From Complex to Critical: The Transformation of Machine to Machine Solutions

If you explained a machine to machine (M2M) or Internet of Things (IoT) application a few years ago, the technology, the concept and the strategy behind it could be summarized in one word: “complex.” Today, the IoT is viewed in a different light – it’s necessary, innovative and absolutely a part of the future of all industries, and development is becoming less complex.

Andy Geisse, CEO of AT&T (News - Alert) Business Solutions, explains how this trend has shifted from “too complicated” to being deployed in solutions across a variety of applications.

AT&T’s partnerships alone highlight this growth: Most recently, it partnered with IBM (News - Alert) to work on smart city solutions, and it also works with GE to help the development of the Industrial Internet – the other side of the Internet of Things that goes way beyond consumer devices and applications and is impacting industries like manufacturing, oil and gas, utilities and agriculture. AT&T and GE are both founding members of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), a new organization that aims to develop best practices, standards and test beds for the Industrial Internet.

The idea of complexity and complication couldn’t be further from developers’ goals today. There are entire companies dedicated to making IoT application and solution development as easy as possible. If there are complexities, their goal is to hide it for the users. While machine to machine solutions and applications still require some expertise when it comes to coding, development and execution, the focus is less on the complexity and more on the value and ease of use. 

Companies like AT&T work to provide solutions to help companies achieve their goals: to analyze performance, predict maintenance, prevent failure and remotely control assets. AT&T provides a single SIM solution that makes the coverage and connectivity part of M2M one less thing to worry about. This type of solution is what is also powering another growing, underlying trend in the IoT – partnerships and acquisitions. AT&T’s SIM solution is what made its partnerships with IBM and GE so strategic and perfect, just like IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative works well with AT&T’s SIM and GE’s Industrial Internet solutions require connectivity. Hardware vendors work with software developers who work with carriers who work with businesses to implement machine to machine solutions.