Today, its possible that your wearable technology can relay your blood pressure to your phone and your city’s water pollution sensors are connected to a cloud. It looks and feels like we are living in the future when everything from a nuclear power plant to our watches are full of accelerometers, temperature sensors, magnetometers, proximity sensors, gyroscopes, image sensors, acoustic sensors, light sensors, pressure sensors, humidity sensors the list goes on.

This is what we now term as the Internet of Things with everything around us collecting and emitting data to make our lives easier. But what makes it work? And more importantly—what use is it for your business?
(Short answer—your database software)

The “meat” of IoT is in the software solutions and the creative applications.

Hard and Soft of IoT

Before delving into the details of the software and database framework of the IoT, it’s better to show the basics. The four main components of the Internet of Things are:

• Hardware — The devices that collect the data from the surrounding environment.
• Connection — The link (WiFi, mobile, satellite and any other network) between the hardware device and the cloud infrastructure for the data storage.
• Data Operations — After the data is collected and stored in the cloud database, it needs to be processed and analysed by the software algorithms (AI’s and Machine Learning gets prominent at this stage).
• User Interface — Without the accessible user interface all the collected data and whatever analysis comes from it would be useless. UI is essential for making the operations with data available to the end-user, and it needs to be comfortable and intuitive.

The “meat” of IoT is in the software solutions and the creative applications for the collected data. It can be everything in every aspect of our lives and businesses. It offers endless possibilities to use the newest technology in the most surprising ways. This software is scalable—e.g. smart meters and smart electricity grids can be used from apartment to city-level. We told earlier how AI and advanced databases help reduce maintenance costs with predictive algorithms, the same is possible for people with smartwatches that collect and store data about the gadget owner’s health and advice on scheduling the next doctor’s appointment. The data gathered from multiple healthcare applications are now collected and used to analyse different diseases and help with treatment and insurance.

It applies to any business at any stage—IoT can be used in supply chain management, health care, smart automobiles, transportation and parking management, pollution control, e-Government, education, quality assurance and many more. But it is not all sunny all the time with IoT, like with any new tech caution is necessary along with the understanding of the potential risks and responsibilities it would bring.

Safety first

With all the mentioned above, it is understandable how your smart watch knows your blood pressure. But how and where does it store this data? Who makes sure that it isn’t sold on? How do you guarantee that the smart city electrical grid won’t get hacked one day?

Experienced and skilled software developers at Tentacle Solutions work on bespoke software databases for IoT technologies to make sure that everything connects, everything works and nothing gets stolen. Relying on professionals is the only way to succeed in our increasingly connected world.