IoT has several apps in industrial, commercial and consumer space: AppDynamics

BANGALORE, INDIA: With businesses relying more and more on technology, IoT adoption in business is undergoing changes. Here, Krishnakumar Gangaatharan, solution architect – Global Service Providers, AppDynamics, talks to CIOL about these changes, and more. Excerpts:

CIOL: With businesses relying more and more on technology, how do you see IoT adoption in business? How will incorporating IoT affect businesses?

Krishnakumar Gangaatharan: Internet of Things’ (IoT) adaptation to industrial applications is classified as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which forms a major portion of IoT for businesses.

This type of IoT focuses mainly on improving operational efficiency of companies. But, the aim of IoT is to reshape the way businesses operate. Businesses will have to rethink their models and offer more personalized solutions instead of focusing on products.

Chips incorporated into products will vastly increase the options for product delivery, customer satisfaction and retention. IIoT will increase companies’ capability to offer products as a service. For example, a tyre company has already begun offering tyres-as-a-service to logistics fleets.

With the introduction of IIoT, the company will be able to analyze tyres’ health on a real-time basis as well as estimate the terrain most frequently travelled, to deliver superior tyres tailor made for customers.

CIOL: What are the key challenges faced by IoT right now? How is AppDynamics addressing these issues?

KG: Key areas where IoT still faces issues are security, data management, adaptability and scalability. AppDynamics’ Application Intelligence solution debugs application software down to the line of code which has errors. This ensures that applications work seamlessly without any issues in data management.

With the latest AppDynamics’ Application Performance Management (APM) software developed for microservices, organizations can adopt flexible architecture, allowing for a great level of agility and adaptability. Application Intelligence also identifies bottlenecks in performance and scales up servers to prevent any downtime. IoT as a concept is still in its infancy. The consumerization of such a platform is highly dependent on how successfully companies can spot patterns, interpret data and automate tasks.

CIOL: Considering the large number of connected devices forecast, how is AppDynamics planning to handle this load in the future?

KG: AppDynamics consistently focuses on delivering high levels of performance. Being one of the first companies to offer Application Intelligence on both traditional and cloud platforms, AppDynamics provides their clients with a solution tailor made for their requirements. For example, the cloud based APM runs on very low bandwidth and can handle large loads as it isn’t data hungry.

As the demands of end consumers change, companies will develop a wide range of products, running on a host of different software architectures. This will stem a variety of needs for application intelligence solutions from these companies. Addressing these needs efficiently and effectively will remain the Appdynamics’ foremost objective.

CIOL: What are some of the business implications of failure in data transfer for an IoT network?

KG: In today’s digital world, data is the lifeline of every organization. A recent study by AppDynamics in collaboration with International Data Corp, IDC) revealed that application downtime costs Fortune 1000 businesses between $1.25 billion to $2.5 billion every year.

The findings also pointed that a critical application failure can cost a company $500,000 to $1 million per hour. If these are not business implications enough, there is also the qualitative factor of customer dissatisfaction. Fast and smooth running of services keep customers satisfied and happy, which should be every company’s goal.

CIOL: What is the future of IoT? What are the constraints that developers face while coding for IoT devices?

KG: IoT as a platform has several applications in the industrial, commercial and consumer space. In the industrial space, real-time understanding of customers’ propensity to buy will allow manufacturers to produce products with minimal marginal cost.

IoT can provide industries with that information by logging current information of products and analyzing behavioural patterns of customers. Several retail outlets have adopted IoT to simplify and augment their business processes. Waiters and kitchen staff in certain restaurants have started to use wearable tech to offer superior service to their customers. Logistics firms use NFC, RFID and modified versions of Google Glass-like technology to track and manage shipments efficiently and effectively.

But the consumer market, being so vast and full of diverse requirements, still remains in the early adoption stage. Wearable tech is still purchased as a novelty by a majority of consumers. Lack of internet infrastructure in most developing countries severely hampers the functionality of IoT. Consumer application of IoT is going to see rapid growth as consumers see more value in products.

Development of apps for IoT devices is also moving at a sluggish pace. IoT devices are compact with limited processing capability and hardware. Interfaces on these devices are small, making complex UIs impossible to navigate. Developers face the challenge of developing apps that are light, fast and consume low processing power and battery life.

The UI needs to be simplistic and intuitive to offer the user all the functionality he needs without affecting comfort. These challenges are being addressed by leading tech giants as well as the app developer community worldwide. They rely on APM tech to iron out the chinks in their ‘use case’ and application architecture. This will fuel the growth and development of smaller devices and lighter software, ensuring rapid adoption and high levels of performance by IoT devices