Internet of Things: friend or foe?
With smartphone adoption growing, and the Internet of Things a dominant reality, we now live in an ever-connected world. Applications for these devices no longer only exist locally; they are constantly using the network to provide advertisements, data or information to the consumer. With so many loads on the network, and more and more applications using it, every app must now struggle to get a small slice of available bandwidth.
The problem is that the network is what it is – a finite resource that cannot be controlled. The question is: how can organisations extend messaging to end users, reliably, outside the firewall, in the world of unknowns?
The role of Internet Messaging
Information is no longer static, or from a single source. It doesn’t stay just within the safety of the enterprise; instead, it spans the Internet to reach hundreds of thousands or even millions of users. This ecosystem has defined a new need, Internet Messaging. Unlike Enterprise Messaging, which handles traffic across a dedicated and known network, Internet Messaging must deal with all of the unknowns of the Internet. This includes connection speed, reliability, availability, network congestion and much, much more.
Armed with this information, companies can then select the fastest possible transport protocol supported by client, adapting as the connection changes. This helps to manage the session ‘state’ and automatically reconnect lost and dropped connections.
The need for Internet Messaging
There is a tremendous need for Internet Messaging and we are seeing huge growth in the applications market. Companies in this market are continuing to raise money signalling an increase in demand across the board for messaging technology – in a market already worth more than $20 billion, according to Gartner – to meet the demands of real-time experiences.
Whether it’s tracking your packages, completing online gaming or trading transactions, connecting to smart devices in the home, or simply chatting with friends on your communication app of choice – delivering data reliably, in real-time has become the primary focus of almost every industry.
Building out the infrastructure that supports and scales dream and problem apps, however, is complex and expensive, so savvy app developers need to implement robust and cost effective mechanisms to connect with and distribute data. This is fundamental to any application, and the use cases for Internet Messaging and data distribution continue to grow. Whatever the need, delivering a high performant experience demands the distribution of data reliably and in real-time. It should be the primary focus of any app in most industries.
