The prediction is that by 2015, over 25 billion things will be connected and talking to each other. (So better be nice to the fridge or it might tell the washing machine how many cupcakes you’ve been eating.)
San Francisco-based Splunk has 7,000 customers that use its software to get a handle on machine-generated big data from websites, apps, servers, network sensors, and mobile devices. The company is now seeing interest in the Internet of Things from government and commercial customers. Market reports say the market value will be at $14.4 trillion by 2022, driven by consumers wanting to monitor everything from their health to home security, and the fact there are over one billion vehicles globally, three billion utility meters, and 100 billion processors shipped.
Interest from the commercial real estate industry has been on the rise, says Splunk solution expert Brian Gilmore. A Japanese company used Splunk to look at elevator foot traffic at its 40 skyscrapers for insight into lease renewals. McKenney’s, an Atlanta Splunk partner and reseller that does facility construction, operation, and maintenance, was hired by Chevron Energy Solutions to improve energy efficiency at Eglin Air Force base in (hot and humid) Florida. The company created a mini Internet of Things for over 800 facilities and over 1,000 meters. Energy use is monitored on a dashboard and systems are adjusted based on real-time power usage.
Splunk public sector senior director Mark Seward says IoT has potential use with the Army’s TALOS, an exoskeleton warfighter suit that could be in use by 2015. The battery-powered suit has a bullet-proof surface, hydraulics, and sensors to monitor suit performance, the physical condition of the solider wearing it, including hydration and heartbeat, and potentially RFID tags to monitor its whereabouts. Mark says all the info coming from the suit will need a real-time monitoring dashboard. Right now the suit is still being designed for performance and comfort so data collection hasn’t been tackled yet. (As they say, Versace before violence.)
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