The IoT has been the buzz word for a while now, making allowances for its potential and aptitude to bring a voluminous network of connected devices over the Internet into existence.
Tata Communications (News - Alert) has put IoT on the table with its Internet of Things Marketplace – a platform for IoT practitioners and enterprise customers to discover and explore new market opportunities, the company declared in a release on Wednesday at New Delhi, India.
The marketplace helps to essentially connect all the consumer durables, utility equipment, automobile, and office peripherals with internet to entitle their operation and control by making use of sensors and commands set up by their users from anywhere around the world.
Tata Communications has introduced its IoT marketplace in order to bring together IoT practitioners and enterprise customers on a single platform and allow customers to tailor IoT solutions to meet their requirements.
When start-ups and large corporations are focusing on creating IoT solutions, India Inc. has also made remarkable investments in building the backbone for an IoT ecosystem that Tata Communications had bet on about three years ago. At the time, Tata Communications, or the erstwhile VSNL (News - Alert), undertook the authority on building India's very first IoT network, with the aim of creating the world's largest such network that would reach over 400 million people.
“Our story actually started two to two-and-a-half years ago when we decided to take the plunge into IoT. We have built a dedicated IoT network, and right now, it is functional in 38 cities and across seven logistics corridors in India,” said V S Sridhar, SVP, Tata Communications.
IoT is not about plugging in a device, or about the network: it is all about the data and what you do with it. It focuses on how you can predict and analyze data, and patterns to act accordingly.
This is an illustration of where IoT can help workers. We can put it like this – if a person is sick, we can suggest that the patient rest and come back if they are still unwell, or we can treat the patient by connecting them to the hospital network. The doctor can analyze the data and diagnose the patient remotely. This is the kind of service that enterprises are enabled by IoT.
"There is a lack of standardization, interoperability, and connectivity in the available IoT technologies today. These factors, along with security concerns, tend to slow its adoption in the market. Our proposition in the IoT space gives us an opportunity to get a holistic view of the sector and bridge the current challenges faced in its adoption," said Alok Bardiya, Head of Internet of Things (Business Unit), Tata Communications, in a statement.
According to market research, the enterprise IoT market in India is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 35% through 2023, quadrupling the current market.
"One of the main problems faced in the adoption of IoT is that there are no universally agreed-upon standards. Another hurdle is that there are so many IoT standards being developed that it will be difficult for a single standard to gain widespread acceptance. Our IoT platform will look to integrate devices from multiple access technologies," Bardiya said.
Consumer products, like wearables and connected electronics, constitutes the major part of the market so far. But International Data Corporation (IDC (News - Alert)) estimates more than 80 percent of IoT spend through 2020 will be on B2B applications and use cases.
Tata Communications has an LPWAN-based IoT network. The company has so far made its network acquainted in 45 cities, with more cities planned for implementation over the next two years.
“By bringing together best-of-breed IoT players on one online B2B marketplace, we are breaking new ground in the journey to unlock the power of IoT in India,” said Alok Bardiya.