Government around the world play a key role in whether IoT becomes a mainstream technology sooner rather than later according to Cisco IoT expert Maciej Kranz. Kranz recently posted an excerpt of his book Building the Internet of Things on the Cisco Innovation blog.

IoT Adoption is Key to Regional Competitiveness

“Governments around the world are beginning to realize that IoT adoption will be one of the key factors defining the competitiveness of their cities, provinces, countries, or regions and that IoT can help solve many of the chronic problems plaguing their economies and their environments,” says Kranz. “Thus, governments at various levels have a number of key roles to play.”

“There will be competition for bandwidth and other resources; there will be ideas that may conflict with public policy; and there will be IoT-based ideas that need to be regulated to ensure public safety and privacy,” noted Kranz. “Think drones. In these and other ways, government regulations can help direct and align the industry.”

Kranz offered a few examples of U.S. legislations and related impact:

• The Energy Act drove the need for energy monitoring, including smart meters.
• The Rail Safety Improvement Act specified the requirements and the deadline (since extended) for adoption of Positive Train Control on main U.S. railways.
• The Food Safety Modernization Act drove the requirements for IoT-based systems, including quality control and source tracking, across the food supply chain to prevent food safety issues.
• Most recently, the Drug Quality and Security Act requires the adoption of a system to identify and trace prescription drugs.

Kranz believes that government funding priorities may drive the future of IoT. “Through their spending power, governments can drive the focus and accelerate the adoption of IoT technologies and solutions. In aggregate, governments represent a huge global market. Their priorities, what they choose to buy, and what problems they choose to address can drive the roadmaps of IoT technology and solution providers.”

He lists these additional government roles:

• Supporting training and education
• Supporting development of startup ecosystems
• Supporting standards efforts
• Supporting basic research and development
• Enabling competitiveness and openness of the country’s markets
• Promoting best practices and modern business models

Why the IoT is Important to Our Future

Kranz’ promo video for his book says this about the amazing future predicted for IoT technology, impacting not just consumers but manufacturers and really… everybody.

“The wheel, printing press, the airplane. It’s impossible to imagine life without them and soon it will be just as impossible to imagine life before the Internet of Things! IoT is already happening and the growth and opportunity it provides isn’t just big, it’s huge. Wheel, printing press and airplane huge. Billions of connected devices, trillions in revenue.”

At its core, Kranz said on his website, “it’s about business outcomes and people; it is about new ways of doing business, talent and change management; it is about migration to open technologies and open business structures based on co-development and ecosystems of partnerships; it is a multi-year, multi-phase journey.”

Here’s a recent interview that Maciej Kranz gave explaining IoT to investors: