Being up to date with technology is nice and being in touch with the innovation around us is helpful, but like any other flashy new technology, change is the only constant factor – Chidiebere Nnadi from Andela shares with Appsafrica.com.
This change I speak of can lead to effects ranging minor deprecation with perhaps strong relevance, to dogged advocation despite the change and adoption of newer technology, to complete phasing out, which is the worst case. It is always important to remember, especially as Software Engineers, that while we wield our numerous programming languages like fancy wands appearing as wizards to the less informed, confounding them (both the regular people and our clients) in a bid to change the world, change is the only constant factor even more so in the technology space. Being well positioned in the space at the right time cannot be over emphasised. As the popular saying goes, “Good luck is simply opportunity meeting preparation”.
Increasing need for more things to be connected
In the time I’ve spent researching and observing the technology space, trying to figure out exactly where the world is moving, it is clear and evident that there is an increasing need for more things to be connected in some way or the other. The internet since it’s birth in 1990 has given rise to a number of technologies which have changed the way humans do things. Most of this innovation is centered around and within the computer screen limiting the power of the internet to just a few “internet-enabled” devices. This is majorly because of the specific requirements for the internet to run on a device. Starting from the hardware layer, to the software layer and even to the protocols, embedding the internet within small inexpensive devices had proved very difficult in the times past but all that has changed now.
Building connected devices is now very easy
It almost seems as if now all the stars are aligning and not many people are seeing it. Like with most other great technological breakthrough, there are some things that cannot happen without some other thing happening. The World Wide Web as a result of the Internet, Google as a result of the World Wide Web etc. IOT (Internet of Things) is one of such technologies and it depends largely on the availability and efficiency of the technology platforms driving it but luckily it’s time has come and all the supporting technology is available and accessible to all. Building connected devices is now very easy with programmable and embed-able hardware like the Raspberry Pi and the Beagle bone, Data Transport Infrastructure like PubNub, Cloud Application Hosting services like Heroku, OpenShift or AWS, and a lot of the technological dots that are now connecting to form a fully realised image of what is now possible 25 years after the birth of the internet.
It is indeed an amazing time to be in the technology space and according to the statistics (from Gartner, Forbes and Cisco), we will have close to 26 billion connected device in 2020 and the IoT market will be valued at about $14.6 Trillion. There is not better place to drive research efforts and brain power than this.
