracy and efficiency of billing process.

Further beyond utility industry, integrating IoT technologies with Machin Learning and Data science can help in building prediction models, that analyze the data and can correlate telematics, health or environment data to predict failure. Thus, providing an opportunity for improving business efficiency by reducing downtime. Many industries have adopted such a solution where vibration data captured through IoT technologies, and processed through ML and Data Science models can provide actionable information.

As technologies are getting commoditized with more and more emphasis on open source technologies, the acceleration of technology integration is taking place. This integration of technologies is enabling extensive value creation and value realization and creating a world that is larger than interconnected things.