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Tapping M2M: The Internet of Things

Topic: Tapping M2M: The Internet of Things

M2M and the Internet of Things: A guide

Summary: The Internet of Things will consist primarily of machines talking to one another, with computer-connected humans observing, analysing and acting upon the resulting 'big data' explosion. Here's how the next internet revolution is shaping up.

Charles McLellan

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Conclusion
The Internet of Things, powered by Machine-to-Machine communication, is already with us, but remains a massive opportunity. Properly implemented, it can retool large parts of the world for better efficiency, security and environmental responsibility — and of course it can generate potentially huge amounts of business for the IT companies that will build and run the systems involved.

Many technology sectors stand to benefit from this new world order, including mobile network operators and fixed broadband providers, system integrators, cloud service providers, mobile app developers, sensor and wireless infrastructure vendors, and purveyors of Big Data infrastructure and analytics.

In an ideal world, M2M equipment will interoperate smoothly, service providers will compete on a level open-standards playing field without attempting to lock customers into their ecosystems, and the Internet of Things will develop with the same explosive inventiveness as did the original internet. The remaining articles in this series will explore how likely that is to happen, and present some examples of M2M in action.

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Topics: Tapping M2M: The Internet of Things, Cloud, Emerging Tech, Networking

About

Charles has been in tech publishing since the late 1980s, starting with Reed's Practical Computing, then moving to Ziff-Davis to help launch the UK version of PC Magazine in 1992. ZDNet came looking for a Reviews Editor in 2000, and he's been here ever since.

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6 comments
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  • Excellent article

    A clear, comprehensive and prescient piece on M2M. Nicely done. (Disclaimer: I have no financial interest, just an interested observer).
    Manek Dubash
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Informative Guide

    An easy to read concise overview of the M2M market and opportunities. Extremely beneficial for professionals who have interest in M2M.
    richvcrawford
    Reply 1 Vote

  • No such thing as an H2H internet.

    "A point worth stressing is that data transfer patterns in the M2M-driven Internet of Things will differ fundamentally from those in the classic 'human-to-human' (H2H) internet. "

    There's actually no such thing as an H2H internet.

    Protocols such as TCP/IP don't actually care about whether the ultimate destination connects to a human or not. They just transfer data from one point to another. They are completely agnostic as to whether it's upload/download biased, and they are completely agnostic as to whether there's a human on the other end or not.
    CobraA1
    Reply Vote

  • You Miss The Point

    H2H doesn't have anything to do with network protocols. It's an observation of network traffic patterns - completely protocol agnostic - and network topologies.
    Andrew_McGee
    Reply Vote

  • At the heart of it all.

    At the heart of all this M2M, or the internet of things, are "Embedded Systems" without which none of it is possible. Now tell me that RIM's acquisition of QNX, a world leader in embedded systems, and their development of the BB10 mobile platform wasn't a very forward looking move on their part. RIM has been positioning themselves to be a leader in M2M for years now.
    xenrobia
    Reply 1 Vote

  • Mess-up of terms?

    Don't you think that M2M and the IoT should be treated as seperate terms? An M2M-connection via Zigbee or other short-range communication protocols does not need any Internet-connection. It may be related to the concept of the Internet of Things. However, these terms should not be used synonymously.
    Dieter Uckelmann
    Reply Vote
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