Mark Davison reports from Cisco Connect 2014, Sun City – The Internet of Everything (IoE) has fast become a reality in today’s world and those companies that are slow in realising this and embracing it are destined for failure.
This was the stark message from Maciej Kranz, vice-president of Cisco’s Corporate Technology Group, who says that IoE is fast becoming embedded in all aspects of our daily life, from traditional manufacturing assembly lines all the way down to connected vehicles and even domestic appliances.
“IoE is not just a vision,” Kranz says. “It is here now and, at present, we have more than 10 000 customers who have implemented it.”
Kranz points to the evolution of the commercial Internet, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, to drive home his point.
“In the early 1990s there were 1-million PCs,” he explains. “By 2010, there were 12-billion devices. And our prediction is that by the year 2020 there will be 50-billion connected devices.
“This will generate $19-trillion in revenue,” he adds. “And it’s all being generated by the Internet of Everything.”
As part of his keynote, Kranz highlighted the example of the connected car – currently enjoying more publicity than most other IoE developments – and the challenges it could help solve.
“Between 11% and 13% of people’s time is wasted in urban congestion,” he says. “That equates to about 90-billion hours or, more importantly, 2% of the world’s GDP. Between 10% and 17% of the fuel we consume in our vehicles is wasted sitting at traffic lights when there is no opposing traffic flow. And 80% of all accidents that occur are due to driver distraction.”
These are all problems, he adds, that could be solved relatively simply by the connected car and IoE.
And it is for this reason, among others, that Cisco is committing itself as a driving force behind the adoption of IoE.
“What are we doing at Cisco?” Kranz continues. “Simply, we are driving vertical solutions based on horizontal platforms. We are aligning the industry and working hard to get the industry to work together on issues such as the development of standards.
“We also have an IoE Investment Fund of $1-billion through which we are building products, solutions and services for tough, vertical problems and in diverse areas ranging from open pit mines to the middle of the world’s oceans. And we’re committed to investing a further $1-billion into this fund over the next three years.
“Finally, we have also been forming partnerships that are focused on various industries,” he says, “ because that is the diverse nature of IoE.
“If I have one message it is this: IoE is here and it is today,” Kranz says. “IoE will define the winners and losers in the future. The winners will join us and embrace working together with us and others because no one company can do
it on their own. The losers are those that continue to cling to proprietary systems – a lot of companies in this industry still do – and we would urge them to embrace open systems and work with us.
“Rather than being a large fish in a small pond, be a smaller fish in a much larger pond,” he says.
