Google’s purchase price of 3+ billion for a start up that has a solution for Connected device is big considering that the solution is yet to prove its worth. Looking at the bigger picture connected devices and the information / data it will be generating is going to be a major area of focus in coming years. The path for success for companies focused in providing products/solutions is not going to be smooth. The reason for the same is the dependencies and challenges prevailing in the existing environment/ecosystem. Current solutions available out in the market are still a closed loop ones and proprietary. Including the Nest solution which Google has spent its monies for. As we have seen and has been proven again and again its critical to have an open platform and ecosystem for such technologies for mass adoption. Below are a list of challenges that i see is required to be addressed for the connected devices story to really take off.

1. Limitation related to connectivity. The solutions should make use of pervasive wireless technologies like the mobile networks rather than using fixed wireless technologies like WiFi or low range technologies like zigbee.

2. Identity and Authentication : There needs to be a programmable identity module framework that will help seamless connection to networks.

3. Data Privacy and Security : This has been a hot topic of the current internet services and would still prevail and be a strong barrier to data generated by connected devices. If we do not have a trusted model and framework for data sharing its hard to convince people of using such devices and sharing data.

4. Data Management (Collection, Management and Sharing) : Huge amounts of data are expected to be generated by connected devices. There needs to be solutions and services in place that can help collect such data, manage the data and help share the data.

5. Standards : Connected devices can be deployed by an enterprise, individual, government agencies for various purposes. The categorization and organization of such data in a standards based approach is critical. There are some standards based activity carried out by some organization and in certain technology areas. We need to have a single body to frame the end to end standards related to connected devices.

6. Cost and Revenue : One of the key barrier for connected devices is going to be the cost. One of the factors that will impact the same is the revenue model and the mass adaptability of the solution.

There is going to be a great potential for connected devices (imagine a petrol pump sensor alerts a user of low gas and the user immediately gets a phone alert with a google maps link to the nearest petrol pump with directions. To add on to this use case imagine if the back-end application that receives constant updates on the gas levels and based decides to send the notification based on the time of the day, gas pump distance from current location etc.). They key now is Organizations need to quickly address the various barriers that would hinder the adoption of connected devices.