Unveiling the Potential Relationship between IoT and Cloud Computing

Today, if we look around, we find that IoT, the Internet of Things, disrupts our daily lives, either at home or the workplace. It has been 20 years since this concept has knocked the tech world. Since then, it has offered excellent solutions that have made everything seamless and better.

From smart Fitbits to the Amazon Echo or Google Home, today, most people are using connected smart devices and wearables to monitor their health like heart rate, calories, and daily activities. In fact, some use it to manage their heating, lighting, home security, and re-order household staples when supplies run low.

The digital changes occurring everywhere, at home or business, in hospitals, buildings, or the entire town, show that IoT is growing at a breakneck speed.

As per research conducted by Juniper Research, the number of IoT devices is set to increase from 35 billion connections in 2020 and reach 83 billion by 2024, which results in around 130 percent increase in the coming four years as enterprise IoT users will extend their IoT ecosystems to improve operational efficiencies to generate real-time insights.c

Constructing a Competitive Edge with the Cloud

The pandemic strike has proved that digitization in every sector has become necessary. Companies have to double down on digital transformation projects, and technologies like IoT are the only way to make it possible. Embracing these technologies is the only way to improve customer services, automate processes and tasks, track assets, detect existing loopholes, and re-invent and renovate existing business models. But the success of IoT is not possible without cloud computing. We can simply say the cloud offers a lot more than just connectivity on which IoT devices are dependent. This means IoT devices are dependent on the cloud to store essential data in one central location that can be easily accessed, managed, and distributed in real-time.

When it comes to the relationship between IoT and cloud computing, here are four significant benefits that can compel organizations to use clouds to unleash the full potential of their IoT devices.

Cloud Deployment and Scalability

The cloud can assist organizations in overcoming the technical and cost hurdles that get dragged in with deploying an IoT solution.

The cloud eliminates the requirement to set up physical servers, deploy databases, configure networks, manage connections, or do other infrastructure tasks. It makes it speedy and easy to spin up virtual servers, launch databases, and generate the needed data pipelines to operate an IoT solution.

On the other hand, on-premises IoT network infrastructure needs much hardware, and time-consuming configuration efforts to make sure things run appropriately; implementing a cloud-powered IoT system is significantly more streamlined.

For instance, scaling up the number of IoT-enabled devices just requires leasing another virtual server or more cloud space.

In the same way, cloud services can easily streamline remote device lifecycle management, ensuring delivery of a 360-degree view of the device infrastructure and tools that automate the update and setup of software and firmware over the air.

Communication and Data Management

IoT devices are essential for both consumers and enterprises because of their information. But they become more helpful when communicating with each other.

For instance, a connected thermostat can communicate with smart refrigerators to increase or decrease the temperature. A connected micro-controller can analyze and predict preventative maintenance, which is needed to reduce the chances of any damage.

The cloud helps in this operation by streamlining and optimizing machine-to-machine communications and facilitating this across interfaces. With the increased interactions between many connected devices and immense volumes of data generated, organizations will have to find a cost-effective way to store, process, and access data from their IoT solutions.

In addition, they also need to be capable to scale up to manage peaks of demand or extending the infrastructure to handle extra functionality whenever they add more features to their IoT solution.

We all know that an IoT solution generates immense amounts of data. In that case, adding built-in management tools and processing capabilities that support the successful transfer of data between devices effectively and efficiently will make the process easy and convenient. The cloud also offers a hosting platform for Big Data and data analytics at a significantly lower cost.

Data Mobility and Interoperability

Data generated by IoT devices can be stored and processed in a cloud server and easily accessible at any time from any place without any infrastructure or networking issues. In the same way, data can be collected remotely and in real-time from devices located anywhere and in any time zone.

Sometimes, interoperability hampers the ability of enterprises to link or integrate data generated by IoT devices to other data resources.

Adding a cloud can assist in linking applications and seamlessly integrate all the data sources so they can be analyzed, regardless of source.

Cloud can also help the organization streamline the integration of the IoT solution with other smart products developed by their third parties to generate additional value for users.

Security Issues

Security has been a much-talked concern as security lapses, and failure to update IoT devices has created a gateway for cybercriminals. Cloud platforms can support enterprises in improving and strengthening security in two ways.

Firstly, as we already know, cloud providers can make it simple to undertake regular software and firmware updates, signed with digital certificates that ensure users these updates are safe and authorized.

Secondly, cloud platforms help initiate customized client and server-side encryption that guarantees complete security of data flowing through the IoT ecosystem and even when it is at rest in the database. Many cloud service providers provide 24*7 monitoring to minimize the risk of a security breach.

Cloud-Powered IoT Is an Effective and Scalable Solution

Many organizations embrace IoT technologies, and those who are still reliant on the old-traditioned infrastructure will find themselves at a loss.

Adopting the Cloud, a power plant for IoT device communications and memory, organizations will experience better connectivity rates and improved ROI.

Embracing a hybrid cloud approach facilitates IT teams to establish the right mix of hosting opportunities that allows them to manage rapid rollout and enablement while getting the max out of IoT devices and securing better IoT IoT strategy without investing much time and money and efforts into developing costly infrastructure.

For organizations that have decided to extend their IoT ambitions, the cloud can assist in developing IoT products faster, can easily manage and handle all the generated data, secure the IoT ecosystem, and establish better integration with existing systems and other IoT devices. This means cloud computing will be the key to unlocking a faster time to market, with greater flexibility and adding lifetime value for success and profit churning IoT deployment.