Use Cases for Real-Time Analytics in IoT

The technology known as the Internet of Things, or IoT, expands the pool of sources from which data can be gathered and utilized. But there’s more to IoT than lots and lots of data. It also quickens the pace at which this information can be interpreted and evaluated to help direct operations and strategic choices.

These real-time insights can be used across many different industries and use cases but only benefit your organization when it has the right infrastructure in place to reliably process, store, manage, and retrieve this data. The following is an overview of IoT’s role in supporting real-time analytics and how this information can create new value for your business.

Quick Recap: What Is Real-Time Analytics?

Real-time data refers to any information that’s available to use immediately after it’s been collected. With real-time analytics, insights from data collected are nearly instantly available.

Your company can make better decisions based on the most recent data available. Real-time analytics can notify you as soon as new patterns, trends, or occurrences emerge.

Why It’s a Key Factor for IoT

Since IoT devices can share data across an internet connection, they enable continuous data feedback that other sensors, meters, and traditional data collection tools can’t provide. One of the most powerful features your IoT infrastructure can unlock is real-time analytics, which is made possible by IoT’s ability to pull the latest data from numerous sources simultaneously.

Read on to learn about the many ways real-time analytics can be used across your organization.

Surveillance

From on-premises security to crowd management, real-time analytics complements your existing surveillance operations. The most common surveillance applications of IoT-based analytics include the following:

Real-Time Response Center

Private security, law enforcement, and first responders all benefit from a centralized real-time response center since it improves their ability to consistently watch assigned areas.

When situations of concern develop, a real-time response center can help coordinate a comprehensive response, including the deployment of security personnel, traffic management strategies, and public service notices.

Anomaly Detection

Video cameras can be connected to a computer vision system that automatically monitors the live feed from each surveillance camera in search of abnormal behaviors and anomalous events. This intelligent technology uses IoT cameras to detect possible issues that might go unnoticed by human observers.

Emergency Response

While video cameras and other IoT surveillance devices can identify the need for emergency responders, additional IoT devices—such as traffic sensors—can identify the most efficient path for those responders to take.

Security Verticals

Many businesses view cybersecurity challenges as an equal, if not more urgent risk compared to physical security concerns. Here’s how IoT devices and real-time analytics can improve security for your organization’s digital infrastructure:

Intrusion Detection

Real-time monitoring and scanning of incoming data can improve your company’s ability to identify, mitigate, and even block intruders attempting to access your network.

The intrusion detection infrastructure can feature multiple layers— including modern storage drives equipped with built-in trespassing awareness features—to support real-time monitoring and analytics.

Threat Detection and Response

Unusual patterns and anomalous activity can be a clear sign of a network breach. From hardware to software solutions, real-time analytics can constantly monitor this data and raise an alarm if action is required.

This response can also be automated based on trigger actions initiated by signals from your analytics.

Network Traffic and Cybersecurity

Enhance your security posture across your network infrastructure. Real-time analytics from data centers and continuous monitoring of network traffic can improve your ability to identify and isolate threats to limit their access and potential damage. Even when your data infrastructure features complex, hybrid cloud environments, real-time analytics can keep a close eye on your network activity.

Other Real-Time IoT Analytics Use Cases

The potential uses for IoT-enabled real-time analytics are virtually endless, with new implementations being developed all the time.

Here are some of the broader ways IoT is supporting real-time analytics that deliver value for businesses:

Smart Infrastructure

From buildings to cities, IoT devices are gathering data across these large environments to achieve new efficiencies in how they operate. Real-time insights related to energy usage, utility management, transportation, and safety are just a handful of the ways IoT applications generate new real-time insights across smart cities and other smart infrastructures.

Manufacturing

Real-time data from IoT sensors can be used to identify equipment in need of maintenance. In many cases, this information can support predictive maintenance that addresses upcoming equipment needs prior to a mechanical failure.

Real-time analytics can also help manufacturing businesses optimize resource utilization to realize greater efficiencies and productivity.

Energy Efficiency

IoT sensors can monitor energy usage across your organization to identify new opportunities for efficient energy practices. Analytics can identify potential cost savings by shifting certain high-energy activities to off-peak hours or by pointing out high-usage equipment and processes that can be replaced to reduce energy usage.

Transportation

IoT traffic sensors help improve traffic management to alleviate congestion in cities. Sensors can also track public transportation activities to identify any special services or support that are needed.

Real-time traffic data can guide traffic management practices that recommend alternative routes and communicate important transportation information to drivers through roadway signage.

Supply Chain Optimization

Real-time analytics are often used by shipping fleets and other supply chain infrastructures to optimize flow and achieve more efficient operations. IoT data helps to track shipments, estimate delivery timelines, and identify segments of the supply chain that are underperforming or experiencing difficulties.

Agriculture

IoT devices can track a wide range of conditions affecting agricultural output, allowing real-time analytics to track irrigation, soil conditions, climate, and other data points. This allows farmers and agricultural businesses to optimize irrigation schedules, reduce waste, and increase crop yield.

Role of Physical Storage in IoT

IoT devices—and the real-time analytics resulting from this data—function optimally when supported by appropriate enterprise data storage technologies.

As IoT implementation increases so will the data storage needs of many organizations, requiring new infrastructure investments. Here’s how physical storage can impact the value of your IoT network:

Capacity

Using the highest storage device capacities for the application means better space and power utilization, longer workload cycles, and less administration. At scale, this can have a tremendous impact on managing growth and containing costs.

Historical Data Active Archiving

Real-time data isn’t the only kind of information that offers value to your organization. Historical data can be used to evaluate trends over time, compare current data outputs to past performance, and uncover other knowledge that isn’t captured by real-time information. However, historical data needs to be stored and kept active. Whether on-premises or at a remote data center, physical storage will help efficiently provide access to historical data that offers ongoing and deeper insights.

Scalability and Flexibility

Physical storage systems can be designed to provide highly scalable, flexible storage to serve your needs over time. Many modern enterprise drives are designed for seamless integration with similar hardware, giving you options for how you configure this storage—especially if you want it integrated with a public cloud environment.

Real-Time Data Processing

Since physical storage can offer short distances for data transfers, this approach is ideal for edge computing workloads that process and organize real-time data. The best real-time analytics depend on processing data as close to the point of creation as possible—and physical data storage offers local proximity to IoT devices that cloud storage sometimes can’t match.

Reliability and Availability

If internet outages occur, on-premises physical storage can often remain available for use. Local physical storage can provide hardware redundancy, built-in data protection, and software features. Additionally, local storage supports failover and backups, further improving reliability and data security, providing you with easy access to IoT data and the strategic insights such data offers.

From Real-Time Data to Action with Seagate

Convert real-time data into actionable insights with the right storage infrastructure. To maximize data processing speed, ensure high availability, and equip your organization with adequate storage for both real-time and historical data, your business should implement modern physical storage that’s designed for enterprise workloads.

Seagate offers a wide range of physical storage solutions to meet your unique IoT data storage needs. Our Exos® X, Exos E, and Exos Mozaic 3+™ hard drives provide the best value per terabyte to form a foundation dedicated to real-time and historical data processing.

Our data storage systems, including Exos CORVAULT™ data protected JBODs, Exos X hybrid storage arrays, Exos E expansion, and Exos AP integrated storage servers offer the flexibility your business may be seeking for its storage needs.

For efficient data production, collections, and transmission at the edge, Seagate Lyve™ Mobile solutions can be used as storage. Consolidating and preserving past data is made possible by Lyve Cloud S3 storage, which also gives you the option to dedicate physical storage space to real-time data processing, maximizing the return on your IoT investment.

Talk to an expert today to learn more about your IoT data storage options with Seagate.