Psychosis in the IoT

After 3 years without going to events due to COVID, I finally decided to go, even if it was only for 1 day, to the IOT Solutions World Congress #iotswc23 . The day started badly. Iberia played a trick on us. Shortly after leaving Madrid, the captain advised that we were returning to Madrid due to a failure on the plane. For a moment I thought that the stars or the gods had conspired to prevent me from visiting the congress and shelving the internet of things once and for all. Finally they put us on another plane and it only delayed our arrival in Barcelona for a couple of hours.

I want to start by explaining the reason for the title of this post.

In recent months, the news about the discontinuation of its #iotplatforms ( IBM , Google, SAP ,...), sales of IoT business units ( Ericsson ), acquisitions ( Sierra Wireless by Semtech , Thales Cinterion by Telit Cinterion ), layoffs in the Microsoft 's IoT sales unit, large IoT vendors freezing hiring and European niche vendors surviving on the help of European funds, I thought the word that best described the current situation in IoT is Psychosis.

And since I wanted to verify it for myself, well, what better than this congress in Barcelona.

And without further ado, let me tell you what I saw and heard on the first day of the event.

To facilitate reading and for everyone to go to the area that interests them, I have divided the analysis into several sections:

The Presents and the Absents

Comparisons say are always hateful. So I bite my tongue and tell you that this year there were no big stands except for Amazon Web Services (AWS) , which brings together a bit of everything ( Siemens , Software AG , Capgemini , Rely ...) and those that brought together companies from a country (France) or region ( Bavaria) or the Industrial Internet Consortium.

Neither the large integrators such as Deloitte , Accenture ... ( EY 's participation was testimonial), nor the Spanish Operators ( Telefónica , Vodafone , Orange ), nor large companies from the so-called Industrial world have wanted to spend a penny on this event.

The companies present were excited because they did not have to compete for the visitors that on other occasions spend their time in the big manufacturers.

At the Spanish level, miss Libelium . And the Telefónica Tech booth disappointed me.

Reasons given for little presence this year: The proximity of MWC23.

Recommendation: Move this event back to May.

The sessions

With my ticket I could not listen to any of the sessions, so in this regard I refer you to articles published like these:

-         IoT connectivity faces big digital twins challenge

-         European Commission wants Industry 5.0 with ‘human touch’  

-         KNX seeks to connect all smart home appliances

The Visitors vs the Customers

As before the pandemic, these congresses always end up announcing the growth in the number of visitors. In this case, , el IOTSWC 2023 cerro la edición con un 30% más de visitantes que el año pasado . There were clients, but I barely saw them. These events are mainly useful for networking (mainly chances of finding another job) and establishing alliances that complement your solution or help you expand / grow.

The IoT Connectivity

With Sigfox 0G technology no longer in the fray, the battle for Industrial #iotconnectivity is on two major fronts: #cellulariot and #lpwan .

On the #cellularconnectivity front, it seems that the big operators have stopped believing (or at least spending on marketing) in the #iot . So the MVNOS have been more protagonists than ever in this congress. The absence of 1NCE , which has been reserved for the #mwc23 , has not discouraged other #MVNOs such as emnify , Eseye , Wireless Logic Ltd or 1GLOBAL who are struggling to differentiate themselves by trying to avoid making connectivity a commodity, seeking niches and offering new features on their platforms. connectivity and professional services that help customers deploy solutions more easily.

On the other front, The Things Network - The Things Industries shows the strength of its LPWAN ecosystem with numerous devices developed for multiple use cases.

It is appreciated that the concept of interoperability exists between both opposing forces. This is the way

The IoT Device Management and Application Enablement Platforms

Once IBM , Google or SAP , among others, were out of the game, and without the presence of Microsoft , the focus shifted to Amazon Web Services (AWS) . This giant continues with its strategy of anything goes as long as you use my cloud. So other platforms that appear as leaders in analyst reports such as Software AG Cumulocity , Siemens MindSphere , Eurotech , Hitachi Vantara share a small space at their booth.

I am glad to see the presence of Litmus which with the latest injection of money is growing in Europe, or TagoIO and specially Spanish platforms such as thethings.iO or IoTsens . I was favorably surprised by relayr 's media rollout.

The StartUps powered by KNX and the Industry Solutions Awards,

I would have liked to have more time to chat with the startups present, but I didn't have the day for more. From here my apologies and my congratulations to the Industry Solutions Awards winners.

The IoT Security and the IoT Devices

I would have liked to have more time, because #iotsecurity has been, is and will be one of the challenges, but Iberia stole two hours a day and I couldn't visit them.

In any case, here is the list of all the exhibitors: Exhibitor List | IOT Solutions World Congress | 31 JANUARY- 2 FEBRUARY 2023 BARCELONA (iotsworldcongress.com)

The Power of Models

If you had asked me 10 years ago what my vision of the IoT was like in 2023, I would have made many mistakes. I would have been 20 or 30 years ahead of what the IoT really should mean and contribute to people, companies and solve the great challenges of the planet. One thing if he had said we will not be talking about models but about real and tricking experiences.

However, this congress has shown that in the absence of massive budgets, or more creative solutions that attract attendees with formula 1 cars or the virtual reality of metaverses or gifts, the models have been the center of attention and a claim for visitors to stop at the stands. It is the same thing that we did in my first collaboration with TD SYNNEX back in 2015 and the level of the models is very inferior to those that Cisco showed in 2014.

In any case, congratulations to the exhibitors who without embarrassment showed models of the first year of high school because they received more attention than the stands that only had a PowerPoint and a table with two chairs.

The King of Spain in Barcelona

Despite the delay, I arrived on time to see and take a picture of the King of Spain visiting the event. Important visit to give greater visibility to people who are still asking what is #internetofthings .

For one day I think it's been fine. I hope to have more opportunities to continue reporting on other events throughout the year soon.