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3rd October

Our SmartOffice: An IoT demo

As Scotland’s largest IoT Solutions Provider we love introducing people to the benefits of the Internet of Things (IoT). Whether it’s for you or for your business we jump at the chance to share our knowledge and expertise of the rapidly expanding universe of connected things. With that being said, we sometimes ask ourselves; Do people really understand IoT? How can we help explain it? Well, yes we do think IoT can be difficult to get your head around but, more importantly, we also think we can help with that. Read on to discover the challenge we have set ourselves, our plan to delivery and why we will be sharing every step with you.

What seems to be the problem here?

All you have to do is stick the term “Internet of Things” into Google Search to understand how big it really is. 185 million results returned which, for reference, is 170 million more than the term “The Great British Bake Off” returns and that is the biggest thing in the world right now according to my social media news feed.

Working my way through articles and blog posts discussing trends and innovations in IoT is now a part of my daily routine. It is insightful, exciting and thought provoking yet I can’t help but notice the same statements making a regular appearance in the media; “IoT is the future”, “IoT has infinite applications” and “IoT will change your life”. Now, whilst I do agree with all of the above statements I get the feeling that it is only because I work in IoT.

When you take a step back and speak to people outside of the IoT bubble there is a very obvious cloud of confusion engulfing what it is and what it can be used for. The average response when asking someone about the Internet of Things is:

Yeah I’ve heard of it and think I get it but I’m not sure

Is that really the response we want when asking about one of the dominant forces driving this ever increasing connected world we live in? Short answer “No”.

IoTSmartOfficeUI

Wireframe of our SmartOffice UI

Let’s explain IoT by demonstrating it

That is why the team at M2M Cloud have set themselves the challenge of explaining the Internet of Things in a simple, meaningful and (hopefully) interesting way.

To achieve this, the team agreed the easiest way to explain it was to demonstrate it. Therefore, over the next few weeks we will be undertaking our own mini IoT project, documenting the journey and sharing it with you.

Our SmartOffice will be a 5 part blog series documenting the 2 week project of connecting our offices (and ourselves) to the Internet of Things.

Check below for a description and link to each part in the series:

  1. Part One: Let’s Start an IoT Project – Understanding the challenge and setting goals
  2. Part Two: Choose your Devices – Sourcing and connecting hardware
  3. Part Three: Make Data Useful – Data collected and presentation layer
  4. Part Four: The Proof of Concept – Demonstrate the feasibility of the deployed technology
  5. Part Five: Continuous Service – Reflect, Refine and Continuous Delivery Development


It all kicks off with Part One: Let’s Start an IoT Project which concentrates on understanding the challenge and setting goals.

Also make sure to keep an eye on our Twitter @m2m_cloud for behind the scenes project updates.

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