Enterprise IoT

Chapter 2. Enterprise IoT

The title of this book is Enterprise IoT because we focus on a specific subset of enterprise solutions within the larger realm of the Internet of Things. It is not our intention to invent yet another category, as there are already enough in this area—including Cisco’s Internet of Everything, GE’s Industrial Internet, and the German Industry 4.0 initiative. However, for a book such as this, we believe that it is helpful to have a clearly defined scope and give it an explicit name. In this section, we will explain the origins of Enterprise IoT and provide a definition.

From M2M Toward the IoT

The idea of connecting devices and applications is not new. Specialized telematics solutions have been around for a long time. Over the last decade, machine-to-machine (M2M) communication became widely established, a development driven by players such as telecommunications companies looking for new ways to leverage their existing mobile networks. So what is the difference between M2M and IoT? There is no black-and-white answer to this question, but Figure 2-1offers some general observations.

Figure 2-1. From M2M to IoT

The following excerpt from [MR13] summarizes what we feel to be the most important points:

Applications

M2M applications are about connecting devices and their associated applications—for instance, a smart meter and a smart metering application. IoT ...