BIG DATA & IOT

Big Data and the Internet of Things, better known as IoT, are often used interchangeably yet refer to different things. Big Data is pretty much as it sounds – copious amounts of data recorded over time that offers insights into future planning. IoT meanwhile refers to the organisation of and digital connection between ‘things’ in a given environment. Hence, one of the core arenas for IoT is the modern smart city and its key nodes, those being namely the transport logistics hubs, such as roads, ports, and airports.

Despite being distinct fields, in the modern world Big Data and IoT are somewhat intrinsically tied, for we cannot plan the functioning of a smart city if we don’t have a wealth of data to back up our predictive analytics in programming our operations. Because of this, IoT needs Big Data to be realised, and Big Data needs IoT in order to display its full capacity.

So why is this a key theme for 2023 and beyond? Well, it’s important to remember that most businesses will have to adapt and evolve their technology to be able to collate large amounts of data in order to benefit from much of Big Data’s insights. IoT devices will be able to send messages to the businesses, including information such as activity and behaviours.

Once the business has received this data, it needs to be stored by a platform that can handle such large and complex data. Then, businesses can refer back to this data whenever they are developing a product, analysing customer behaviours, reflecting on the launch of a product, and much, much more. Most importantly, this information is safely stored and can be accessed by businesses whenever it is needed.

Such technology offers businesses in the transport and logistics space a huge – let me say again, huge – advantage on the competition. Granted it takes time and patience to truly ‘harvest’ the energy of Big Data – wine-making references are often used in the Big Data space, specifically around the notion of letting data ‘mature’ – and it takes skilled operators to implement the trends of mass data into actionable steps for IoT-centric operations, yet once the code is cracked, the potential for massive strides forward is unrivalled.

Naturally, in the world of cargo travel, such technology has the promise to predict and ease bottlenecks, organise logistical structures to a point, and to ensure cleaner operations via modulating downtimes and planning for peaks.