I’m attending the M2M Evolution Conference this week in balmy Miami. Today, I am wrapping up the conference as a panelist discussing SmartGrid technologies and how to make them “smarter.” On Wednesday, the opening day of the conference, I had the pleasure of participating on another panel focused on the use of remote health care systems to monitor patients, particularly older adults.
On the healthcare panel, I discussed how CradlePoint has helped Healthsense, a market leader in remote monitoring health solutions for older adults, meet the challenges of connecting their systems wirelessly. Remote monitoring, emergency response, and nurse call systems are among the solutions that Healthsense provides to senior living communities and caregivers. Each requires a steady, reliable and secure connection at all times.
There was some good discussion about the value proposition of M2M solutions in the healthcare space. That just happens to be this year’s theme for the conference (the “value proposition” phase of M2M). My key takeaway: M2M technology and remote patient monitoring not only improve the quality of a patients’ lives, but they can be used as a means of reducing our rising healthcare costs. In short, better patient diagnostics and better quality of life means fewer trips to the doctor.
The same can be said for my session today on SmartGrid technologies. CradlePoint is connecting Envision Charlotte Eco Kiosks (photo below), which use Duke Energy’s Smart Energy Now application to pull and read real-time energy data from uptown Charlotte. The application tracks homes and businesses to see how much energy they are using. The goal is to create awareness and change frivolous consumption behaviors with a 20% reduction of energy use by 2016. They are using a CradlePoint COR IBR600 in the kiosk.
In addition to the sessions that I’ve participated in, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with customers, speak with analysts, and sit in on some sessions as an observer. As such, here are my observations:
The Internet of Things
The "Internet of Things" is the lively discussion here. If you’re not familiar with the term, it applies to all the things (from alarm clocks to cows (yes, even cows)) that are connected to the Internet. In 2008, the number of things connected to the Internet, exceeded the number of people on the planet. Today it has grown well beyond that and it will only continue to grow. In other words, connectivity is king.
The WiFi is Hot
Actually, I should say wireless connectivity is king (or it’s about to be). I attended an interesting keynote by Perry Correll of Xirrus. According to Correll, it’s time to start planning for the future of WiFi. 38 percent of businesses have replaced their desktop and notebooks with tablets. And, by 2014, the industry expects there to be 11 billion WiFi hotspots.
With the device-to-person ratio exponentially increasing over the last few years (note the observation above), a “wireless tipping point” is not far off in the future. Wireless traffic will exceed wired traffic by 2015, while mobile Internet traffic is expected to grow a whopping 26 times from 2010 to 2015. This, in turn, is driving a pertinent need for wireless that is high-performance, scalable, and reliable.
Cloud. Cloud. Cloud.
While the sun is shining here in Miami, it’s the clouds that are the hot topic. According to Cisco’s “Global Cloud Index,” cloud computing is projected to grow 12-fold by 2015, and at least half of all workloads will be processed in the cloud within two years. Given my previous two observations, I think it’s fair to ask how many of those devices will access their workloads and cloud-based apps through a wireless connection? With the increasing adoption of cloud-based applications in the M2M world, the reliability of network connections is more important than ever.
As Enterprises look to implement wireless strategies to accommodate the growing trend of consumer devices in the work place, here are few things to consider.
- Reliability: Connectivity solutions need a back up connection (i.e. failover) to protect against Internet downtime. The Internet will go down. It’s not a matter of if, but when.
- Flexibility: Look for a solution that provides “pathway diversity” through wired and wireless connections. An example of this would be a router that can connect through an Ethernet cable, but switches to a 3G/4G mobile broadband connection when the Ethernet goes down.
- Speed: Accessing the cloud means high-performance is a necessity. This doesn’t just apply to the primary connection either. Many Enterprises have back up connections, but these are legacy infrastructure like POTS lines that are far too slow to provide the proper bandwidth for cloud apps. With the advent of 4G LTE, mobile broadband offers speeds well beyond a T-1 line, and approaching that of T-3 lines, at a fraction of the cost.
- Remote Management: For large deployments of routers, the centralized management of those devices can save time and money. Remote management software can help to upgrade firmware, monitor data usage, and configure connectivity settings reducing the need for onsite IT support. CradlePoint’s WiPipe Central Management Software is an example of this kind of application.
As wired and wireless network infrastructures converge, the M2M market has turned to CradlePoint to keep up with the growing need for reliable, high-bandwidth M2M networks. Because CradlePoint devices can be used as either wired or wireless solutions, they can be quickly integrated and deployed without the constraints typically associated with wired connectivity. Whether it’s a primary connection or a failover solution, CradlePoint specializes in maximizing the potential of the cloud for businesses worldwide.