The Internet of Things (IoT) has gradually transformed the way daily tasks are completed. Take smart homing for instance. People can start their cooling devices remotely through their mobile phones. This earlier used to be possible via an SMS, but today the internet has made it easier. Apart from providing smarter solutions for homes and housing communities, IoT has also been used as a tool in business environments across various industries. However, with the amount of big data that is generated by IoT, a lot of strain is put on the internet infrastructure. This has made businesses and organizations look for an option that would reduce this load.
Enter cloud computing- an on-demand delivery of computing power, database storage, applications and IT resources. It enables organizations to consume a compute resource, like a virtual machine (VM) instead of building a computing infrastructure on premise.
Today, cloud computing has more or less penetrated mainstream IT and its infrastructure. Many tech biggies such as Amazon, Alibaba, Google and Oracle are building machine learning tools with the help of cloud technology to offer a wide range of solutions to businesses worldwide. This article aims to inform you of the role of cloud computing in IoT and why IoT and cloud computing are inseparable.
How IoT and cloud complement each other
Cloud computing, as well as IoT, work towards increasing the efficiency of everyday tasks and both have a complementary relationship. On one hand, IoT generates lots of data while on the other hand, cloud computing paves way for this data to travel. There are many cloud providers who take advantage of this to provide a pay-as-you-use model where customers pay for the specific resources used. Also, cloud hosting as a service adds value to IoT startups by providing economies of scale to reduce their overall cost structure.
In addition to this, cloud computing also enables better collaboration for developers, which is the order of the day in the IoT space. By facilitating developers to store as well as access data remotely, the cloud allows developers to implement projects without delay. Also, by storing data in the cloud, IoT companies can access a huge amount of Big Data. So, in a bid to lay down the relationship between IoT and cloud, here is a table that will let you know how they fit into each other like a glove.
Why is Cloud essential to the success of IoT?
Just like cloud computing is built on the tenets of speed and scale, IoT applications are built on the principle of mobility and widespread networking. Hence, it is essential that both cloud and IoT form cloud-based IoT applications in a bid to make the most out of their combination. This alliance has led to the success of IoT. In addition to this, here are a few more pointers as to why the cloud is important from the point of view of IoT’s success.
Provides remote processing power
Cloud as a technology empowers IoT to move beyond regular appliances such as air conditioners, refrigerators etc. This is because the cloud has such a vast storage that it takes away dependencies on on-premise infrastructure. With the rise of miniaturization and transition of 4G to higher internet speeds, the cloud will allow developers to offload fast computing processes.
Provides security and privacy
IoT’s role in harnessing mobility is immense. However, its prowess would be incomplete without security. Cloud has made IoT more secure with preventive, detective and corrective controls. It has enabled users with strong security measures by providing effective authentication and encryption protocols. In addition to this, managing and securing the identity of users has been possible for IoT products with the help of biometrics. All of this is possible because of cloud’s