What is IoT, concretely, for a business?
The Internet of Things means capturing data from many geographically dispersed connected objects to build a collective understanding of what's happening in the field — patterns, behaviors, anomalies — rather than monitoring a single machine in isolation. This differs from Industrial IoT (IIoT), which focuses on a handful of devices inside one facility.
What's the difference between IoT and Industrial IoT (IIoT)?
IoT deals with a massive number of geographically dispersed objects sending homogeneous data at low frequency, aimed at building collective intelligence. IIoT deals with few devices, in one facility, sending diverse data at high frequency, aimed at improving manufacturing efficiency — which is why the two need different kinds of platforms.
What does the full lifecycle of a connected object actually cover, beyond "sending data"?
A connected object's lifecycle includes far more than data collection: firmware updates, device provisioning, identity and access management, regulatory compliance, and everything through to end-of-life. Many early IoT platforms were built as simple data pipelines — ingestion, storage, visualization — and ignored this operational reality, which is exactly why a lot of them struggled.
Is my project actually IoT, or could a simpler solution do the job?
Not every connected-object idea needs a full IoT deployment. The LPWAN market itself is described as a "blue ocean" rather than a battlefield — different technologies serve genuinely distinct use cases rather than one universal solution fitting everything. The right starting point is defining what data you actually need, how often, and from how many dispersed points; that alone often tells you whether IoT is the right tool.