INDUSTRY FOCUS
Always Something New
- By Ralph C. Jensen
- Jun 01, 2016
As technology in every industry grows
by leaps and bounds, there will always
be something new to talk
about. However, the Internet of
Things seems to cross all boundaries,
and within an industry IoT becomes
the building automation tool
to make it all work.
IoT is becoming an increasingly growing topic of
conversation both in the workplace and outside of it.
In fact, the residential consumer may be benefitting
more from this technology than big business right
now. Big in terms that analyst firm Gartner predicts
that global spending on security for devices that fall
under IoT will reach $348 million this year. This is a
nearly 24 percent increase from 2015 ($281.5 million).
Obviously, the world of IoT has seen a significant
move forward in the recent years. By analyzing last
year’s growth and predicting the growth of IoT security
spending in 2016, Gartner was able to predict that
the worldwide spending in 2017 will reach $434 million,
and 2018 will see an IoT spending of $547 million.
According to Gartner, the market for IoT security
products is dependent on IoT adoption by both the
consumer and the industry. This concept has the potential
to impact how we live and work, and perhaps,
has the power to bring both together at some point.
Paul Dawes is the executive vice president and general
manager of Icontrol, based in the Silicon Valley,
Calif. He says IoT plays a major role in the future
of the security industry. As security systems become
“connected,” meaning they send information to the
cloud and enable remote connectivity from the end
user via mobile apps or the web, they are becoming
part of an entire connected ecosystem of other devices
playing different roles in the home.
“When all of those devices interoperate and they
communicate with each other, they all become smarter
and provide more benefits to the end user,” Dawes
said. “For example, let’s say I have a connected door
lock, lighting control system and learning thermostat
in my home along with my security system, and
they are all part of an integrated smart home system.
Imagine the convenience of driving within a block
of my home where my lights automatically turn on,
thermostat adjusts to my desired temperature, garage
door unlocks and my security system disarms.”
This is the role IoT plays in the security industry,
and it’s just the beginning of a new set of features that
will eventually become transparent to consumers and
part of their everyday lives. The more things that become
connected, the more secure, efficient and convenient
peoples’ homes (and lives) will be.
The new rule of the future will be, ‘Anything that
can be connected, will be connected.’ Here is an interesting
IoT example: Let’s say you are on your way to
a meeting; your car has access to your calendar and
already knows the best route for you to take. What if
your office equipment knew when it was running low
on supplies, and automatically reordered more? For
coffee drinkers, when your alarm clock wakes you up
at 6 a.m., the technology of IoT will ping the coffee
maker and start brewing coffee for you.
From the Honeywell 2015 annual report, David
M. Cote, chairman and CEO, brought out the necessity
and adoption of IoT. Five years ago, Honeywell
began their journey to become a Capability Maturity
Model Integrated (CMMI) Level 5 across their entire
network of companies. Lever 5 was developed at
Carnegie Mellon University and is considered a best
practice model to create more robust software from
the beginning reliably.
“CMMI Level 5 is even more important as we enter
the cyber-physical era… the Internet of Things,” Cote
said. “Historically, it has been digital/digital and the
downside to a “bug” is not that big and easily fixed. If
your plant shuts down, your power goes out or your
plane doesn’t work (security systems included), that’s
a horse of a different color.”
The truth of the matter is: IoT is not just one thing.
Steve Van Till, president and CEO of Brivo, said IoT
is not one type of phenomenon and more than the cloud
is one application or even one class of applications.
“The term IoT is simply a convenient label for
grouping together all the different types of connected
devices that are emerging across many distinct
consumer and industrial market segments,” Van
Till said. “As in the definition quoted above, they
have some fundamental building block characteristics
in common—small, connected, data-rich, controllable,
and integrated into things—but that’s often where
the similarities end.”
Samsung’s Artik platform is joining with Thales to
introduce digital trust across connected devices, applications
and platforms. This is technology may help
security staff that reply on a smartphone to inspect
remote locations, for instance. The Samsung IoT platform
is supported by Thales’s cryptographic solutions
to provide cryptographic key generation, verification,
signing and key management.
The interoperability of all these devices ranges from
complex and sophisticated products such as home appliances,
mobile devices, TVs to lightweight and small
accessories such as lamps, thermometers, switches and
sensors. This is where the security industry hits the
ground running as far as sensors are involved.
“In the new world of connected everything, trust
and security are critical to the interaction of devices,
people and things,” said Peter Galvin, vice president
of strategy, Thales e-Security.
This article originally appeared in the June 2016 issue of Security Today.