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    Heads Up, CIOs: The Internet of Things Is Headed Your Way

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    How the Internet of Things Will Change Our Lives

    You think you’ve got data problems now? Wait until your parking lot and air conditioning turbines start sending you data.

    It sounds like madness, and it may well lead to that, but if you think about it, it’s a logical extension from the Internet of Things.

    In a recent Inside Analysis piece, Adrian Bridgwater explains that this is the more “industrial enterprise end of the Internet of Things.”

    If you need another acronym in your life, Bridgwater calls this EOPM (Enterprise Operational Performance Monitoring). Like the Internet of Things, this concept would rely on sensors.

    “At its highest-level EOPM is a sort of holistic integration of every possible metric that the business can lay its hands on,” Bridgwater writes. “That word ‘holistic’ is important because this we are talking about the crucial confluence of automated business and technology metrics with so-called ‘systems of record’ and other mission-critical operational systems.”

    Brace yourself: This is just one of many ideas we’re going to see bandied about as the Internet of Things (IoT, of course) takes center stage in the hype cycle.

    “This is the year of the Internet of Things in terms of mind share,” Frank Gillett, analyst at Forrester Research, told Forbes recently.

    Forbes focused on which vendors will become contenders in this space. Of course, we know Cisco, Qualcomm and Honeywell are focusing on IoT as a way to provide home automation.

    Earlier this week, Google put down stakes with the acquisition of Nest, and AT&T is working on a home automation platform, according to Forbes. The site also anticipates that Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and perhaps other cable companies will emerge as players.

    GE is focusing more on what it calls the industrial Internet by bringing machines online, particularly in health care, according to this December Forbes article, which looks at the more business- and building-focused IoT companies.

    What I really like, though, is that Bridgwater’s piece talks about IT’s role in the IoT. IoT won’t necessarily be deployed by IT; as he points out, operations may have more use for this data. But CIOs still need to think about IoT responsibilities, such as the impact of all that data and API headaches.

    Organizational use, deployment and responsibility are definitely issues worth considering as IoT comes online.

    Loraine Lawson
    Loraine Lawson
    Loraine Lawson is a freelance writer specializing in technology and business issues, including integration, health care IT, cloud and Big Data.

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