As the post-pandemic network continues to move slowly forward, IoT technology will assist the emissions cut, and slow the destruction of our world’s climate change. However, we know 5G will be challenged in many areas — and we’ll likely still have issues with getting chips well into 2023.
P.T. Barnum was always on the cutting edge in his industry. He says, “Our clowns are not to be laughed at.” What in the world was Barnum talking about — not laugh at a clown — really? Was Barnum trying to pull the public’s leg, or did he know something we don’t — OR, is there a deeper meaning to his statement?
Some pundits in Silicon Valley maintain that P.T. Barnum was predicting the future rise of IoT (gotta love that theory). The theory is currently being debated in technology circles worldwide. As with everything in life — there’s always room for more conjecture.
A Network Overview
In a network overview, a five forecast states that edge and IoT will make supply chain partners more financially viable and sustainable. The satellite internet is growing up and maturing and has (maybe) evolved to the point where it can compete with 5G. The processor shortage hasn’t gotten much better and will likely remain. Smart capital investment will increase.
One of the lousiest forecasts is about a record-setting IoT botnet attack that is on the horizon. But seriously — is an IoT botnet attack something that needs a professional to predict? No, truly not hard to predict that — and more about this below.
We want the high-tech industries to leverage AI for exponential business growth and security — not for malware attacks.
Will Technology be Responsible for All of These Predictions?
Technology can carry out many things we want it to do — and many things we don’t want it to — but there is a lot of new technology.
However, Abhijit Sunil, is the author of several fantastic reports I’ve read. Sunil is a Forrester analyst who believes that most of the technology that emerges from these forecasts will be readily and realistically available. I like to follow Abhijit Sunil for his great insights into infrastructure and operations.
Scope Three Emissions
Edge computing and the Internet of Things (IoT) can work together to cut pollution. So it’s reasonable if you’ve never heard of scope three emissions. But you can kind of understand scope three emissions by seeing them in this way: Think of them as the carbon emissions and other pollution produced by a company — but the scope three emissions are the result of a company’s activities by assets it doesn’t manage — and sometimes doesn’t even own.
Consider third-party network freight, supply chain procedures, and other activities that take place between raw materials and completed items that are handled by a third party. No one wants to take responsibility for the issues that emissions from those sources cause. It’s no one taking responsibility because it’s such a deep subject with few direct ways to combat the problems involved.
Sunil, says that the demand for energy efficiency and resource management services enabled by edge and IoT will rise in 2022. Environmental monitoring, resource management, and supply chain activities will be among the technology’s most common applications. We’ve already begun to see the progress of Smart Cities — especially in China.
Where Are We Now for Fusion of Edge?
Companies like traditional smart-technology product vendors, IT and professional services providers, and platform vendors specializing in edge and IoT will bring products to market in 2022 that employ IoT and edge computing to help cut scope three emissions, according to Sunil and Forrester.
Sustainability Will Reign Supreme as a High Concern
Sustainability is a perfect illustration of upcoming technologies. Sustainable edge-powered AI engines can provide essential applications for all IoT and be essential for growth.
Great News for Rural Areas — 5G
Tech owners have promised increases of 5G for rural areas, and Forrester believes this will be a windfall and a benefit for all. In addition, wired connectivity providers and satellite internet firms like Starlink, etc., are moving into rural America.
Instead of using a competitor’s cellular services — several carriers that don’t own and operate their own cellular services have begun to explore satellite service as a backup. The satellite backup will be a dominant force in major cities — but will these services really spend resources to bring 5G to areas that may not cover expenses?
According to Forrester, 85 percent of satellite internet customers will be in rural areas. In addition, companies providing cellular with the revolutionary cellular technology mmWave may be able to supply rural areas as they embrace the wireless ecosystem that has frequency bands above 24GHz, giving them edge access.
But will a Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) for digital data transmission and connection to the Internet be enough? A former DSL network owned by the condo I vacationed in was a headache. The speeds were consistently around 5 Mbps to 25 Mbps, and it was too slow for me to work from that home and caused all kinds of connectivity issues.
When your business relies on fast Internet — the lack of it becomes a nightmare. These speeds are not up to par at all, but merely pass adequately — if you don’t really have to have internet speed. But how many people are in that category?
The service company said that it was a broadband high-speed internet service when I got that place — but, no, it wasn’t faster than most of the dial-up services I’ve had to use while out-of-town in other cities. The new remote worker needs reliable speed and connectivity.
The IoT Market Will be Slowed by the Chip Scarcity
Everyone is crying about long-term chip scarcity — and I keep ignoring the predictions hoping that by burying my head in the sand and hoping (with fingers crossed), the situation will resolve itself. But, then — I get suspicious and conspiracy theory thinking, “Oh yeah, let’s say “chip shortage,” and then charge more for the products.”
The “COVID years” have turned the world on its head, and the actual recovery is anyone’s guess. But the chip shortage situation leaves a lot of smart device makers and users in the dark and, with reason, concerned. I’m still going to cross my fingers and look for suppliers, but we will likely still have issues with chip shortages into the mid-to-end of 2023.
There is no question, IoT products employ more sophisticated sensors, microcontrollers, and communication technologies to function properly, putting the “chippers” in a distinct bargaining position.
Investment in Smart Infrastructure Networks will Rise.
According to Forrester, a tremendous boom in smart infrastructure is forecast for 2022. Investment is likely to climb by 40% — driven mainly by China, the European Union, and the United States.
Resource Management Network
According to Forrester, much of the money for resource management will go into easing pandemic stress and reopening facilities. In addition, we see an increased effort from the public health sector with more emphasis on our public health systems. The American public health system has been increasingly broken in the last few years, but hopefully, we will see a critical resource management increase to help the growing need.
Stakeholders use all data, data from edge service devices and IoT-enabled do-dads. Edge services help to modify traffic patterns and reduce congestion. In addition, multimedia data is evaluated to provide insight for security applications. How is that structure working for your company in this first quarter of 2022?
What About Combining Tech
We’re combining 5G, V2X, and edge technologies to enable autonomous vehicles in ports and airports. All the V2X (Vehicle-to-everything) communication is supposed to give us maximum traffic efficiency and road safety. But, again, my conspiracy-theory genes creep in before I can stop them and say, “Oh yeah, more ways for people to track us. Great, ways to get more traffic tickets in the mail, etc.”
What is an IoT Botnet?
So you likely know that an IoT botnet is:
A network of devices connected to the internet of things (IoT), typically routers, that have been infected by malware (specifically IoT botnet malware) and have fallen into the control of malicious actors.
So these are phishing attacks distributing malware via email — or Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks — causing the server to crash — and, of course, Spambots. The highest number of inquiries per second via the Internet was 22 million requests per second in 2021. Currently, we have approximately 30 million queries per second.
With these types of confirmed numbers — consider this last network forecast to be your 2022 cybersecurity wake-up call: PLEASE have your DDoS mitigation strategy and response strategies in place now — because we could all be in for a wild ride.
Image Credit: Brayden Law; Pexels; Thank you!
