With the globe projected to realize about $19 trillion through the application of Internet of Everything (IoE), about $500 billion is expected to be available to Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya and other sub-Saharan African countries in another 10 years. This fact emerged at the just concluded Cisco Connect 2014, in Sun City, South Africa.
The conference, which had in attendance over 500 Information and Communications Technology (ICT) professionals from across the continent and abroad, focused on the trends and solutions around the Internet of Everything (IoE), under the theme ‘Tomorrow starts here’. Cisco defined the Internet of Everything as the networked connection of people, process, data and things. Presenting a Cisco study to journalists at the event, Cisco Vice President for Africa, David Meads said that $19 trillion in IoE value is at stake in the private ($14.4 trillion) and public ($4.6 trillion) sectors over the next decade across the globe, but about $500 billion is open for Nigeria, South Africa and other sub-Saharan African countries to realize. Meads noted that in an IoE environment, connecting all devices and things to the Internet was not enough, “We also need to connect people and use all these connections intelligently. “With only around one per cent of things connected so far, yet the potential to connect virtually everything, IoE presents massive potential value creation – not just for technology companies, but for all industry verticals, governments and citizens.”
Meads noted that from smart cities technologies to biodegradable sensors that could revolutionize agriculture, stressing that IoE is set to deliver efficiencies, cost savings, new operational models and unprecedented innovation. According to him, IoT is the way for business and economy should go, stressing that the system is bringing together people and processes to ensure relevance of things. Meads said only one percent of things are connected, by that by 2020 about 50 billion devices will be connected.
However, there are challenges in the way of achieving the IoE ideal in Africa. A key issue is that IoE depends on ubiquitous connectivity – something Africa has not achieved yet. Systems Engineering organization, Cisco Europe, Middle East, Africa and Russia (EMEAR), Ian Kennedy noted, “the Internet is still an elitist technology.” He pointed out that while Africa is now surrounded by fibre, with high-speed satellite access technologies on the horizon, multitudes of people were still not connected. However, Kennedy noted that the true measure of success would be the benefits delivered to humanity by converging people, process, data, and things, stressing that because IoE will evolve over the next 10 years, “it is important to explore both current and future examples. We also believe that IoE will impact individuals, businesses, and countries in different ways”, he added. To him, many technical barriers will need to be overcome as IoE pushes the boundaries of what is know is possible today with regard to network protocols, storage, and analytics. For example, Cisco said IPv6 must become a reality as the number of connections moves from billions to trillions. Other challenges include finding energy sources for powering the huge number of miniature (even microscopic) devices.
To overcome these challenges, Cisco said government organizations, standards bodies, businesses, and even citizens will need to come together with a spirit of cooperation.
