IoT connectivity is the network of interconnected devices and objects that collect, exchange, and transmit data through the internet. These connected devices are equipped with sensors, software, and other technologies, enabling them to communicate and interact with other devices and systems over the Internet.
IoT connectivity plays a crucial role in the efficient functioning of smart homes, smart cities, and various industry verticals, including healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation. ResearchandMarkets forecasts the IoT connectivity market to reach US$720.37 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 20.6% between 2023 and 2028.
With the continued deployment of IoT devices and sensors, bandwidth will become a major challenge for organisations. IDC estimates that total data generated by IoT will reach 175 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025, potentially straining networks that serve consumers, businesses and governments, and now machines.
Soracom launched three new services designed to help IoT deployments take advantage of the power and promise of generative AI (GenAI). The three services can work together or separately to analyse IoT device data on the fly or connect devices to the powerful AI/ML capabilities now available through leading hyperscale platforms.
Soracom Relay lets customers use any existing RTSP/RTP-compatible camera to acquire and securely transmit audio and video data to Soracom’s Harvest Files for storage or to a cloud destination, such as AWS S3 or Amazon Kinesis Video Streams, for computer vision and video analytics.
Soracom Query lets customers use SQL queries from BI tools or CLI to mine IoT device data with no need to set up their own servers or storage. This managed data warehouse capability with automatic data loading makes it easy to run complex analytical queries on large IoT datasets and feed the results to machine learning (ML) projects.
Soracom Harvest Data Intelligence enhances Soracom’s existing serverless data storage and visualization capability with the ability to apply GenAI to analyse time series data and identify trends, patterns, outliers, and abnormalities. It can also use the data provided to perform further analysis.
For example, a municipality can use Soracom Relay to monitor road traffic while Harvest Data Intelligence analyses the data stored and Soracom Query can guide decisions on the best times to schedule road repairs, or to predict how changes in traffic patterns will impact existing infrastructure.
Soracom has also established an IoT x GenAI Lab with Matsuo Institute, which conducts research and development projects in AI sharing the vision of Matsuo Lab, University of Tokyo. The IoT x GenAI Lab will explore the potential to gain new insights from diverse IoT data using Gen AI, develop new products, and provide professional services specialising in the area of Generative AI, including IoT and Large Language Models (LLMs).
