I presented “Foresee the future of IT through the lens of CES 2014” to the one of executive session at Plaza Hotel, Seoul. The object
was to share my perspective on future trends from the observation of CES 2014.
It naturally progressed to the topic around IoT.
CES 2014 is famous consumer electronic show
and it is somewhat meaningful because this exhibition has usually taken placed
during early January so it is regarded as precursor to anticipate IT trend that
will shape the future.
I kicked off by saying some noticeable
solutions from the show. LG showed the washing machine that is connected to
smart phone to chat, and MakerBot for 3D printer. But I highlighted the Belkin Wemo
Switch.
When IFTTT meets Belkin Switch.
IFTTT stands for “If This Then That”. It is a service that
enables users to connect different web applications (e.g., Facebook, Evernote,
Weather, Dropbox, etc.) together through simple conditional statements known as
"Recipes". For example, If ‘sunset’ then “turn on the living room ramp”. This logic can be applied to web applications. But Belkin
augmented this way into HW switch. The WeMo Switch can be plugged into any home outlet,
which can then be controlled from an iOS or Android smartphone running the WeMo App,
via home WiFi or mobile
phone network. So in other words, you can control Wemo physical switch by
Wemo App which can be applied IFTTT logic, so you can simply turn on or off the
switch by clicking the button on the SmartPhone.
Facebook
Messenger
Then I introduced
Facebook Messenger. Well, interestingly enough, very next day of my
presentation, FB acquired WhatsApp and paid 19B$ - 2nd biggest tech
acquisition of all time. Anyway, When Facebook faced the situation that its
application should be continued on the Smart Phone devices, they considered the
performance the most. FB acquired group messaging company named Beluga in March
2011 and introduced Facebook Messenger in August same year. It has known that
Beluga was based on MQTT communication protocol.
Why Facebook chose
MQTT for its messenger?
Message Queue
Telemetry Transport (MQTT) was originally developed from Hursley IBM Lab for
the purpose of Telemetry communication protocol to monitor and gauge the
telemetry object. Characteristics of telemetry is low power & bandwidth
consumption, very limited memory, and server capability, very long lifespan etc…,
interestingly this is similar traits of Smart Phone. Given the consideration of
HTTP’s
communication through polling, MQTT’s heartbeat is originated from the
requirements of low bandwidth and CPU usage (publish/subscribe protocol is
under 5% CPU usage) in telemetry. MQTT communication protocol is conducted by
publishing and subscribing. Subscribers nominate which types of information they want to receive by
subscribing to specific topics. From publisher’s point of
view, they publish in the event and forget. Rest part of communication governed
by so called “message broker”. Message
broker take care of session establishment and deliver so when the telemetry
communication disconnected, heartbeat just checking the availability of counterpart,
if disconnected, nothing happen, and once connection has established, broker
resend the signal. So simply put, MQTT is lightweight, guaranteed service
quality, based on publish/subscribe message protocol. MQTT is Open Standard
base. OASIS (Advanced Open Standards for Information Society) adopted MQTT
which stemmed from sub project of Eclipse Open Source Integrated Development
Environment. MQTT boasts 93X more throughput than HTTP, 12 times less power
consumption in the event of publishing, 120 times less power consumption in
subscribing and 8 times less bandwidth workload than HTTP protocol. MQTT boasts 50 µs app to app network speed where as HTTP takes
few second level.
MQTT’s Publish
and Subscribe protocol
In the
WebSphere MQ Publish/Subscribe model the only thing which connects publishing
and subscribing applications is the topic or subject which the publisher
associates with his information. Publishers and subscribers need only agree on
the topic to become connected to one another. Each different piece of information
has its own topic associated with it. Subscribers nominate which types of
information they want to receive by subscribing to specific topics.
Publishers
of information are unaware of subscribers to the extent that they may publish
information even if there are no subscribing applications requiring it.
Publishing and subscribing are completely dynamic processes. New subscribers
and new publishers can be added to the system without disruption.
With
respect to a given topic, or piece of information, all possible combinations of
publishers/subscribers are possible, that is; information about each topic may
be provided by a single or multiple publishing applications the information may
be received and processed by one or more subscribing applications.
The number
of publishers and subscribers connected by a single topic depends upon the type
of information which is flowing between them. As we will see later, WebSphere
MQ supports both state and event based information, or topics.
Substantial numbers of use cases are
possible in IoT
I shared “connected car” example as first popular
Internet of Things use case. By connecting the Infotainment, Telemetics and
Smart Phone, car owner unlock the car and find car when he/she lost, and when
vibration in left front detected, sends data to car company who schedules appointment
with dealer and sends invite. Another
use case is, condition based maintenance. Think about the petroleum pipeline network
such as 17,000 km pipeline network.., how can we monitor the breaches or abnormal
situations? By using 30,000 pieces low power, low bandwidth battery based M2M
sensors in storage, temperature, pressure, refineries, spill location and
pumps, operation center can detect, predict and execute based on condition
based maintenance.
M2M Smart City demo in Barcelona Mobile
World Congress.
Impressive demo was “connected car” demo in MWC this year.
Solution that were comprised of IBM Infosphere Stream (SW that can process the
unstructured stream data almost real-time), worklight and m2m message appliance
“MessageSight”, underscored the importance of real-time monitor and control of
road traffic and emergency control. If I
make long story to short, we could control the messages among the vehicle
running in the Barcelona road from the control center. For example, demo displayed
the automobiles in Barcelona city and let’s suppose one hydrant has broken and certain road was flooded. In
this case, control center can define the zone and published alarm signal to
specific zone, then the cars who have equipped with MQTT agent could subscribe
that message and send messages to the adjacent cars, so ultimately all the
moving cars in the zone could sense this alarm. And one car damaged and this
would publish the fatal signal so emergence rescue team has arrived within
short period of time….
Implication: OK, then what all of these
imply to us?
Report articulates that 18B$ IoT market is
estimated by 2020 and 30B IoT devices in 2015. OK good, then what this IoT
proliferation to be meant to all of us?
Proliferation of IoT devices and huge
amount of market opportunity around IoT is somewhat threats and at the time,
opportunities to us. We may think about the two approaches; How and What.
From the point of ‘how’, it is calling for new
operation model. Firstly, it requires new capability.. for example, capability
to take care of the consistent relationship around every touch points in
omni-channels and deliver enhanced digital customer experiences. Second,
capability across total organization is needed to expand among different
channels and processes, and at the same time, it is also true to optimize every
element’s capabilities. Third, it requires also integrate
every element of value deliveries and optimize total organization centered on client
touch points and effectiveness/efficiency point of view.
From the point of ‘what, it is calling for new customer experience which could be
essentially achieved through enhanced digital contents…, for example, firstly, enhance customer experience improvements through
digital contents of product & services, information, insights and
relationship that could be captured across omni-channel touch points. Second, expand
physical product and services to digital contents for new revenue growth.
Third, redefine the system towards customer value oriented digital front office
system so ultimately deliver customer’s
differentiated unique value through digital channels.
Epilogue
Proliferation of IoT devices and consequent
abundant data information lead us to imply the causality of businesses. This
internet of things proliferation itself uncover the different control
equations, it means we are literally exposed by exploded data information
surrounded us and it requires new operation model which embraces consolidated
view of information collected from every touch points of our clients
relationship. Data is data but firm need to reorient its approaches more
customer value orientation. If we are able to figure out the individual clients’ profile and persona for example, we may able to more proactively
offer the value proposition, or perhaps predict the next best action based on
our understanding of 360 degree client’s profile
which have acquired from every touch points of engagements.
So it naturally leads us to conclude that
understanding the customer is important, particularly true under exploding
information era. Customer journey on product and services consumption could be
also collected from proliferated M2M or IoT information. It means if we do the
right job in maintaining customer lifetime value through digital front office
transformation, it promises customer’s lifetime
value to us. Because customer advocacy and intimacy stems from experience
lock-in could be a critical weapon to win in the market place.
**The postings on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.
