Maybe you have one of the newer utility meters that automatically collect information on consumption and relay it back to the utility company. Or perhaps you've purchased a snack from a vending machine that's wired to automatically send back inventory and sales information.
The big thing here isn't the electric meter or the vending machine. It's actually the machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity that allows one machine or device (such as a utility meter) to communicate with another (the servers at the utility company) and the opportunities all that new Big Data information creates.
By the end of the decade we could see tens of billions of new Internet-connected devices. The majority of business data may end up being generated by these billions and billions of Internet-enabled devices of all types, sending back huge amounts of data to corporate servers or the cloud. The business opportunities opened up by this device-to-data center world, with billions of Internet-connected devices generating Big Data, are the next big thing.
The explosion in the number of Internet-connected devices (sometimes called the "Internet of Things") is actually a huge opportunity for businesses, ISVs, and others. But capturing that opportunity takes capabilities that stretch from individual devices out in the field to powerful business analytics tools back in the data center, mining all the Big Data collected by those devices.
That's why
To understand the power of this new device-to-datacenter world, let's take a closer look at some of the areas of opportunity and ways in which Oracle contributes:
Healthcare
Today’s healthcare market has two diverging business challenges. Because of increasing costs and regulatory requirements, more and more health care services are moving out of the hospital and into the home. While this change may be good for patients and insurance companies, it’s also creating an explosion of Internet-connected devices (such as meters for the on-going monitoring of diabetes) designed to track health care information. Yet, at the same time, there’s been an increasing focus on HIPAA requirements for privacy and security.
We have a situation that, on one side, is creating more and more healthcare data outside traditional hospital or healthcare settings. Yet on the other side, in order to meet regulatory requirements, organizations need to make sure all that data needs to be secure, protected, and private. The challenge for any company designing healthcare-related devices is how they create the software for their embedded devices that can be easily changed and revised over time, yet still fulfill regulatory and security requirements—all without extensive (and costly) modifications each time the software or hardware is updated. If companies have to rewrite their software each time a new device is taken to market, the costs will be untenable. That’s where embedded Java technology comes in. Not only does embedded Java have built-in security to ensure patient privacy and data security, but it also provides the capability to remotely (and securely) update software on the fly to ensure the highest level of care.
Oil, Gas, and Mining
Another good example of huge growth potential for machine-to-machine technologies is in the oil, gas, and mining industries. New technologies have allowed companies to extract more resources from the ground than ever before, as evidenced by the rapid growth of the natural gas industry over the past few years. But a second trend that's driving oil, gas, mining, and other similar companies is that they're relying on technology more than ever before to help increase yields and maximize profits, including the use of Internet-connected devices to help optimize efficiency and operations. For example, some organizations are using new machine-to-machine devices that track exactly what's going into and coming out of each mine, reducing loss from theft or other sources. Oracle is helping to build the sensor fabric that enables organizations to track exactly what’s happening.
Transportation Industry
It’s no secret that the vast majority of our goods, from clothing to medicines, come from countries far away. As a result, organizations need better ways to track those shipments and the monitor the status of their products. Did the products stay within their expected temperature or humidity range? Was the container opened? Is the shipment meeting logistical or timeframe requirements?
Imagine if you could put a device into a shipment or shipping container that allows a company to not only to monitor that shipment during its journey, but to also track a variety of environmental measurements, such as temperature or humidity or even report if the shipping container had been opened. One of the challenges, of course, is how to get the application intelligence into such a device that will allow you to easily and efficiently design a range of such devices to monitor different situations, and adapt them over time. With our Java expertise, Oracle can help organizations effectively and efficiently solve those types of problems.
Mobile Financial Services
If you have a smartphone, you may be familiar with new virtual wallets that allow users to pay for transactions with a mobile phone. It's one example of how companies can enable consumers to engage in transactions even if they don't have a credit card or cash. And while the universe of consumers with smartphones is large, the universe of consumers with traditional feature-phones is even larger. That's why some companies are currently working to enable broader mobile transaction support for a range of devices. Oracle is well-positioned to help companies interested in leveraging this growing market, with its expertise in both embedded Java and data center systems.
Turning New Opportunities into Real Solutions
The real business play in the rapidly expanding world of Internet-connected devices isn't just the creation of the devices themselves (although that will be a substantial business opportunity) but also the backend data management, business intelligence, and systems that will help turn all the data from the devices into actionable business opportunities.
Insights from the real-time data flowing in from connected devices can help drive proactive business decisions and a wide range of new services and solutions. All that device-generated Big Data needs high-quality analytics and high-end processing power on the back end to optimize business opportunities. Oracle and its partners, with technologies that span from the device to the data center, are in the best position to make these types of solutions real. Not only can Oracle can help companies get to market faster with a better product, but we can help them deliver products that can be part of a bigger solution.
