Leveraging latest technologies to gain traction in the digitized world of Industry 4.0 is a must for companies across the globe. Organizations in growing, dynamic markets like the GCC are particularly looking at harnessing the true potential of two independent yet inseparable technologies: Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data. The landscape of IoT Big Data solutions is as vast as it is diverse, and companies need to chalk down their expected outcome from these technologies before making a much-needed investment in them.Leveraging latest technologies to gain traction in the digitized world of Industry 4.0 is a must for companies across the globe. Organizations in growing, dynamic markets like the GCC are particularly looking at harnessing the true potential of two independent yet inseparable technologies: Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data. The landscape of IoT Big Data solutions is as vast as it is diverse, and companies need to chalk down their expected outcome from these technologies before making a much-needed investment in them.

How Would the Internet of Things and Big Data Transform Your Business?

What transformation can companies experience? Well, think of data as a resource with unlimited possibilities and Big Data as the avenue to help you gain insights from the large chunk of data that you get access to through your physical systems being connected to software, cloud, and more (which is basically IoT). The world would be an oyster of possibilities for you with the options of targeted ads, informed decision-making, and analytical insights. This precisely is the transformative benefit of IoT and Big Data along with many other possibilities it offers for your business.

According to Finance Online, in the year 2022, the world will produce and consume 94 zettabytes.1This means that there would be several folds increase in the number of devices connected via internet of things. Thus, as an organization, your future lies in data management and analytics. By investing in best practices for analytical insight generation of data, you would be able to:

•Predict the best upcoming trends in the market and make business decisions accordingly
•Strategize your marketing and advertising moves to reach target audience more precisely
•Make informed decisions for designing your upcoming service/ product or planning upgrades
•Optimize your data storage services to get rid of unnecessary or redundant information and decentralize for better actionable insights

Role of Cyber Security in Big Data and IoT

With each passing day, confidential and high-value information is being generated by companies in the GCC. And with Iot and Big Data, the volume of data that needs protection and high-security only increases. This means that there is a need for data security and protection with newer, advanced tools to prevent cyber threats and mitigate other cybersecurity-related issues.

With the combined power of Big Data and IoT, companies in the region can successfully employ multilayer security practices wherein easy-to-target endpoints such as smartphones or baby monitors are protected from hackers by following compliance guidelines (stronger passwords, end-to-end encryption, fortified cryptography, etc.).

Companies can benefit with the right data management strategies in place to ensure high level of protection in this connected world such as cloud security. With Big Data, companies can make use of analytical discernments and design more robust data security mechanisms that go beyond mere factory settings. As IoT has created a vast network of interlinked devices, it is essential for companies to employ streamlined data security management protocol for fortified protection of their sensitive information.

Future of the Internet of Things and Big Data for Companies

The Internet of Things is a growing technology trend that will continue into 2021 and beyond. It is the concept that internet-connected technology isn’t limited to only computers and mobile devices. So many different types of appliances, equipment, and devices already incorporate IoT, whether or not you realize it. By intentionally leveraging IoT into your business’s operations, you can benefit from what IoT can really accomplish. These are legitimate advanced technologies that will enable companies to grow their digital network and enhance their business via informed and preceptive decisions. The future will witness unprecedented scale of both number of devices being connected wirelessly and the amount of data being churned out every day. It will become highly imperative for companies to eliminate the clutter and gain access to meaningful, high-quality data to gain relevant and timely insights for better business decisions. Similarly, to be safe and secure in a highly connected virtual ecosystem, in the future,companies will need to increase the walls of data security and ensure uncompromised protection.

To sum it up, there is no denying that IoT Big Data solutions are the way forward for companies, especially in a emerging market that is expanding as fast as the GCC. No matter which industry you belong to, your working practices will need to be intertwined with the devices connected via IoT to leverage Big Data tools for making right use of the huge amount of data you generate. Required governance, security and analytical practices need to be put in place for these new technologies in your organization to help you strategize on how to start mining for gold in your Big Data that you can monetize to fund creative projects. The use cases for IoT and Big Data are numerous and vary from industry to industry. With the help of this technology, you can automate your warehouse, provide up to date information to your robots and machines on the factory floor, plan more pro-active maintenance and reduce factory floor down time and obtain information from remote and hard to get to sites in a timely manner. IoT and Big data will also enable companies to scale their operations without having to hire more people. Many manual activities can be eliminated, and efficiency and accuracy brought into operations. IoT and Big data are one more step in the Digital Transformation Journey whereby we modernize our IT (whether on-premise or in the Cloud or both) through automation by adopted advanced technologies and leveraging very large amounts of generated through edge devices (eyes and ears) placed at key data points within our organization.