What’s the difference between IoT and M2M?
The ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) is growing at an alarming rate; many applications that we use day to day are now connected and it’s great, isn’t it? Although the figures on how many devices are currently connected vary dependant on the source, the trend of growth is clear.
Growth in the industry is so much that McKinsey & Co believes that linking the physical and digital worlds could generate up to £8.79 trillion a year in economic value by 2025.
Are IoT and M2M the same thing?
Firstly, we can be sure that the concepts of IoT and M2M do have different meanings. The consensus view seems to be that Internet of Things is a broader concept, which is fed by the evolution of M2M applications and software.
To put it simply, ‘Machine to Machine’ is where machines use a network to connect to each other without human interaction. It’s is about connecting a device to the cloud, managing that device, and collecting data. In essence, M2M is about communicating and connecting with a “thing” such as a machine, device or sensor… essentially anything that can send and receive data.
IoT is an elaboration on this. Rather than the connected devices, IoT is the network of connected devices. It represents things connecting with systems, people and other applications; again these applications are all data centric.
M2M provides the connectivity that offers capability to IoT. Without these individually connected devices IoT would still merely be a pipedream.
Each connected machine is a part of IoT; and IoT is a sum of its parts.
“If you consider M2M in the next larger context, you get the IoT.” – Landon Cox, Associate Professor – Duke University
Each individual M2M connection created or project that is implemented contributes to the overall spectrum that is the Internet of Things.
Although upon introduction IoT and M2M seem daunting; (most likely because they’re in keeping with the rest of the acronym obsessed telecoms world) it’s time that everybody began to embrace the technology.
So bottom line, ‘what’s the difference between M2M and IoT?’ M2M is the connecting of devices and applications; each individual device we connected is direct M2M. IoT is a collation of all of our M2M connections and devices. It’s the Internet of Things, so if it’s connected via the internet and it’s a thing, you guessed it; it’s part of the IoT revolution.
IoT and M2M: Are they interchangeable?
When looking for an IoT solution, you’ll often hear the solution itself described as an M2M device; especially when it comes to business acquisition. Many people believe that IoT and M2M are the same thing, that they’re interchangeable. The truth is, they aren’t.
If you’d like to know any more about our IoT, or M2M then please get in touch with us.
