Cloudy Journey: The Perfect Storm Intensifies — Internet of Things at RICON 2014 [feedly]

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The Perfect Storm Intensifies — Internet of Things at RICON 2014
// Basho

At RICON 2014 Mac Devine, VP and CTO, IBM Cloud Services Division, provided an entertaining and informational keynote delving into the details of the Internet of Things.

Devine begins by explaining that distributed systems are at the convergence of big data, cloud and the Internet of things (IoT). This is the "Perfect Storm" and has the ability to disrupt current big established industries and create new opportunities and new industries that didn't exist before.

There are all kinds of forces changing the market. Devine says, "We are carrying around more computing power in our pockets (waving mobile phone) than NASA had to put men on the moon. Companies can assemble solutions from other service providers and are putting more solutions together than ever before. Technology is moving at a faster and faster pace and the companies that can move quickly with cloud speed will win."

Devine tells us that data is the new currency of business. The challenge is no longer to connect the data sources within the enterprise, but to connect data sources from a myriad of places — both inside and outside the enterprise. Getting insight into the available data is what determines the success of an enterprise.

"There is a litmus test for a successful cloud-delivered service today. It needs to be easy enough to consume, while having a very simple-to-use API that is self-managing in terms of how it scales. If someone else can then build something that you never envisioned, without you having to train them on the platform, then that is a successful platform." This is how Devine views Riak, "Riak is very much that way."

Devine then moves on to tell us that IoT is at the top of the Gartner Hype Cycle. The potential growth of connected devices is huge and Devine tells us that if the data gives us greater insights to make better business decisions and the costs of collecting that data are reasonable we will see this data grow. The estimates are in the 10s of Billions.

Devine then introduces us to Internet of Things Reference Model. Which, like the OSI model, has 7 layers.

7 – Collaboration and Process
6 – Application
5 – Data Abstraction
4 – Data Accumulation
3 – Edge Computing
2 – Connectivity
1 – Physical Devices and Controllers

At each layer you need to be able to transpose, transform and append data. This requires an architectural model. Devine introduces the Softlayer Flow DataStream engine for streaming real-time analytics from the edge to the backend.

Devine explains that handling the Perfect Storm of data requires connectivity, security, scale and elasticity, data storage and retention, real-time and historical analytics, as well as extensibility and an eco-system. And he introduces the IOT foundational service made up of security services, data services, analytic services, and SDN services.

"Basho Riak will be part of the data services. As applications move to distributed systems, Riak's masterless architecture makes it a great fit for IoT. Riak's fault tolerance will be critical for IoT." Devine also goes into data locality and how important Riak's abilities to meet global availability requirements and to scale linearly and predictably are critical for IoT.

Devine closes with a look at the ecosystem and how IoT is changing businesses. One of the top initiatives of enterprise companies is to drive innovation using IoT. For example, automotive companies are looking to IoT for key differentiation." Healthcare and life sciences are looking to IoT for data decision-making that can change lives.