internet of things – CCNA training CCIE training

More automation, fewer jobs ahead

Posted on September 17, 2015 by Lindsay Posted in Tech Leave a comment

Internet of Things in 2025: The good and bad

Within 10 years, the U.S. will see the first robotic pharmacist. Driverless cars will equal 10% of all cars on the road, and the first implantable mobile phone will be available commercially.

These predictions, and many others, were included in a World Economic Forum report, released this month. The “Technological Tipping Points Survey” is based on responses from 800 IT executives and other experts.

A tipping point is the moment when specific technological shifts go mainstream. In 10 years, many technologies will be widely used that today are in pilot or are still new to the market.
INSIDER: 5 ways to prepare for Internet of Things security threats

The Internet of Things will have a major role. Over the next decade there will be one trillion sensors allowing all types of devices to connect to the Internet.

Worldwide, the report estimates, 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020. To put that figure in perspective, the report points out, the Milky Way — the earth’s galaxy — contains about 200 billion suns.

The ubiquitous deployment of sensors, via the Internet of Things, will deliver many benefits, including increases in efficiency and productivity, and improved quality of life. But its negative impacts include job losses, particularly for unskilled labor as well as more complexity and loss of control.

Robotics, too, will be a mixed bag. It will return some manufacturing back to the U.S., as offshore workers are replaced with onshore robots. But robotics — including the first robotic pharmacist — will result in job losses as well.

There’s concern that “we are facing a permanent reduction in the need for human labor,” said the report.

That may still be an outlier view. Efficiency and productivity gains have historically increased employment. But a shift may be underway.

“Science fiction has long imagined the future where people no longer have to work and could spend their time on more noble pursuits,” the report said. “Could it be that society is reaching that inflection point in history?”

That question doesn’t have a clear answer. The Industrial Revolution destroyed some jobs but created many more, the report points out. “It can be challenging to predict what kinds of jobs will be created, and almost impossible to measure them,” the report notes.

Other predictions included:
Driverless cars will make up one in 10 of the vehicles on the road, and this will improve safety, reduce stress, free up time and give older and disabled people more transportation options. But driverless vehicles may also result in job losses, particularly in the taxi and trucking industries.

One in 10 people will be wearing connected clothing in 10 years. Implantable technologies will also be more common, and may be as sophisticated as smartphones. These technologies may help people self-manage healthcare as well as lead to a decrease in missing children. Potential negatives include loss of privacy and surveillance issues.
The forecasters were bullish on vision technologies over the next decade. This is tech similar to Google glass that enhances, augments and provides “immersive reality.” Eye tracking technologies, as well, will be used as a mean of interaction.

Unlimited free storage that’s supported by advertising is expected by 2018.

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More education needed to realize the Internet of Everything

Posted on January 8, 2015 by Lindsay Posted in Tech Leave a comment

The Internet of Everything (IoE) is essentially about connections, bringing people, processes, data and things together in unprecedented ways. IoE delivers the right information to the right person (or machine) at the right time, and converts data into intelligence to make better decisions.

Organizations will use the connections made by IoE to transform our work and private lives, creating smarter products and services, more convenience for consumers and new forms of work-life integration. However, in order to capitalize on these connections, organizations will need well-trained staff. Cisco predicts that approximately 220,000 new engineers will be needed globally every year for the next 10 years to keep up with the technological surge of IoE. This is a gap that must be filled if the potential of IoE is to be realized.

Because the network will serve as the hub for the Internet of Everything, it will need to be more secure, agile, context-aware, automated, dynamic and programmable. CareerBuilder projects that five job roles in particular will be in high demand as a result: Cloud architect, cybersecurity analyst, data scientist, mobile application developer and network programmer.

All five roles are good career path choices, both for those still deciding on a major and for workers looking to make their next move. The online career community ITCareerFinder, for example, named mobile application developer as the No.1 “best computer job for the future.”

Here’s a closer look at the five hot categories:
* Cloud Architect. According to a November 2012 IDC report titled “Climate Change: Cloud’s Impact on IT Organizations and Staffing,” demand for cloud-related positions will grow by 26 percent annually through 2015, with as many as 7 million cloud-related jobs available worldwide. However, the report indicates that IT hiring managers were unable to fill 1.7 million cloud positions in 2012 because job seekers lacked the training and certification needed to work in a cloud-enabled world.

* Cybersecurity Analyst. Security will be of particular concern, as the attack surface will increase significantly due to IoE. All these connected devices will generate and exchange substantial volumes of data, as well. The role of the data analyst will therefore be crucial in terms of converting this data into usable information. Getting prepared for IoE will require the existing workforce to be re-skilled and the incoming workforce to be upskilled in order to understand IT networking to a greater degree.

As opposed to other network security roles that focus on “building the castle,” a cybersecurity analyst pays closest attention to “guarding the castle.” Working in a security operations center, the cybersecurity analyst monitors security equipment, recognizes attacks, and responds to security events.

The fact that retailers, banks, healthcare providers, and other organizations reported 167 data breaches in the state of California during 2013 underscores the need for greater security in the IoE era. The 2014 Cisco Annual Security Report predicts a shortage of more than a million security professionals across the globe during the next five years.

A few of the recent data breaches provides a prime example of the necessity for three key skills for the IoE era mentioned above: enterprise networking, cybersecurity and data analysis. In some cases, the weaknesses inherent in IoE enabled a security breach (imagine connected coffee pots, air conditioners, etc. being turned against a business).

The technology exists to connect everything, but unsecured connections can spell disaster. So, IoE requires people with the skills to deploy the infrastructure that connects things, data, people and processes, and build in security simultaneously.

IoE will require IT professionals who understand this connected infrastructure so deeply that they are able to proactively secure it from threats. Cybersecurity analysts will be needed to help determine where threats are coming from, particularly if any breach attempts are successful. These analysts will act as security guards for the network with their specialized skills and insights.

* Data Scientist. IoE is a major contributor to global IP data center traffic, which is already on the order of hundreds of exabytes per month. With all of that data swirling around, the role of the data scientist will be paramount. Data scientists search for patterns in data and analyze data trends, with an eye to learning about user behavior or improving user experience. They also look for potential storage failures or even security threats. As the third annual Cisco Connected World Technology Report indicates, “The data scientist combines creative imagination with IT skills to unlock the power of data.”

The third annual report, which was based on a survey of 1,800 IT professionals in 18 countries, reveals that in this IoE era—with its dramatic increase in new connections—the majority of respondents (73%) saw their big data strategy as needing to include data from digital sensors, meters, cars, video monitors, and smart devices. The survey also indicates that 40% were already using “data in motion,” that is, data in transit—from devices, sensors, video, and monitors—that a data scientist can work with in real time.

* Mobile Application Developer. According to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2013-2018, by the end of 2014, the number of mobile-connected devices will exceed the number of people on Earth, and by 2018 there will be nearly 1.4 mobile devices per capita. The ongoing proliferation of mobile devices will continue to make the job role of mobile application developer highly important to IoE.

* Network Programmer. In the IoE world, leveraging programmable networks facilitates a gathering of information that, in turn, enables automation in the configuration of the IT infrastructure. As a result, information can be intelligently applied to infrastructure configuration, allowing the needed scale in the number of devices that can be effectively managed. Programmability helps ensure the correct level of automation, easing the pressure on the IT infrastructure, streamlining the identification and resolution of data bottlenecks, and thereby increasing efficiency.

It is the combination of deep network engineering knowledge and the ability to utilize a programming language such as C, Java, or Python that puts the network programmer in high demand.
Educating to Fill the Gap

The networker’s view and responsibilities are expanding to include many new technologies as well as duties. There are many emerging roles in the future for IoE – business transformation specialists, cloud brokers, network programmers and data scientists. Cyber security becomes more pervasive and networking careers becomes more specialized.

Application developers who are implementing SDN technologies, as well as those at the business application layer, will need a tighter grasp of the new world they operate in. With the convergence of operational technologies and IT on the horizon, engineers will need to become trained in IT and networking. Companies will need to work with industries throughout the world to create the pathway for IT networking skills and talent development.

In addition, students must be prepared from the beginning to understand the network and its underlying connection to everything. It is incumbent on IT companies to work with universities, secondary schools, networking academies and learning partners to develop curricula to ensure that rising talent is well prepared to understand the functioning of the network and its relationship to IoE.

Network training needs to filter down to grade school in order for the next generation to be equipped with critical thinking, complex problem solving, data analysis, and communication and collaboration skills associated with IoE.
Chart of cloud education

As students move to a Bring Your Own Device, ubiquitous access model, their needs and preferences regarding where and when they get training are changing along with what they are learning. Students now prefer mobile, video-based, game-based learning that not only is an evolution of traditional delivery but also helps remove barriers to education. A 2013 survey of Cisco certified professionals revealed a strong preference for hands-on practice labs, simulations and video-based training. Rather than attending a class on each of these subjects, this core knowledge set will be available in real time on an as-needed basis.
Cloud education chart

Shifts in technology require us to consider not only how job roles are changing but also how learner preferences are changing and, therefore, how education is delivered. The good news is that the technology with connected devices and collaboration software can help make this happen, since the technology and infrastructure are there to move in this direction.

Harnessing the potential of IoE means a faster path to strategic insights and increased profitability; rapid delivery of differentiated IoE-enabled services and experiences; and security that helps enable IoE business because it’s integrated, open, continuous and pervasive. These create sustainable competitive advantage. In order to reach this goal, though, current and future employees must be properly trained. Organizations, educational institutions and industries must work together to instill the 21st-century skills needed to gather in the full harvest of IoE benefits that will improve all aspects of human life.

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10 things about (the Internet of) things

Posted on August 11, 2014 by Lindsay Posted in Tech Leave a comment

Floating things, flying things, finding things and fashion things are all part of the Internet of Things. Prepare for a hyper connected future.

We’ve all heard about the promise of the Internet of Things, where your alarm clock will start your coffee maker and your refridgerator will tell you when it is time to buy new milk. That future is coming — many think it will even be here by 2025.

But if you can’t wait that long for IoT, here are 10 things that are bringing the hyperconnected future to you today.

A better Google Glass
Belgium-based SmartPick may have done more to prove the potential of Google Glass for business use than Google by developing camera-equipped glasses for distribution management. (Video in Dutch.) The product, Smart Glasses, includes a camera and connects via WiFi.

The glasses work by recognizing a code hanging above a basket. This code is relayed to a sales order management system and the amount of product to pull is displayed in the eyeglasses. The company says the technology can reduce product distribution error rates by 60% and improve productivity by 25%. Dirk Matheussen, a former CIO and IT manager who founded the company, is working on an app to allow his system to work with Google Glass.

Small and solar
Tzukuri’s Bluetooth-enabled sunglasses, which can be located via your iPhone, will be welcomed by some. But they are also noteable for the diminuitive technology used and their energy independence.

The Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) chip inside these glasses is a mere 3mm wide, and there’s no USB charging plug. The sunglasses, which take only an hour to charge, are powered by a solar cell.

Tzukuri’s glasses illustrate how small and low-powered IoT devices can be. The company says it will track the exact proximity of the Tzukuri sunglasses up to 82 feet, depending on environment, and the iPhone app will “pinpoint the exact location” of your glasses. The glasses cost $349 and ship later this year.

Cheap wireless, finally?
The cost of wireless connectivity has become a barrier to IoT deployment. Today, IoT devices are dependent on either a local or cellular network connection, but local networks are limited in range and cellular networks are expensive.

But Sigfox, a French company now deploying in the U.S., uses a low-bandwidth network that at only 100bps gives it long range. Exclusively for machine-to-machine communications, it can’t be used for video, voice or blogging. Sigfox base stations can be miles apart, and the cost of using them will range from $1-$12 annually. That means people will eventually be able use connected devices on their person and in their homes and businesses inexpensively and independent of a home network.

Google’s Nest does a lot, could do more
Google’s Nest Protect smoke detector offers Wi-Fi access and has a Zigbee radio that can connect to a low-bandwidth mesh network. In addition to smoke, it also detects carbon monoxide, heat, temperature and humidity and keeps tabs on its own battery charge. When connected to Wi-Fi, users can monitor these things remotely. (Without Wi-Fi, Nest works as a smoke detector.)

Nest offers a variety of useful features, but there’s potential for more — should Google push the technology envelope. It could, for instance, include sensors to detect natural gas, mold, pollen and other problems that can aggravate health issues. Nest could also be set up so it doesn’t need Wi-Fi. And it has potential to serve as an inexpensive home monitoring system.

Help save the water
One reason agriculture interests will be big adopters of IoT technologies is better water management. One product, Valley Irrigation’s SoilPro 1200, reaches 48 inches into the ground and uses multiple sensors to track temperature, moisture levels and soil electrical conductivity, which provides data on how well the soil is using fertilizer.

The device uses solar panels and a battery for power, and has a cellular connection to transmit data to the vendor’s cloud service that a user can then access. With better info about soil moisture conditions, farmers can avoid wasting water, the company says.

A tracking technology for an intractable problem
In March, 2014, airlines lost or mishandled 3.68 bags for every 1,000 passengers. But baggage location technology won’t always mean an airport or airline employee running around fetching lost luggage. That’s why AT&T’s idea of activating a flashing light on a bag to help airport crews find it is interesting.

Bluetooth bag-tracking technologies that will locate a bag if it’s in range, and devices that use a combination of GPS and cellular networks, aready exist. But AT&T, as a major network carrier, may be able to deliver on its idea of integrating baggage location data with airline systems. Might that make it possible to avoid the supreme aggravation of standing in the lost baggage line after a delayed flight?

Does your clothing come with an API?
Wearable clothing still seems like a stretch, but not for OMsignal of Montreal. It says its clothing can track heart and breathing rates, breathing depth, activity intensity, steps and calories burned. Men’s shirts will be available this summer, women’s clothing by the end of year.

OMsignal’s garment sensors connect to a little black box that is water resistant. The system relies on Bluetooth, is good for 30 hours and recharges via USB. Open is good: An API and SDK are promised. A men’s bio-sensing compression shirt, one data module and one USB charging cable is priced at $199.

We really do like drones
Amazon certainly popularized the idea of drones as a flying delivery service, but drones will also play a broad role in IoT as flying sensors. They are already being adopted in agriculture, for example, to monitor crop health. The construction industry is using drones to inspect buildings, and they are being used in mapping.

One company, QuiQui, is even preparing to deliver pharmacy prescriptions in San Francisco, while another company, Matternet, is working with drones to deliver medicine and supplies to globally remote locations.

A 3D printer, off-the-shelf sensors and stir
A traditional method for checking water height after a flood involved manually marking water levels on a post from a rowboat. Samuel Cox had a better idea: Flood Beacon. He assembled a microprocessor, accelerometer, ultrasonic sensors, rechargeable battery, cellular GSM and GPS into a floating shell created on a 3D printer. The end result is a device that can measure water turbulence via the accelerometer, and water depth with the ultrasonic sensors.

The data, which is sent to Xively, an IoT-specific cloud firm, can be viewed on a mobile app. It took Cox about six weeks and less than $700 to produce a working prototype, something that would have cost more than $10,000 before 3D printing and the advent of do-it-yourself hardware development.

Smart roads, please
GPS revolutionized the trucking industry and has made driving more efficient for many. But more is possible. The U.S. Dept. of Transportation imagines a future where vehicles communicate with each to avoid crashes. It wants systems that “see vehicles that you can’t see,” and notify of you of road hazards beyond your range of vision.

Some day, sensor-rich systems will be able to tell you the speed and location of approaching vehicles, provide real-time data on travel times and parking costs and manage traffic flow with real-time info. Most importantly, the U.S. wants to reduce motor vehicles crashes, which are the leading cause of death for people between the ages of 4 to 34.

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Brace yourself, here comes the mobile appsplosion

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Lindsay Posted in Tech

Brace yourself, here comes the mobile appsplosion
Prediction: The tech industry’s aggressive push to give every feature its own app will drive a pandemic of app fatigue.

Smartphone and tablet apps are great. But now we’re facing a kind of app glut. Our smartphones are quickly becoming bloated with far more apps than anyone can manage.

Remember when Facebook had an app? You could post messages, upload and share pictures, message people, read stuff and poke your friends.

Now Facebook has many apps for doing similar things. In addition to the main Facebook app, Facebook offers Messenger, WhatsApp, Instagram, Paper, Camera and others.

None of these are necessary. All those features could be easily accommodated in the main Facebook app. But Facebook is embarking on a strategy of creating a maximum number of mobile apps to take up more space on a smartphone screen and, presumably, capture more user mindshare.

In what’s proving to be an unpopular move, Facebook is removing the chat feature from the main Facebook iOS and Android apps to force people to install a second app called Messenger. (The rollout of this policy across the globe will be gradual and take weeks.) I expect more forced adoption of apps that contain what used to be features inside the Facebook app.

Facebook isn’t the only company with a more-apps-is-better strategy.

Dropbox has since its launch been a simple-to-use cloud storage and sharing service accessible both via the Web and through iOS and Android apps. But this week, Dropbox fans were confronted with more Dropbox apps to download and install.

In addition to rolling out a new Dropbox for Business, the company also unveiled Project Harmony, which enables group editing and sharing of Microsoft Office apps stored on Dropbox, as well as Dropbox Carousel, a photo-sharing app.

Dropbox also announced an Android version of its Mailbox email app, which has been available on iOS for more than a year. The company expects to further the strategy in the future with still more apps.

These two sets of announcements this week are part of a larger trend where companies engage in a kind of arms race with competitors to see how many apps they can get everyone to use.

It may be a reaction to Google’s leadership in the mobile app arena, where that company makes most of the mobile ad revenue, and also gobbles up screen real estate. Just looking at my own Android phone, I see Google’s Gmail, Google+, Maps, Play Music, Play Movie, Play Books, Play News (yes, they all have their own apps), YouTube, Calendar, People, Drive, Keep. There are others I could download if I wanted to.

Meanwhile, objects in our lives that never had associated apps are getting them. The so-called Internet of Things and the home automation movement are mostly bringing apps onto our phones.

A company called Automatic plugs into your car’s data port to deliver details on the car’s functioning and performance via a smartphone app.

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Philips, Samsung and LG Electronics now sell smart lightbulbs. Now you need an app to turn on the light.

Google recently bought Nest, which makes smart thermostats and smart smoke detectors, both app-controllable.

A new world of smart washing machines and smart refrigerators and smart air conditioners from companies like Samsung and LG will usher in a new world of apps that control physical things in our homes.

Related to the Internet of Things, we’ll see apps to go with our wearable devices, including smartwatches and smart glasses.

It seems that every exciting new trend in computing these days involves more and more mobile apps.

Users are certainly spending a lot of time with apps. At least that’s what mobile analytics firm Flurry found when it measured usage patterns on 1.3 billion smartphones worldwide. According to Flurry, U.S. users on average spend about two hours and 42 minutes each day actively using their smartphones or tablets. Some 86% of the time that people spend using smartphones involves the use of apps, rather than surfing the mobile Web.

This abandonment of the mobile Web and the embrace of the mobile app is no surprise. Just about every major company or organization offering content on the Web eventually comes out with a mobile app for better presenting their information or services on a small touchscreen.

Each individual change that brings new apps for things that didn’t used to have apps makes perfect sense and represents an improvement in how things work and how users interact.

Inevitably, though, a kind of app fatigue will set in. At some point, there will be too many apps for the average user to deal with.

I already find myself using the Play Store to find apps I know I’ve already installed simply because it’s faster and easier than finding them on the phone. Every user is or will soon feel the strain of trying to cope. It takes longer and longer to hunt for the mobile app we’re looking for.

That’s why major companies are buying Android apps that help you deal with app overload. For example, Yahoo bought Aviate. More recently, Twitter bought Cover. Both these apps automatically find a user’s most frequently accessed apps and make them readily available on the home screen so they’re not lost in the haystack of apps on the phone.

Apps that automatically bring forward other apps are nice. But ultimately they’re not a solution to the coming app overload problem.

Call it the mobile appsplosion. It’s coming. And it’s not going to be pretty.