The IoT Central Interviews

Got a cool perspective on IoT? Writing code that streamlines IoT analytics? Analyzing killer data to drive business value? Leading a team of technologists and data scientists that is at the forefront of the industrial IoT? Then we want to talk to you.

We are expanding our interviews series so I invite you to suggest names of inventors, analysts, thought-leaders, executives, and practitioners who are driving the Industrial IoT. It could be you. Tips and interest to: [email protected]

This edition of IoT Central Digest highlights some of our most popular interviews. Remember: get your friends and enemies to join IoT Central here.

Interview: Why is it so hard to monetize the Internet of Things?

From wind turbines to your washing machine, the IoT is all the rage, and everyone wants their piece of the pie. Monetization and creating business value, not to mention profits, is the holy grail for the IoT. But who is really making money on the IoT and where are the most lucrative opportunities? For that we turned to Mike Fallon, Senior Advisor of the IoT Transformation Advisory Practice at PTC. Mike is responsible for delivering frameworks to companies that address the how of IoT monetization – specifically for CIOs and other C-suite executives.

Interview: How Connected Cars Can Learn from Fintech

With connectivity increasing and self-driving cars on the fore, how do we keep improving on the convenience while keeping it secure. For that we turned to Sam Shawki, the founder and chief executive officer of MagicCube, a digital mobile security start-up located in Silicon Valley. Prior to his current role, Sam was head of Visa’s Global Remote Payments business unit, where he drove the company’s global initiatives in mobile and remote payments. Before Visa, Sam served as Chief Innovation Officer of VimpelCom, the sixth largest mobile network operator in the world, with over 214 million customers in 18 countries. We asked him about connected cars, mobile security, and what’s in store for the future.

An Interview with Ken Finnegan, Chief Technology Officer, IDA Technology Ireland

Just ahead of the Internet of Things World conference taking place May 10–12 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley, we were lucky enough to catch up with one of the conference speakers, Ken Finnegan, Chief Technology Officer, IDA Technology Ireland. He advises and provides strategic insights into technology trends both nationally and globally for the agency and client companies. He has worked in the software, telecommunications and big data industries for 15 years before joining the IDA in 2014. The IDA is Ireland's inward investment promotion agency, it is a non-commercial, semi-state body promoting Foreign Direct Investment into Ireland through a wide range of services. We asked Mr. Finnegan about IoT and Smart Cities, IoT implementations in Dublin, and his thoughts on making cities smarter. Here’s what we learned.

Who's Your Buddy? An interview with Dave McLauchlan, CEO & Co-Founder, Buddy Platform

Last week at IoT World, I stopped by the Buddy Platform booth (namely because of their killer Lego set-up). Buddy provides data hosting and management solutions for manufacturers and vendors of connected ("IoT") devices. Prior to IoT World, I sent Buddy CEO and Co-Founder Dave McLauchlan a few questions. Here's what he had to say.

Are You Real? Bringing Authentication to IoT

Serial entrepreneur Chris Ciabarra is at it again. The co-founder and CTO of Revel Systems, an iPad point-of-sale (POS) disruptor which has a valuation of more than $500 million and landed a global contract to replace all of Shell Oil’s PoS terminals with Revel’s, has helped launch Authenticated Reality, an authenticated secure community that fosters real interactions, comments and online conversations from real people on the internet.

Chris is an anti-hacker and data security expert with a strong background in PCI compliance and P2PE. He has presented across the globe as well as in front of the 5th Annual United States Homeland Security Conference on various security topics including how the Internet needs to change.

While his current company is aimed at getting consumers and business to identify themselves as “real,” we couldn’t help but ask him about what his current endeavor might mean for IoT.

Autodesk's Bryan Kester - Skills for the IoT pro, disagreement with Gartner, and what's next for IoT

In our latest installment of interviews with IoT practitioners, we interview Bryan Kester, Director of IoT, Autodesk, Inc. Bryan leads the Internet of Things (IoT) Product Group at Autodesk. We asked him questions about Gartner's prediction of IoT maturation, his take on the IoT platform wars, the skills sets needed in this rapidly emerging and changing field, and what's next for IoT. Bryan predicts, "There will be some continued hype and then a subtle, but significant shakeout among both pure play and "me too" vendors. Those that help simplify the systems integration nature of IoT will have a future."

Interview: 3M's Road to IoT

When you think of 3M you immediately think of Post-It Notes or Scotch tape. If you're old school or local, maybe you know that 3M was founded as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company. But have you ever thought about this company, which has $30 billion in annual sales, employs 88,000 people worldwide and produces more than 55,000 products, as an IoT company? All that material science must have an opportunity in IoT. For that we turned to Dr. Jennifer F. Schumacher, the technical supervisor and co-founder of the Computational Intelligence group in the Corporate Research Laboratory at 3M Company.