Connecting All The Things: A Discussion of IoT Networks, Security and Identity

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While there's broad agreement that the world will soon sport an Internet of Things consisting of tens of billions of intelligent devices, there's still no consensus on how those devices will connect to each other, to their owner(s) or to the rest of the Internet. Existing wireless technologies, including Bluetooth, WiFi and 3G and 4G cellular networks are ill-suited to large distributed deployments - either because they lack the range and scale required for IoT, or because their processing and power demands are ill suited for use on small, inexpensive and low-power endpoints.

What's the solution? Who will be the IoT's "Ma Bell"? And - for this group - what features do emerging, distributed IoT network offer to protect the privacy and security of individuals and organizations that rely on them?

Our December Security of Things MeetUp will delve into these issues and others, featuring presentations by- and discussion with experts from leading commercial firms deploying IoT networks in the U.S. and abroad and groups exploring community-based, open source alternatives to get distributed IoT devices talking. I will update the group with the names of our speakers as soon as I have confirmed them.

On the agenda for Tuesday evening we have representatives from some of the leading players in IoT networking, including:

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Steve Ball, Senet Inc. (https://www.linkedin.com/in/steven-ball-a406719) Steve is the Senior Director of Project Management at Senet, a provider of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs). Senet recently announced the addition of over 2,000 square miles of network coverage for IoT innovators and developers in the Boston metropolitan and suburban areas. Steve will be talking about LPWAN technology, SENET's technology and the work it is doing across verticals with both established and early-stage companies.

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Michael Orr, SIGFOX, Inc (https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaeljorr). Michael is the Vice President of Partners and Sales, SIGFOX North America. SIGFOX is the world’s leading provider of dedicated cellular connectivity for Internet of Things and machine-to-machine communications. SIGFOX distributed networks are currently operating or being deployed in 12 countries, covering 1 million square kilometers with a population of 165 million people. Five million devices already are registered in the network.

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Robert Mawrey, ioBridge, Inc (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mawrey). Robert is the CEO of ioBridge Inc. Based in Marlborough, ioBridge makes ThingSpeak, an Internet of Things data collection platform. First launched in 2010, ThingSpeak is used to collect, analyze and act on data sent from devices such as Raspberry Pis and Arduinos. Robert will speak about the evolution of the Internet of Things market and the growing role of "Big Data" analysis and algorithms in powering IoT deployments and spurring IoT innovation.

Thanks once again to our friends at Akamai Technologies (https://www.akamai.com/) for sponsoring our event and to Inex Advisors (http://www.inexadvisors.com/) and CyberSN (http://cybersn.com/). We'll be meeting in Akamai's lovely Cambridge headquarters at 150 Broadway in Kendall Square. You will need to have your name on the list to get past the lobby security and up to Akamai's offices, so remember to save your place.

Once again, we're doing a "ride along" with our friends in the Boston area Internet of Things MeetUp. And once again there will be limited room for attendees, so please RSVP at your earliest convenience.

I look forward to seeing you there!

• Paul.