Back in the 1960s, the early days of Industry 3.0 saw a major upswing in data collection. For example, the multinational IT company IBM developed computers to specifically record and process data with machines like the IBM 7700 Data Acquisition System. The computer could simultaneously collect and analyze the data from 32 different sources.

Energy harvesting will reduce the constant battery replacements in IoT sensors, benefitting maintenance engineers and future generations alike.

Billions of remote IoT end devices are quietly doing their jobs, measuring humidity, temperature, vibration, air quality, or any of a hundred other parameters. The data from these devices is valuable, but that value can only be realized once the data is transmitted to the cloud to be sifted, analyzed, and then used to make informed decisions.