With the start of the new year, there are many stories about what it will bring in terms of technology. M2M (machine-to-machine communications) seems to be a trending topic in the IT press when it comes to growth areas for 2013.
In his “Tech guestimates for the year ahead,” ZDNet Editor-in-Chief Larry Dignan stated:
“Machine-to-machine Internet connections become a key focus for tech vendors (but not necessarily customers). In 2012, tech vendors talked big data a lot. In 2011, the focus was all on cloud washing. In 2013, don’t be surprised if the machine-to-machine (M2M) bandwagon starts rolling. Like most trends the talk will be ahead of the actual implementations in production. But rest assured, M2M will get some real-world traction because it sits in the middle of both the big data and cloud trends.”
This idea of M2M sitting between big data and the cloud is related to the Nexus of Forces that Gartner was promoting at its CIO symposium in Orlando back in the fall. They add the influence of Social and Mobile technologies to the Cloud and big information components for “Nexus” which they feel will revamp corporate technology, vendors and employment.
These forces come together to create a user-driven ecosystem for computing:
“In the Nexus of Forces, information is the context for delivering enhanced social and mobile experiences. Mobile devices are a platform for effective social networking and new ways of work. Social links people to their work and each other in new and unexpected ways. Cloud enables delivery of information and functionality to users and systems.”
If you start taking the user of the ecosystem entirely with true M2M, you are getting into the Internet of Things concept that started in the RFID world. Machines can talk to other machines to do more than just automatically collect data — if you have the right approach, you can have confidence that they can collect data AND take actions based on what they see. In the networking world, this is Local Management.
Read more about Uplogix M2M solutions.
As 2013 plays out, see if you are hearing more about M2M and nifty applications, but keep in mind it’s more than industrial controls and mobile applications. In the case of Uplogix, we think M2M is about more than increasing convenience — it’s a solution for ensuring that the networks that drive the Internet of Things and business all are up and running.
