Have no doubt about it: the Internet of Things will transform government, affecting public security, defense, environmental protection, transport, and health. If you’d like to be part of the community planning how to help government capitalize on the IoT, please join my new GovLoop community on the topic!
New IDC report says IoT has reached tipping point for government
As you may know, I’ve been critical of the Obama Administration in the past for ignoring the Internet of Things’ potential. Maybe this report will light a fire under them!
IDC has just released a major report, The Coming of Age of the Internet of Things in Government. Research Director Massimiliano Claps concludes that:
“The Internet of Things is reaching a tipping point that will make it a sustainable paradigm for practical applications. The public sector’s use of the IoT is still limited but emerging strongly in the transport, public security, and environmental sustainability domains …. IoT applications in the public sector can span a variety of domains: public security, defense, environmental protection, transport, and health. In each of these domains, connected objects can provide situational awareness that can help citizens and government personnel act and react at the operational level, monitor the status or behavior of people and assets to make management decisions, and support very fine-grained, sensor-driven analytics that help with planning decisions.”
Couldn’t agree more!
The report says that despite the IoT’s promise to revolutionize a wide range of governmental services, most of the applications to date have focused on environmental monitoring, transportation and security. “The limitations have to do as much with the early stages of the technology as with the management approach to using it.”
It cites some of the emerging m-medicine services that promise to both improve patient care and reduce costs such as around-the-clock mobile vital signs monitoring.
The Coming of Age of the Internet of Things in Government urges agencies to:
“…consider multiple management factors that will influence the ability to harness the benefits of IoT, including the volume, variety, velocity and value of data that are going to be generated, the massive scale of the infrastructure, the complexity of governance, the financial sustainability and the legal aspects.”
I hope this report will prove the impetus for a major new emphasis on governmental applications for the IoT!
