Trends that’ll Redefine IoT in the Years to Come: Neel Juriasingani, CEO, Datacultr

Almost everybody is now aware that Internet of Things (IoT) is an ecosystem of connected devices, which are accessible through the Internet. IoT is slowly being deployed across various verticals and studies indicate that billions of devices will be connected to IoT in the coming years. With regards to the same, Mr Neel Juriasingani, CEO and Co-founder, Datacultr, goes in-depth about some of the IoT trends that the industry will witness in the years to come, and Datacultr’s future roadmap in the Indian market.

What are some of the trends in the industry when IoT is concerned?

This is the year of transformation in IoT with Gartner estimating that there will be nearly 20 billion devices connected to the IoT by 2020 and that IoT product and service suppliers will amount to a business of $300 billion in revenue. Following are the trends that will define the future of IoT.

Device ‘as a Service’

The possibility of connected ‘Things’ opens up multiple avenues for consumers as well as manufacturers, a big disruption however, is going to be in ‘Business Models’. Connected devices, appliances & equipment will allow unprecedented amounts of data to be analysed & evaluated to detect usage patterns, possible damage in advance and to avoid it proactively. This allows for a scenario where the device/equipment is not purchased, but is provided by third party companies, more likely the manufacturer, ‘as a Service’.

AI will combine with IoT

There is a lot of buzz around IoT and Artificial Intelligence. The Internet of Things is getting smarter. Companies are incorporating artificial intelligence—in particular, machine learning—into their IoT applications. The mingling of two dominating technologies will mean that the companies can take the billions of data points they have and boil them down to what’s really meaningful.

Edge Computing Will Take Prominence Over Cloud Computing

This will be one change to watch out for. For a long time now we have seen that IoT devices have relied on the cloud for storing their data. However, IoT developers and manufacturers are realising the usefulness of storing, computing and analyzing the data on the edge.

How can IoT solutions benefit the agriculture sector? What would your strategy be in the same?

While traditional ways of farming is quite popular in India, however, to withstand the changing environment we have seen a growing trend of precision farming. There is a need for farmers to connect with startups, and organizations, to scale their production and, subsequently, their income through agriculture technology.

Farmers are exposing themselves to precision agriculture which is a subcategory of agritech, through machines and equipment that use data analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics to optimize inputs and enhance yields. Farmers inherently know what to do with the crop, but technology helps them to extract already existing scattered data base in a structured format which might help them to take better decisions.

Hence, the applications of agriculture technology includes data-driven forecasting technologies to predict climate conditions, estimate and make adjustments for potential losses, water quantity management for irrigation, and even for crop insurance.

We are also working on an agritech solution on the top of our platform, IoT Edge Gateway. Precision farming requires censors and devices out in a particular farm land and they communicate back via a gateway. We are able to get data, for example, moisture data, soil quality data, weather data, from various sources. We put it together and visualize it for the farmer to help him take actions in varied situations; maybe, the devices themselves will be able to take some localized decisions to be able to respond almost instantly.

How is DataCultr is enabling enterprises with better decision making through IoT?

Data is the new oil, millions of small & large enterprises can’t even imagine how their processes could be converted into data and how this data could be used to improve efficiencies, productivity as well as translate into new revenue streams. Datacultr is simplifying the whole transition of an enterprise towards digital, essentially taking care of major hurdles to adoption that include need for upfront investment, Skill Gap, Lack of end to end solution, Data Security. At the same time allowing enterprises to visualise processes and machines, allowing them to check- blips, downtimes, signals, and respond to them in realtime.

What would your vision and growth plan be for a market like India?

Indian market is a price sensitive space and requires specific solutions that show quick impact on metrics. Unless solutions are moving the needle significantly, enterprises are not going to invest! First step essentially is to de-jargonize it, and provide solutions that are solving real challenges, the core could be IoT, but it’s the solution that matters. The plan therefore is to build an ecosystem that helps bring to life such solutions, some of the industries that we see as ready to be disrupted include Consumer & Trade Financing, Insurance, Consmer Durables & Manufacturing.

For example, a billion people are financially excluded from any kind of formal credit, technology or an alternate credit scoring mechanisms, but an ecosystem can bring about a significant change. Odyssey, built on top of the Datacultr-IoT platform, is doing exact that by bringing together key players in the ecosystem- Banks, NBFC, MFIs; OEMs; Telcos & Logistics, binding them together through technology that allows seamless service to be provided to the unbanked, and at the same time reducing the risk that every player is taking to provide formal credit and other services to these under-privileged people.

Our growth plan includes building more solutions on top of Datacultr platform for specific verticals and we are focusing on Consumer & Trade financing. This would mean forging strategic alliances and strong meaningful linkages among the key components of the ecosystem.