I’m not a guru: I have ideas about future directions but like to think that I’m not opinionated. Most of my ideas are based on common sense, however, after writing an article titled “M2M in the Cloud: A Logical Development ” I started having doubts. It would seem to be a logical development, but was it coming over the horizon? Would it happen anytime soon or were there lots of barriers to overcome, e.g. standards?  

M2M has been a success story and it came through the recession in good shape, but the success has been achieved in vertical market sectors and proprietary platforms. Cloud computing, on the other hand, is based on a generic, open systems business model; hence the doubts about the timing.  

When on my way to ITEXPO (News - Alert), I got an e-mail from Numerex about the article. It indicated that I was on the money and it included a paper, written in 2008, on this subject. It was a short, forward-looking four-pager, titled “Harnessing the Power of Cloud Computing for M2M,” written by Numerex’s (News - Alert) CTO, Dr Jeff Smith. There was a very clear description of the cloud computing model as well as the exciting M2M opportunities it would enable. For example, “with increased processing power at their disposal, M2M innovators should no longer be intimidated by the challenges posed by capturing and analyzing the massive amount of data available in all kind of smart devices.” And I loved this line, “To some extent, cloud computing is an equal opportunity provider!”

OK. That was in 2008, so where are we now? What are the key issues? I went to the M2M workshop in L.A. and listened to the opening keynote from Dr. Jeff Smith (News - Alert). The biggest barrier — and it is big — is standards. However, lots of standards bodies are active in this area, e.g. the ITU, ATIS, ETSI (News - Alert), TIA and more (maybe too many more). But the various tasks are going to be allocated, and Dr. Smith indicated that we could expect to see real progress in 1Q 2011. 

That may not set the pulse racing, but he also predicted that the emergence of the requisite standards, i.e. those that would allow M2M to become a seamless ICT component of enterprise environments, would in turn lead to an accelerated flow of innovative applications and services. The timeline for this development, he said, was 12 to 18 months. Meanwhile, M2M will continue to grow at a very respectable rate. For example, worldwide revenue for embedded mobile modems is forecast to more than triple in 2010 over 2009, growing strongly to 2014 at a 66 percent compound annual growth rate.