Internet of Things for few years in a row has represented the most happening field for new gadgets and devices to flourish. Connected environment thanks to this burgeoning range of connected devices has already penetrated our life far and wide.

IoT devices from transforming our daily life continued to make our life on transport, professional workplaces and in retail markets better as well.

From delivering physicians real-time patient data to processing real-time health and fitness data on your Smartphone app to tracking the performance of your vehicle in real time, to automating manufacturing systems through connected equipment, Internet of Things has already transformed life and businesses in more ways than one.

Thanks to IoT organizations are achieving a higher level of efficiency, high productivity and optimum infrastructure for creative excellence. IoT in many industries and business niches is also facilitating to come up with new services, innovative digital products and breakthrough interfaces.

As far as the current scenario of IoT adoption is concerned, it experienced a really dramatic increase in recent times and as per the prediction of Gartner, there will be around 8.4 billion connected devices to be actively in use before the beginning of 2018.

Obviously, this huge growth has not been possible without the unfolding of some new trends in connected gadgets and the deployment of IoT.

Here below we have picked up top 5 IOT trends of 2018.

• IoT as a driving force in digital transformation of business: Most businesses who found IOT as an irreplaceable technology for their business operation and driving productivity as well as efficiency, now found that the adoption to IOT will bring a total digital transformation of their business processes instead if just adding a high tech component to their business process. Often after IOT adoption, the companies cannot conceive their business process without it. Obviously, Internet of Things as a whole will bring a plethora of advantages to a business process besides enhancing their digital capabilities.

• IOT market will be pushed ahead by the LP-WAN solutions: IOT gadgets offering a connected environment in workplaces or at home are designed to complement new networking technologies rather than being obstructions to them. The latest and innovative connectivity technologies like Low-Power Wide Area Networks (LP-WAN) are pushing forward the adoption of IoT in many industries. LP-WAN technologies which works much in the fashion of Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) offers the advantage of connecting lot of devices with unperturbed and glitch-free connectivity while maintaining the network cost to a minimum. With this low-cost and sophisticated local area network connectivity the adoption of IoT in industries and workplaces will experience a bigger push.

• IoT will take the centre stage in enterprise IT: The biggest change that IOT brought to any business is by transforming the enterprise IT functionary. These days, a vast majority of the businesses have already adopted IoT right in their core IT systems and process of digitalization. 2017 has been the year when many industries jumped on the bandwagon of IOT with their positive effort to transform the enterprise IT systems. The major focus area of most enterprises is to deliver the most efficient connectivity solution and a new range of connected gadgets for workplaces has only helped this plight.

• IoT security along with Blockchain bringing a fresh breath of confidence: The data security has been a continuous concern for many enterprises and businesses all over the globe. Obviously, the adoption of the connected gadget environment does not come without its security threats. But new data sharing and collaboration technologies like Blockchain which is simultaneously being adopted by many industries are providing a reliable answer to this concern. Blockchain which is basically a distributed ledger system allowing easy access to data while strictly not allowing any changes or tampering to registered data has offered the best security solution for industries trying to achieve smart automation with connected IOT gadgets and devices.

• IoT adoption and a plethora of visible benefits: Enterprises going through a steady IoT adoption are experiencing a whole array of benefits and these visible advantages are only propelling the growth of IOT across business environments. From working on a huge volume of customer data collected from different sources and processing those data for actionable insights to reducing enterprise IT cost to building efficiency in customer service and boosting productivity through automation, IoT devices and the connected environment is continuing to help businesses in more ways than one.

Author Name: Chetan Sheladiya

Director at Metizsoft Solutions, Chetan Sheladiya today stands at the top of a leading Mobile Application Development company, which further specializes in Internet of Things Application Development, eCommerce Solutions, mobile app development, amongst other areas. A tech-lover at heart, Chetan has had more than a decade worth of experience, dealing with hundreds of projects, and creating a bunch of unique IT solutions along the way. His other interest lies in sharing his ideas and opinions with people as passionate about technology, as he is.

You can find his thoughts expressed on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook.