How Are the ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘Big Data’ Connected?

Two of the biggest technologies that has been discussed in recent years are the Internet of Things and Big Data. The Internet of Things is the world that exists between the devices that are online. These devices will grow in number over the coming decades until just about everything will have some kind of smart technology embedded in it. As for Big Data, it is the description of data that is larger, more varied and has to be transferred faster – the data of the future in other words.
These two technologies are going to be side by side with all of the information that the tens of billions of connected devices will be sending. We will need the infrastructure to be able to handle Big Data if we want to make the Internet of Things a success. Companies must attempt to handle data that is readily available in real time, affects many different people and can be used for change right away.
No one knows exactly how many of these “things” could be around us in the near future. Right now, sensors are so inexpensive and use so little power that it makes no sense not to put them into devices even if you don’t have the infrastructure set up yet to process that data – and some companies are doing exactly that. The estimates right now predict that by 2020 there will be 50 billion internet connected devices or more and there could be an even bigger increase just a few years down the road.
So, what do those projections mean for Big Data? Already, data is pretty big for most of the internet connections that we have. But what is going to happen when things begin to connect and a nerve network is formed across the world with every smart device connected to it, is that there will be a huge demand for instantaneous data – Big Data.
For the Internet of Things to be successful, there has to be an infrastructure in place that will allow this Big Data to be securely transferred over wireless internet. Standards must be in place for security, speed, reliability and other factors because with self-driving cars and clothing that calls 911 when you have a heart attack, your life might really depend upon the reliability of that data.