A Paradigm Shift? The Swelling Intelligence of Personal Devices…

The colossal consumerisation of technology that is in progress once combined with emerging BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) policies at the workplace are about to enter the realm of what may be termed as being a Paradigm shift of sorts involving the balance of personalised automation. This forthcoming technological coming together of devices and users is becoming increasingly possible with the ground being prepared for the same, that is, courtesy, the interconnected nature of modern devices. It is worthwhile to know that Research firm Gartner is already estimating that by business year of 2020 over 30 billion connected devices will be in use, the world over.

“The Internet of Things will create greater economic value for all organisations, and for the global economy,” reportedly said in this regard, Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner and global head of Research.

This phenomenon of interconnected technologies, sobriqueted as the Internet of Things is also slowly giving way to the Internet of Everything; an emerging trend where every device, ranging from enterprise to domestic, is developing communications protocols across the internet platform. This continuous sensing and storage of real time data is making the internet of everything an exciting and highly profit centric opportunity as far as enterprises are concerned.

Almost invisible in its obvious presence, cell phones, environmental controls, automation systems in organsiations, followed by cloud schedulers, and even wearable consumer technologies such as viz, Google Glass and Samsung Gear, along with similar products, are 24/7 trackers of user behavior and preference, gathering data with extreme accuracy and relevance.

As a relevant slice of precision data collection, through sensors on personal devices, user environments, online behaviors and personal preferences is centralised on cloud platforms, enterprises find the demand of intuitive and cognizant intelligence from their technology a quintessential feature. Analysts and Pundits are estimating that at the current rates of analytic and prediction applications growth, smartphones will become more intelligent than users by 2017, that is.

“Mobile phones have been our trusted companions for years, channeling the natural need we have to communicate with others and express ourselves first with voice, then with the internet, and more recently through applications,” reportedly said, Carolina Milanesi, research vice president at Gartner. Adding further that, “Smartphones, their technology and operating systems have been radically changing other devices from PCs to televisions. The era of personal cloud is empowering users as well as devices to get access to and share more and more data. Over the next five years, the data that is available about us, our likes and dislikes, our environment and relationships will be used by our devices to grow their relevance and ultimately improve our life.”

As personal computing transitions to a cloud driven and data sourced platform as well, the seamless interaction of digital experiences between devices which follows thereafter will make the phenomenon itself invisible.

Moreover, as the number of connected devices intensifies and extends beyond the genre of smartphones and tablets, one can witness the new ecosystems emerge, which are in high demand to make productivity and workflow efficiencies a key priority among a host of firsts.

“The traditional IT market is not going to grow at a faster rate any time soon, if ever. Increased growth will come from the non-traditional IT market,” reportedly quipped, Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president at Gartner and global head of Research.  Volumnising further that, “While in 2015 the combined IT and telecom market will hit nearly $4 trillion, the incremental revenue generated by the Internet of Things’ suppliers is estimated to reach $309 billion per year by 2020.”

Most interconnected devices are no longer solely hardware dependent and all the time more driven by the different third-party or custom designed applications that can leverage the cloud data platform and provide custom-made value to enterprises. More than 50 percent of this applications development is estimated to exist by new start-ups and nearly 80 percent of the offerings will manifest themselves as being services oriented rather than remaining product based, that is, affirms a report by Gartner Research.

The junctures of this shift are happening in two major movements that are spread across many increments. The primary goal is to increase the automation of basic tasks that are generally more time consuming to users. These tasks comprise scheduled time-bound activities and events such as system updates, group task coordination, general email correspondence and last but not the least pay-roll management type activities.

The second stage to this shift comes in the form of deploying intelligent and intuitive actions in an automated manner that can impersonate a human user. By virtue of allowing apps and services to manage tasks beyond day-to-day functions, that is, the human element can be deployed for more strategic business outcomes – this shift would be considered as being the era of cognizant computing.

The intelligence brought to the table by these new services will not replace the intrinsic value of the human component but augment it through technological advancements in predictive analysis and contextual operations. The prevalence of cloud and data accessibility will make technology appear and act in intelligent ways allowing users to make better use of their precious time.

As the nuts and bolt of this revolution takes on a life of their own, its overarching impact on the way business conducts itself is unpredictable. For most enterprises engaged in process industries and automation oriented systems, the easy answers include enhanced precision as far as the sphere of operations is taken into account, along with higher productivity and predictive analysis that will enhance business intelligence.

But the remaining companies, who inevitably deal in consumer oriented products, this new and dynamic environment will only tolerate innovative thinking and design. Be it predictive analysts that enhance customer experience or retail applications producers that allow products to impeccably become a part of the customer’s lifestyle ; the advantages from the rise of intelligent devices for any enterprise are restrained only by the depths of their leadership, innovation and above all the element of – imagination.