Praveen Kumar - Author of the popular blog, "The Technologist In You!"

Praveen Kumar -  Author of the popular blog, "The Technologist In You!"

• Co-Founder and President of Nanite Solutions a Mobile App Development company
• Rich experience in Mobile Strategy and Mobile Application Development
• Extensive experience in Enterprise Application Development and product development.
• Mentor and Driver on iOS, Android, Microsoft technologies, along with Cloud and Product Development

More...
- Startup Strategy, Startups Guidance, Entrepreneurship, Career guidance and Motivational Talks
- Enterprise Architecture & Governance, Feasiblity, SOA 
- Technology Decision Making at the Organization Level
- Roadmap and Direction for Technology Practice
- Early adoption (iOS Swift, Android, MVC, Knockout, WCF, HTML5, PHP etc)
- Cross culture - India, USA, China, Europe, Singapore
- Defining Standards & Best Practices
- Setting up offshore enterprise from training to delivery
- Entrepreneurial skills

Specialities: - Entrepreneurship, Mobile Strategy, Technology, Center of Excellence, Business Development

Links:
http://thetechnologistinyou.blogspot.in
http://www.nanitesol.com
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Nanite-Solutions/359697294178786
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=665254504&fref=ts
http://www.meteoragaming.com
http://www.sqweezy.com
http://praveenkumartechnology.com

Internet of things

Definition

Physical objects or "Things" as we call them, embedded with smart sensors with ability to be connected to the Internet becomes "Internet of Things" or IoT. The advantages of IoT is remote management of Physical Objects ("things") from anywhere.

Definitions and Jargons can get simply complex and the intention of this blog is to keep it simple and make you understand the concept rather than harp about geeky stuff. Below is a simple handy guide for understanding different scenarios related to Internet of Things. 

Switch on your AC from remote location before you reach home
Provide food to your pet while not being home	Detect movement in house and send notifications
Locate where your key, wallet, suit is (and more..)	Switch on blue lights in living room when your spouse reaches home
Alert me if my favorite parking spot is available
Water your plants while on a Vacation abroad	Heat up your car in winter before getting in
fd gdfg
Get your skill assessments done by Sports equipments you use	Get your shoes to count your steps or calories burnt

Article By

Praveen Kumar,

Co-Founder & President,

Nanite Solutions

praveenkumartechnology.com

internet of things defnition

 Internet of things definition                                               physical objects or "Things" as we call them, embedded with smart sensors with ability to be connected to the Internet becomes "Internet of Things" or IoT. The advantages of IoT is remote management of Physical Objects ("things") from anywhere.

Below is a mindmap that gives a high level overview of Internet of Things.

Article on Internet of Things submitted by:

Praveen Kumar
President & Co-Founder
Nanite Solutions
http://www.nanitesol.com

What is the Internet of Things? – Taking a Look at IoT!

What is the Internet of Things? – Taking a Look at IoT!

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a buzzword that many people are searching google for. This term is widely being queried on many popular search engines, in an attempt to know its significance in real life. Many people want to know whether it matters, whether it is safe and whether it even is not just another hype. Read on and know about IoT, and some frequently asked questions about it.

The Internet of Things (IoT) – What Does It Mean?

This is not a completely new concept. The idea has been in discussion for decades among tech gurus and tech companies. This is a simple concept at the core. It is mainly about connecting devices to each other over the web, and allowing them to communicate with each other. It was as far back as in 1989 that the first internet-connected toaster device was launched at a conference.

The smart fridge is a popular instance, albeit silly. Imagine the scenario that your fridge could inform you through a text message that milk has been finished, as its internal cameras found that there was no milk anymore or that the milk carton has passed the expiry date. Such a device could be actually useful.

However, IoT happens to go beyond smart homes and paired equipments of daily use. It can cover smart cities. Smart bins can indicate when they trash has to be taken out, while smart traffic signals connected to each other could monitor the use of utilities. In industries, sensors could be connected to track everything from crops to components.

What Makes It Important?

IoT is a better way to monitor and keep track of things, and preventing wastage. The Government is urging energy companies to provide customers with a smart-meter that would show them the data about how much energy is being used. This would help prevent wastage of energy. However, some smart devices focus more on impact instead of efficiency, which indicates why smart heating can be seen more than smart fridges, at least in the United Kingdom.

Is Internet of Things (IoT) Safe?

Just like there are negative points with everything, privacy and security happen to be the biggest issues related to IoT. All the internet-connected systems gather significant amount of personal information about individuals. For instance, the smart meter knows the time when someone is home and the electronics equipments that he or she uses. The information is shared between devices and stored in manufacturer company databases. Cyber criminals can hack these databases and use such information for actual intrusion into homes and facilities.

However, hackers have not concentrated that much on IoT, given that not many people are using them as of now. This makes the technology comparatively safe at this time. People using smart meter are not likely to face greater losses than what they can face when their PC is hacked. However, there is no surety. As IoT becomes more popular and more people start using the technology, and cyber criminals see the monetary benefits of hacking into smart homes, they can go all out in compromising the safety of the Internet of Things.

How Can IoT have an impact on work and business?

The extent of impact actually depends on the industry that you are in. IoT possibly has the greatest scope in manufacturing, as it is helpful for organizing people, equipments and machines as well as tracking them. Farmers are already opting for smart sensors that can monitor both cattle and crops, with the hope that it can increase efficiency and production as well as help them track the health of their cattle.

There are plenty of instances, and it can be predicted that IoT will possibly enter businesses in the same way as the internet and computers. The benefits of IoT can be appreciated when it comes to plants or equipments. However, it can have some dark undertones in the workplace if employers use it to spy on employees and track every minute of their work time, thus de-humanizing the corporate sphere. On the other hand, it can be a boon for productive workers who are often neglected in place of slackers and time-wasters.

IoT and its Impact on Healthcare

There are smart monitoring patches and pills available already, which emphasize the life-saving ability of IoT. Many people are also wearing fitness bands or smart watches on their wrists in an effort to track their heartbeat or steps while running.

There are plenty of uses for this smart technology, and connect medical equipments. There is a smart band from Intel, which can track the number of people actually shaking due to Parkinson’s disease. It can gather data more accurately than simple writing down of information can achieve. There are monitors from Sonamba, which can track daily activities of ailing or elderly individuals and look from potentially fatal abnormalities. Those suffering from cardiac ailments can make use of AliveCore for the detection of irregular cardiac rhythms.

In the domain of healthcare, IoT has the ability to save many people by preventing ailments, monitoring disorders and evaluating them to devise new cures.

The Internet Of Things – Is It For Real?

Is IoT for real - is possibly the most searched question about the technology on Google. Strangely, it is difficult to offer a straightforward answer for this question. There is a lot of hype and promotion for every new technology these days. It is often tough to decide whether a specific technology is going to break new grounds or not.

However, IoT is not a single device that might or might not meet with success. It is actually a technology of smart devices and connected sensors, which would go on even without any individual contribution. 10 years from now, the technology of connecting devices could have wider mainstream use or simply become another technology without any actual impactful use, such as smartphones - which are used just like normal mobile phones. Although IoT is for real, whether or not it will have significance in the wider scheme of things is a question that cannot be answered by any search engine.

Top 10 Trends in Mobile App Development for 2016

Top 10 Trends in Mobile App Development for 2016

With mobile phones becoming ubiquitous, it is natural that apps are being used and loved widely. Mobile application development is one of the most growing areas in the world today. Small and medium businesses are crazy after the new and upcoming trends in mobile app development. A thorough understanding of mobile apps is necessary for the marketing strategies of these businesses, which explains their obsession with them. The year 2016 is not over yet, and the coming months are going to witness the ushering in or refinement of the following trends.

1. More power to Enterprise Apps

With increasing sales and usage of mobile devices, there is a huge growth in the number of mobile apps to be found on different app stores today. However, enterprise apps are enjoying more popularity due to the various advantages, such as greater financial benefits, associated with them. Businesses are ready to pay bigger money for the best apps in their respective segments, to edge past their competitors. In addition, with the rise in demand for cross platform devices and cloud computing, cross-platform app development is anticipated to get more popularity in app development.

2. Surge in the use of IoT (Internet of Things) 

Already, Internet of Things (IoT) has become a big thing in mobile trends. It is being regarded as a huge revolution in digital technology. For instance, smart refrigerators, smart toasters and smart cars are becoming more and more popular in homes today. If Cloud has synchronized documents on varied platforms, IoT is set to connect devices across the globe with a wide variety of sensor-enabled devices, Virtual Private Networks and more.

3. Greater demand for Mobile App Security

According to a 2015 Gartner Report, over 75% of apps failed to satisfy the basic security measures. This means there will be higher need for mobile app security in 2016. The entire year kept developers very busy with handling different security issues. With the way app security is becoming increasingly important, it appears that it is set to be in more developmental stage in 2016 and in the coming years. The race has already begun. Google Android Marshmallow and the Apple iOS9 have already started improving on the security front. Security cannot be neglected if mobile apps have to become a resounding success. Nobody would like to have the security of his banking information or SSN details being hacked or stolen due to an app with poor security features.

4. Demand for Cloud-based apps,

2016 and beyond will see an overlap of mobile and cloud computing, which would make sure that apps would be delivered to a wide variety of devices. With mobile devices getting more and more usage and prominence, the Cloud has more importance. These days, it comes with many advantages – such as synchronizing apps or managing the bandwidth across various smart devices or maintaining the small size of mobile apps.

5. More importance of the Beacon Technology

Prior to the emergence of the Beacon Technology, there were huge differences in online and offline technology. iOS has completely taken up this technology, and it is anticipated to be embraced by Google Android in the coming days. Every industry is expected to gain from the utilization of this kind of technology – whether it comes to education, tourism, advertising, automotive or real estate.

6. Greater attention for Apple’s Swift

Swift, the programming language from Apple, is going to enjoy more attention in the development of mobile application. Apple is going all out in promoting Swift as a systems language and application language. It is also being billed as the programming language of the coming years. Swift is actually created on a sophisticated compiler infrastructure, which allows developers the chance to write code that is more dependable, straight from the beginning. Swift, ever since its release in September 2015, has become a component of the Xcode tools. Although it is not going to be a substitute for Objective C, it is significantly quicker. Presently, developers are familiarizing themselves with the language and its intricacies. You can expect it to be used in tVOS apps, WatchOS and even iOS apps.

7. Greater Personalization of Mobile Apps

According to employees, the ability to remotely access work data from a mobile device makes them capable of doing their jobs more easily. This information has been shared by the famous Cloud Consulting agency Bluewolf in one of its latest researches. Focusing on personalization over the saturation of mobile apps is expected to drive greater adoption of customer engagement and different tools in the domain.

8. More Steam for Hybrid HTML5

Native mobile apps will always be preferred by some developers. However, Hybrid HTML5 app development is expected to get more steam in the consumer and enterprise apps section. For most enterprise apps in 2016 and beyond, Hybrid HTML5 is expected to be the most preferred choice.

9. Popularity of Wearable gadgets

With Google Glass and Apple iWatch coming into the market, the craze for wearable devices has begun to grow higher. With watchOS2 getting a big launch in 2016, the test has become more challenging for WatchKit designers in the current year. There are apps being built for these wearable devices. Even before 2016 has ended, the total number of apps built for the Apple Watch has hit the 10,000 mark. The number is only set to grow in the coming years.

10. The growth of M-Commerce

According to experts, m-commerce will go on to be in fashion for the coming time. The more widespread the use of smart devices will be, the better will be the boost that m-commerce will receive. In the last two years, more and more people are being found to take up Apple Pay and Google Wallet to make purchases of products and pay for services. This is making m-commerce more popular. With the rise in popularity of payment without the need for an actual Visa or credit card, developers are getting the hint that more such apps can be created to let buyers make payment online without using credit or debit cards.

Trends in Cloud Computing for 2016 and Beyond

Trends in Cloud Computing for 2016 and Beyond

Before 2015 has ended, Cloud strategy had been adopted by 82% organizations. This is a huge growth, when compared to 74% from 2014. By 2017, Cloud computing is anticipated to touch the 250USD billion mark. It is strange to think that Cloud computing was dismissed by industry experts as just another technological fad, which comes with tons of hype but little practical worth. However, the Cloud technology has truly arrived today and has been acknowledged widely by companies as well as analysts as a driving force for the modern IT scene. It is changing the way upgrades are dealt with, software packages are deployed and data centers are created. But where is Cloud computing heading? Check out some of the newest trends to be seen in this domain in 2016.

Cloud Automation

In 2015, Cloud technology got its business-level automation - which was driven by the intricacy of creation and management of cloud infrastructure surpassing the capacity of management services and software to keep it in control. In the coming years, it is expected that Cloud will not include developers writing low-level codes to automate infrastructural components. Rather, it will include business-level automation. Companies will put in policies through which they wish to manage their business systems. Intelligent software would be used for the implementation of such policies for supporting enterprises.

Mobile-based Cloud Computing

With mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones becoming increasingly popular and having a significant effect on the world of business, mobile-based cloud computing was a natural consequence. Rather than managing their office tasks from desks, 21^st century workers rely on their mobile devices to handle much of the job – even from their home or while on the move.

With the mobile workforce demanding more flexibility, cloud computing is becoming more mobile-based. Cloud-based applications can be accessed anywhere and at any time, which is perfect for workers who are on the move at all times. Instead of having to use their desktop PCs at the office, workers can just log into a software with an internet-enabled tablet, smart phone or some other digital device, and execute the task in Google Cloud.

An increasing number of companies are waking up to the ease of utilizing mobile-based cloud computing apps for business data management, and their advantages in boosting productivity. For instance, analysts predicted that handheld devices would take over 1/3^rd of business intelligence functionality within 2013. This has come true, and is going to grow further with time.

Hybrid Cloud Computing

Hybrid Cloud Computing means using a combination of infrastructures, physical applications and services along with private and public cloud services. It is a unified model that comprises of internal as well as external cloud platforms, which can be used for strategic advantage according to the needs of business. It is expected that companies would concentrate in this area. New productivity tools are already being developed, keeping the needs of Cloud users in mind.

Cloud Services Brokerage

It is expected to get more popularity and favor in the coming years. It includes a service provider helping in cloud computing consumption. The trend is gaining more momentum given that users look for cloud services that are not dominated by IT bureaucracy. However, even IT can be a Cloud Service Broker (CSR) itself by developing flexible tools and processes, which can be convenient to adopt for business users.

Social Cloud Computing

Collaboration on the Cloud will be increased further with social tools. Apps cloud-based are not simply more flexible as compared to standard on-site apps; these can also be more social. This is very essential, given that users like to have better collaboration with micro-blogging, chat and other social tools. As users are more habituated to such tools and begin to prefer them more over email and other run of the mill tools, consumers will like to use those for communicating with leads, peers and customers. Social tools are expected to boost the level of collaboration.

Cloud application will get more social with time, and is likely to be a key component in the way business data is managed by companies. Given that Cloud Computing is natively internet-based and regularly upgrades are rolled out in an automatic way to cloud solutions, it has the capacity for fast evolution.

Secure Cloud Computing and services

Increased user participation on the cloud are also giving rise to security challenges. 2016 is expected to be the year when Cloud safety is taken more seriously. There are plenty of challenges to meet as of now. Host names, physical locations of documents and IP addresses have to be a part of security audits and assessments, and there is the need to move past archaic security analysis frameworks.

Cloud Computing and services have exposed a lot of security loopholes and issues. This is a dynamic platform and the ever-changing form makes old tools and methodologies useless. Companies are expected to be more serious about perimeter assessment, vulnerability management, intrusion detection and other things.

Secure Cloud Computing and services are the need of the hour, and things are expected to be safer by the end of 2016 and beyond. 2016 is already witnessing the development and implementation of many security standards for Cloud. There will be a security standards baseline developed for Cloud technology, which would ensure safer migration to the cloud. More organizations will feel safer to move business data to the Cloud in the coming months.

Simpler Cloud Management and Computing

2015 has already seen the craze for self-service data prep and data integration solutions. However, 2016 is expected to witness simpler tactics for pushing data from online platforms and organizations into Cloud-based data ecosystems. Moving business data to the Cloud can be as easy as copy-pasting information across documents. Data movement into the Cloud ecosystem without technical knowhow is possible, and is soon to be actualized. There will be simple solutions that can allow business users to drag and drop data as easily as it can get. The complexities associated with data transformation, integration and staging would be done away with.

If you are further interested in reading about Trends in Cloud Computing especially with IoT, here is an interesting article on dspacecloud.org Cloud and Internet of Things

What is your mobile strategy?

What is your mobile strategy?                                                                                                

Over the last few years, the increasing usage of mobile devices has swept the world, changing trends of business and communication and forcing companies to rethink their branding strategies. With more high-end mobiles hitting the market with every passing day, mobile devices are now outnumbering people with greater intensity. This is certainly going to have a longstanding impact on companies who are looking to establish a closer connection with their target consumers. 

More than 85% of consumers around the world strongly believe that their smartphones are crucial for their day to day lives. Hence it is hardly surprising that the mobile interface is of vital importance to the users. The opportunistic businessmen who are looking to make a direct contact with their target consumers are hoping to do so by setting up optimum mobile strategies for tablets and smartphones. A well rounded mobile strategy is meant to help both large and small companies to reach out to more customers while at the same time maintain a robust industry advantage. 

The role of mobile strategy

As more people are making use of their smartphones and mobiles to stay in touch with one another, browse the web and make shopping decisions, it has become more important for companies to come up with a highly competent mobile strategy. However, developing a mobile strategy is much more than just creating a business app. In order to come up with a competent mobile strategy, you should make sure that your brand or company presents a traditional online and mobile experience that communicates a well rounded business message which motivates the target customers to check out what your business has to offer. With a great mobile strategy, you actually establish a strong presence within the mobile world that goes beyond a mere app interaction. 

Here are some of the ways in which you can come up with a competent mobile strategy.

Align your mobile strategy with your business goal

Mobile strategies are always coming and going as trends and so before you take on any new strategy as your next move; make sure that it is in line with the goals of your company. It is important to note that unless a mobile strategy is actually contributing to your long term growth plan, it is hardly worth your efforts. You should always try and come up with a mobile strategy that allows you to better connect with your target consumers and provide you with an edge over market competitors. Also when you are using your business app to aid your mobile strategy, make sure that it offers a superior user experience compared to those that are provided by rival apps.  

Design an app that promises great user experience                                                                              

Make sure that you come up with an app that offers your target users with new and innovative ways to interact with your brand. Most people actually make up their minds about a particular app within the first few seconds of using it. For instance, the majority of your target users are going to expect your app to respond within the first two seconds and more than 85% of people will prefer using your app instead of your mobile website. This is so because even now the majority of mobile websites offer poor user experience. Hence always try to develop apps that bring down the frustration levels of the users to the minimum. 

Make use of APIs or application programming interfaces

APIs enable two different systems to interact with each other. This in turn allows you to avoid developing features from scratch. More than 75% of traffic enjoyed by Twitter comes from its API; in other words most of its users come from various third party apps. You can easily use the current user network of various other apps to boost your user base. 

Make your mobile strategy easily scalable

From the very beginning, you should make your mobile strategy scalable and flexible so that it can be upgraded according to the changing times. Experts currently estimate that the market for smartphone and tablets is going to expand to more than 10% per year for the upcoming 4 to 5 years. This will also be followed by the increasing figures of mobile app downloads which is going to rise with every passing year. Therefore your mobile strategy should be flexible enough to allow for rapid growth and development.  

Provide your target consumers with a streamlined experience                                                           

You should align your webpage experience with your mobile experience so that your users can easily switch from one device to another. Statistics reveal that only a handful number of users are going to give a faulty or imperfect app a second go and therefore you should make sure that your target consumers can easily move from mobile to web experience. Plenty of social media sites and business sites have benefitted from providing their users with a seamless desktop and mobile user interface. This not only helps the users to have a continued experience from mobile to desktop or vice versa but also lowers their levels of frustration that may come with a faulty app. 

Have a strong team for your app development project

When you are out to develop your own brand’s app, keep in mind that a successful app requires good investment. Even simple apps can cost you thousands of dollars and the price for apps that are high on graphics can go up to millions. To ensure that you app development strategy is successful; you should always have a reliable team at hand that can provide you with competent app design solutions. It is always better to have an in-house app development team as they can attend to your needs in a comprehensive manner.

Provide information security for your customers

While handling client data, you should offer maximum information security to your users. Make sure that you implement enhanced data encryption parameters and also address the issue of customer privacy while dealing with cloud vendors. This will boost the security of client data.