Inforgeeks Company - Internet of Things - Research Proposal Example

Internet of Things (Name) (Instructor) (Institution Affiliation) (Date) Executive Summary With the perpetual advancement of technology in the information technology sector, the introduction of the internet is changing the manner in which businesses are being run or operated. It is because of the existence of the internet that the concept of “Internet of Things” (IoT) has come into being. The IoT is an environment where the internet has been connected to the physical world through sensors, whereby now objects such as machines are connected hence communicating and performing tasks with minimal interference from human beings. In effect, this report looks at how Inforgeeks, an IT company based in Melbourn can use the IoT application in its endeavours to enhance its productivity as well as future local and global expansion. The report has used recent studies to analyse the various applications of IoT as well their demerits. Accordingly, the report found that the Context Aware Personalization and pay-as-you-go cloud computing would be beneficial for Inforgeeks Company. The report goes ahead and gives the merits and demerits of these IoT applications and ultimately proposes some key recommendations. Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 1.1 Organizational Structure After a string of research and continuous discussions as well as anticipation with regards to how information technology can be used to connect objects, the Internet of Things is now resolutely on the way. As Infogeeks Company, this success is a major development, which promises to expand the company’s online world in various ways. Connecting objects, as well as people, certainly provides prospects of novel means of monitoring situations, learning as well as responding in real-time. Inforgeeks Company is a small but rapidly growing firm that is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. Known globally for its technology and consulting services, Inforgeeks enables clients both locally and now internationally to create as well as execute information technology applications and strategies hence realising the benefit that come along with the Internet of Things. Inforgeeks is constantly looking for solutions with regards to how human beings can depend on objects with minimum intervention. The Inforgeeks Company is also associated with application development as well as knowledge management. The company helps its client with the right issues to solve as well as solve them effectively. The company currently has more than 100, 000 information technology innovators in Australia. The team of innovators are differentiated by knowledge and experience as well as imagination across various industries and technologies that they bring in each project they undertake. The company recognises the significance of nurturing relationships which reflect the company’s culture of unwavering as well as mutual respect. It is, therefore, no surprise that more than 98.9% of the company’s revenues come from existing clients. At the moment the company has five sale and marketing offices across Melbourne and three development centers. The company believes that its responsibilities extend beyond business, and this is the reason Inforgeeks Company is planning to establish a foundation that will be charged with giving assistance to some of the most economically as well as socially depressed sectors of the communities in which the company exists. 1.2 Objective and Methodology With the current competitive business environment, Inforgeeks need to be ahead of its competitors in the information technology industry by constantly looking at the current challenges in that businesses as well as individuals face and consequently coming up with profound solutions that are based on extensive research and development. Accordingly, upon doing a profound research, the company has gathered that the retail industry is currently experiencing some problems especially with regards to identifying the right patron at the right time in order to sell them their goods and services. Thus, using secondary sources, the report sought to research on the possible solution to this problem based on the concept of “Internet of Things.” The report found two IoT applications that would beneficial to the future of Inforgeeks in its local and global expansion. These IoT applications include Context Awareness Personalization Solution and Pay-as-you-go cloud computing also referred to as PAYG cloud computing. 2.0 Internet of Things As Xia et al. (2012) posits, the Internet of Things, commonly referred to as IoT, is associated with the use of intelligently linked devices or machines and systems in order to support data that has been gathered by installed sensors as well as actuators in machines and other physical objects. The concept of IoT was principally established with intention of creating a world where billion of objects are able to sense, communicate as well as share information, all interconnected using the internet or any other connecting technology. In today’s digital world, billions of objects are interconnected and data is regularly collected, evaluated or analysed and used to initiate action. The data collected is often beneficial as it provides experts with the required intelligence to make critical management decision. Devised by an associate of the Radio Frequency Identification development community in early 1999, the Internet of Things Concept has today become more relevant to the practical world significantly (Whitmore et al., 2015). Accordingly, a significant number of visionaries, as well as technocrats linked with the information technology, have sized on the slogan “Internet of Things” to simply mean the idea of physical devices that have been connected to the internet hence communicating to perform tasks. Xia et al. (2012) point out that the everyday physical devices linked to the concept of IoT do not only refer to electronic devices but things that individuals do not regularly think of as electronic in any way such as clothing and food. On the same note, Xia et al. (2012) point out the “things” people, condition (of objects), location (of objects) as well as time information (of objects). According to Xia et al. (2012), statistics indicates that approximately 12.5 billion of daily physical devices were linked to the internet by 2010. Equally Al-Fuqaha et al. (2015) forecasts that by 2018, the number would have doubled since the prevalence of smart devices penetration is significantly burgeoning. It is without doubt that in today’s information technology industry, firms are staying competitive through adopting technologies, innovating new services to maximise productivity, streamlining business processes as well as saving costs. 2.1 The Application of the IoC in the Healthcare Sector With regards to the healthcare sector, today hospitals are changing their focus associated with offering healthcare within the premise, that is, hospitals as well as clinics to remote self-monitoring for patients. As Pang et al. (2015) explains, self-monitoring play a significant role on the patient’s daily lives as it gives them a considerable freedom as well as independence with respect to monitoring their health. Moreover, the hospital equipment is freed up hence helping in addressing emergencies whenever they arise. Developed countries have invested considerably in this venture as it improves their citizen’s quality of lives. A perfect example is America, whereby the electronic health monitoring is consistently improved by the Federal Communications Commission, commonly known as the FCC. Notably, Federal Communications Commission permits the use of assigned frequencies for sensors to be in a position to control or regulate devices wirelessly as far as the monitoring of health at both homes and hospitals. With such monitoring in place, doctors are in a position to inform as well as instruct their patients about critical conditions before they occur hence improving the quality of their health care through untethering patients from wires as well as tubes. Through the self-monitoring system, the Federal Communications Commission has been able to forecast saving of approximately 13,000 per patient (Pang et al. 2015). This has been majorly contributed by the fact that because of the self-monitoring system, the hospital-acquired infections have decreased. With constant innovations being witnessed in the in the health sector, the concept of IoT is expected to take a new dimension in the coming years as newer trends associated with developing biodegradable materials for sensors will come into play. Moreover, “lab-on-chip” equipment, which could, in turn, be implanted in patients, will be experienced in the healthcare sector. As Pang et al. (2015) posits, sensor chips are very important in the health. This is because they can be used to detect how the internal organs respond to new medication as well as guide the healthcare providers as well as the patients the administration of drugs to the areas that have been infected for better treatment to be realized. 2.2 The Application of the IoT in the Power Generation Sector A Significant number of power companies in the developed world use smart grid and metering systems. In this concept, the smart grid systems have been developed in a way that they can monitor and manage the complete life cycle of power, which includes generating, transmitting, distributing and consuming of power. Before the concept of IoT came into place, consumers of power never had the ability to control the exact amount of electricity they could consume. However, today through the smart grid system technology, consumers are in a position to manage as well as track their individual power consumption (Want, Schilit & Jenson, 2015). This spectacular change in the power sector is significantly beneficial for consumers as they are able to save huge amounts of power hence money. On the other hand, this technology is also significant to power companies as the technology potentially creates huge saving since they are in a position to provision power during peak periods of the day. As Want, Schilit and Jenson (2015) forecast, more than 5% of cost savings associated with smart grid systems have been witnessed since the changes came into place since consumers are in a position to monitor consumption habits or patterns. Want, Schilit and Jenson (2015) also forecast that 12% cost savings on what experts refer to passive energy efficiencies associated with smart grid systems implementation, for instance, measurement, diagnostic capability, verification for efficiency and conservation through voltage limitation. In South Korea, for instance, experts are currently working on a smart grid test-bedding project in one of the country’s renowned island, Jeju. This project has been projected as the world’s largest grid community to carry out tests on the most advanced smart grid sensor technologies. This project was launched with the sole purpose of targeting to attain a 35% reduction of carbon dioxide by 2020 as well as attain a low carbon economy. The other purpose of launching this project is associated with ensuring that in future the society will be in a position to monitor power consumption as well as distribution. 2.3 The Application of the IoT in the Automotive Transportation Sector Evidently, the Internet of Things concept has also played a significant role in the automotive transportation industry. In essence, the traffic conditions in major cities and towns around the globe are constantly being monitored by camera’s as well as motion sensors, which have been placed along major highways and junctions. However, as Dahlinger (2015) notes, land space for road development is restricted as well road traffic is also growing, which is making these sensing technologies reach their limits as far as providing real-time traffic updates to ease road congestions hence preventing accidents is concerned. Nevertheless, there have been considerable shifting trends in the automotive industry as vehicles are today being equipped with dedicated short-range communication systems (DSRC) (Patel & Cassou, 2015). The DSRCs are charged with providing vehicle-to-vehicle communications capabilities with the sole intention of reducing accidents as the concept is realistically beneficial in improving vehicle safety as well as providing improved road visibility for traffic management. For instance, whenever a particular road in the central business district is experiencing a traffic jam, the first vehicle may tell the vehicles behind that there has been a tragic accident hence the snarled traffic. Consequently, this, in turn, will inform the intelligent systems to change the route to a path that is somewhat less crowded. With such kind of technology in place, the vehicles are in a position to make breakdown calls whenever necessary. Besides, the cars can collect data regarding the surrounding infrastructures such as buildings and traffics. Moreover, under this system or technology the vehicles can collect data about themselves such as the type of loads they are carrying as well as any possible faulty parts in the vehicle in the event of an emergency. With this concept, vehicles cars gradually become smart “things” which have the capability of reacting based on real-time situations on the roads, which in turn contribute to safer traffic systems. 3.0 Context-Aware Personalization Application/Solution The Context Aware Personalization solution would provide the patrons with an amazing shopping experience which allows for a myriad of premium services including the provision of targeted product information or what is referred to as dynamic pricing which is based on estimated product quality. Under this technology, the future of the retail store would take a new direction as mobile and stationary services would be integrated (Vermesan et al., 2011). In other words, this new IoT application will include electronic shelf labels, sensor networks and eve digital signage. Through the Context-Aware Application, the retailers will be in a position to store context information connected to sensor data in order for the interpretation to be done easily as well as more meaningfully. Through this proposed solution, retailers and customers will be in a position to perform machine to machine communication since it is core aspect in the Internet of Things vision. The Context Aware Personalization solution is expected to transform the retailing sectors as the technology would provide leading-edge mobile technologies as well as solutions that would bridge the digital as well as the physical worlds hence connecting brands around the globe with their patrons in exciting ways. The Inforgeeks will also be able to add real-time contexts to services as well as offers thus engaging patrons in the right manner and the right time hence building loyalty as well as preference through making mobile communications timely and relevant. Besides, the technology will improve the shopper’s productivity and enhance shopping experience via micro-segmentation as well as ensure real-time business user insights. Thus, the Context-Aware Personalization solution will be beneficial for Inforgeeks it would enable the company to get in touch with its customers in real time and understand the specific needs of the customers the company will have access to potential customer data. 4.0 Pay-as-you-go Cloud Computing Inforgeeks is a company that is charged with giving individuals and organisations IT solutions which incorporate the development and installation of beneficial software. Thus, the company would need to develop a pay-as-go-cloud computing in the future in order make it easier for the ordering and selling of its software instantly. PAYG is a payment method associated with cloud computing which charges based on usage. This technology is the same as that of utility bills, whereby the resources that are needed are only ones to be used. This application would be beneficial to both the Inforgeeks and its customers in the sense that there would be no wastage of resources as customers will be able to pay for only services that they have procured. Accordingly, this solution helps in preventing the provision of a certain amount of resources that may not be used by the patrons. The users will be able to architect data storage in order to handle the maximum workload. 5.0 Advantages of IoT Application Based on the IoT application proposed by this report, one merit associated with Internet of Things application is cost saving. With the enhanced asset utilisation, process efficiencies and productivity, Inforgeeks will be able to save its expenditures such as real –time diagnostics and predictive analytics which play a significant role in driving down the maintenance costs. The other merit associated with IoT is enhanced safety as well as security. It is evident that IoT services such as the PAYG cloud computing helps the customers to be in a position to buy services that can be only be utilised by them hence no leakage. For instance, it would be safer to purchase an antivirus online which would be automatically be automated after a particular period than purchasing it from a store and where it is packaged on a CD drive which can be tampered or stolen. The other merit is efficient processes. When an organisation such as Inforgeeks is connected with a significant number of devices on the internet, the Internet of Things allows Inforgeeks to be smarter with real-time operational insights while at the same time reducing the operating costs. 6.0 Disadvantages of IoT One major concern associated with IoT is the security. With the adoption of Context-Aware System and PAYG computing system, Inforgeeks will face major security threat on its database. With significant personal data record of its clients, individuals with bad intentions would want to hack into the company’s data system and steal important information for its customers such credit card numbers and addresses. The other disadvantage is associated with potential widespread of malware. With the concept of PAYG cloud computing, the interconnection of devices to the company’s main data storage bank makes it easy for malware to spread throughout the system. This would, in turn, corrupt the company’s files as well as infect customer personal computers, and this would in turn cost the company’s reputation hence future growth. 7.0 Conclusion In summation, the report has gathered that IoT has attracted significant attention in the two decades. The advancement in the sensor hardware and software technology, as well as cheap material, has made it possible for objects around people to be connected with limited human interference. It is without a doubt that the introduction of IoT has improved the quality of people's lives as objects can now communicate with each other thus saving time and cost. Besides, the paper has also gathered that understanding the concept of sensor data remains one of the biggest challenges facing IoT. Organisations such as Inforgeeks need to invest more in the concept of sensor data. As it has been pointed out in this report, context-aware personalization solution is a significant field in the IoT that if implemented, it would reduce firm’s expenditures and increase productivity and efficient processes. The paper has managed to address the various areas that IoT can be applied in the today’s world. The report also proposed two new IoT applications that Inforgreeks needs to develop in order to it in its daily operations. These applications are Context-Aware Personalization and PAYG cloud computing solutions. The paper has further made recommendations associated with the concept of IoT. 8.0 Recommendations The first recommendation that this report wishes to make is for the creation of policy framework as well as a master plan that will be significant in addressing the concept of “Internet of Things.” This sector is like to become a huge industry in the near future in its own right in various nations across the globe. Therefore, there is the need for countries wishing to take advantage of the benefits that come along with IoT to come up with funding for broadband as well as develop a master plan. Secondly, there needs to be an increased connectivity of the internet in all parts of Australia including the rural areas in order for the concept of IoT to be effectively adopted. The government needs to give consideration to sourcing any kind of additional spectrum that would be needed for the concept of IoT to be realised. Connectivity is thus influential in supporting the expansion of the Internet of Things. It is important to note that an efficient and effective spectrum management would thus be fundamental in ensuring efficient connectivity. The other point is that the Australian government should promote as well as support a pulsating ecosystem associated with the concept of IoT. This should include supporting of start-ups as well as funding for information technology education right from primary school to colleges. The government should also come up with policies that would help in facilitating innovation as well development thus eliminating policies that obstruct innovation. Further, the government should promote data centres as well as decentralising such centres in order for many people to experience the concept. Lastly, Inforgeeks should come up with ways in which they can protect customer’s data and privacy. The company can achieve this by developing strong antiviruses that are often updated as well as coming up with strict security measures that would help in curbing this menace. References Al-Fuqaha, A., Guizani, M., Mohammadi, M., Aledhari, M., & Ayyash, M. (2015). Internet of things: A survey on enabling technologies, protocols, and applications. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 17(4), 2347-2376. Dahlinger, A. (2015). Car as a Sensor. 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