Briefly on networking and IoT research

The British are ambitious when it comes to the Internet of Things. In 2014, they invested 40 million pounds on IoT research and now comes the news that they are creating an umbrella program of activities and research in the field: IoTUK.

The program will bring together technology companies with business, the public sector and academia, creating a testing ground to explore IoT applications in healthcare and much more.

In Sweden, we have not seen investments like this. The IT sector in general, and the IoT industry in particular, can cope just fine without government investments, but to create research and bring together business and academia, it does not hurt to have some common networks and resources.

In late 2015, the Swedish Digitization Commission released its final report to the government. Although it mentions the Internet of Things, we don’t see a strategy for the transition. The report is content to give a status report:

For industrial companies, digitization involves major changes in the development of products and production systems. It is all about data-driven innovations and development of the Internet of Things through automation, sensors and artificial intelligence. This will have major impacts on robotization of work and the data transferred to computers in the future. Development has now reached a level of maturity that in the next decade will enable significant new tools, products and services in the marketplace. Automation of manufacturing processes allows for great flexibility, customization and profitability, with lower volumes.

This is a very reasonable description of the situation. We can only hope that the government draws the right conclusions from the Commission’s ideas.