By Bill Schmarzo, EMC Global Services
The Internet of Things is creating a “connected” world, where devices are streaming performance and operational data to the world around them. However, just because one is “connected” does not mean one is “smart.” So what is required to transition from “connected” to “smart”? Let’s start with a definition of “smart”:
Creating a “smart” entity is an outcome of optimizing the decisions that support an entity’s business and operational objectives. For example, let’s think about what’s required to create a “smart” city.
What decisions does a city (e.g., city planner, city management, mayor) need to make around citizen quality of life, proactive business development, promoting tourism, top-quality schools and community safety in order to become smart? A “smart” city would look to create (optimized) decisions around the following areas of city operations:
- Roads
- Bike lanes
- Pedestrian lanes
- Traffic flow
- Parking
- Road maintenance
- Building permits
- Events management
- Pollution
- Sustainability
- Malls
- Office Parks
- Crime
- Parks
- Schools
Becoming “smart” can provide an over-arching strategy for your data and analytics efforts by creating a vision and a roadmap for where and how organizations can leverage Big Data and the Internet of Things to power their business models. Understanding your organization’s key business initiatives and the supporting decisions is the starting point for that journey.
- You can learn more about how big data fits into crop production agriculture at the PrecisionAg Vision Conference from Bill Schmarzo at his presentation, “The Big Data MBA,” on Tuesday afternoon.
- On Wednesday, Ron Zink, Director, Mobile and Digital Applications at John Deere, will talk about The Internet of Things in his presentation featuring how the IoT is likely to shape agriculture.