The Internet of Change

In a recent article, I stated that: “Business environmental change is accelerating, especially with the rapid and continual introduction of the Internet of Things (IoT) (or the Internet of Everything (IoE) as Cisco calls it). Firstly it is worth distinguishing between these two terms. Cisco would argue that the IoE has four pillars: 

• people (humans) 

• process (manages the way people, data, and things work together) 

• data (rich information)

and  

• things (inanimate objects and devices); which build on top of the IoT (one pillar: things).

"While all this is true, I wonder just how useful these two terms really are. To me they are confusing, and no matter how you break them down, they still give me the impression that they are referring to sensor devices that link ‘things’ together. For example, your smartwatch or smartphone linking via the internet to flights, taxis, trains, buses, etc. I would have thought a more informed or descriptive expression would be “Digital Transformation”.

 

This more accurately describes the growing phenomenon of the proliferation of digital devices and the merging of an organizations business strategy with its digital strategy. These are no longer separate, but one.