“Intel is not just the largest semiconductor companies in the world, but is also one of the largest technology investors globally”, said at CEE Digital Summit by Webit Marcin Hejka, VP & MD EEMEA, Intel Capital.
Looking back at how technology evolved to get to the point of IoT, we see that it all started in the 60s with mainframes. It then moved over to client-server architecture, went through web, cloud technology and got to the Internet of Things we are looking at now. The number of connected devices has also increased through the years, starting from several millions mainframes and reaching around 40 billion devices in the next few years.
One of the biggest adopters of IoT in the next years, is the energy sector. The number of points where energy is being created is growing significantly. Gathering the right data, processing it and giving it back can enable energy providers to become more and more efficient, eventually getting to a point where we have zero or even negative cost of electricity.
The other big area is, of course IT. The introduction of 4G, 5G is also related with millions of new devices and the topology of networks becomes more and more complicated, which can raise a lot of new problems. This can easily be solved with the introduction of self-organized networks, able to solve the problems themselves. We are also seeing devices that can operate up to 10 years without a charging. We are talking about sensors that can be embedded into roads and operate for a decade without charging.
The key component of the IoT is the server part, or the cloud. The sensors and devices are becoming cheaper and, as a result, more popular. All the sensors do is gather data constantly. One passenger plane can collect a terabyte of data for the duration of a single flight. However, there is not enough intelligence on the client side to process that. This leads to an immense growth in the cloud sector. Eventually, all the data is ending in the cloud, being processed by big data software. There are already systems which are specialized in analyzing huge databases of unstructured data and extracting intelligence. This intelligence can then be translated directly into useful actions by enterprises.
Going forward, IoT will lead us to having intelligence everywhere around us. The systems will be adjusted to us. We are going in the direction of driverless cars, and even beyond that. Actually in many places the limitations are not technological, but legal. For example, in many countries it is illegal to drive a driverless car on public roads. However, you can tell your car to get out of the garage and get in front of your door to make it easier for you to leave your house. Intel has been very active in this space. On top of investment the company is also supplying some devices and technologies that can be used in the sector. These technologies include the super small mother board that can enable the smallest of devices. The company has also introduced a computer platform the size of a button, that can be used in various devices. Intel also produces health trackers, smart watches. Intel has been investing in roughly 100 tech companies every year. Their areas of focus have been changing over time and now consists mainly of datacenter technologies and software, as well as internet, media and education technology.
If you’ve missed to hear Marcin Hejka at CEE Digital Summit by Webit this spring, please watch the video archive of the event in the official Webit YouTube Channel.