HP’s internet of things launch highlights just how connected we will become

26 Feb 2015

HP has released a new internet of things (IoT) platform, with an energy management system to link you with your electricity provider, intuitively.

The growth in IoT, from both a device and cloud capability perspective, has sped up in the past year and will only continue in that vein for the foreseeable future.

Interconnecting our lives, things such as smartphones, cars, laptops, TVs, telephones, bank accounts, energy use, public transport cards and many more facets of our current existence will sync with each other, in a bid to ensure greater efficiency.

Truthfully, efficiency in that regard means speed and paperwork. The opportunities arise through such, but it is speed and a paperless world that will most come into play.

When played off against personal privacy, which is the modern era’s way of saying personal liberty, it is fairly clear which route we are heading. Connectivity, connectivity, connectivity.

Smart stuff

With that, HP’s IoT Platform is the company’s attempt to help sort out the deeply complex technology behind making your devices work together. It’s not as simple as adding blue tooth and letting them go at it.

Interestingly, though, HP’s energy management system will offer utility companies the opportunity, with your say so, to turn down your heating if it’s on while you are out of the house. They can work out if you are out of the house through IoT, quite easily.

An example HP gives is street lighting. Through interacting with city planners and the like, this could allow cities to remotely manage public lights based on profiles, emergency requests and weather conditions.

Metadata is key to this, and it’s something already out there waiting to be harnessed. As PCWorld notes, this “knowledge” is crucial.

Earlier this month, HP bought data encryption player Voltage Security for an undisclosed sum to bolster its efforts to secure cloud computing, big data and the internet of things and move away from physical security solutions.

There’s also a press for smarter cities, which in a way relates to the street lighting example given above. According to HP, it will address city services using electronic parking systems to relay Smart Connectivity to sensors centrally controlling parking capacity and electronically monitoring meters.

Connected city image via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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