What does Citrix have in store for IoT? In its 2017 predictions, Citrix highlights the future of IoT and the role it will play in our world this year.
- Security will be key, especially in light of the Mirai DDOS attack and other similar IoT attacks that are threatening our server infrastructure.
- Artificial intelligence is going to take a stronghold in the market–from “hype to reality,” as Chris Matthieu, Citrix’s Director of IoT Engineering says. Considering how chatbots, launched in 2016, are now a mainstay, we’re finding more and more companies trying to tackle AI through the smart home or through voice recognition (Google Home and Amazon Echo).
- Augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality are gaining steam, which will also be valuable to the enterprise (think Pokemon Go for the enterprise soon enough).
- IoT will kill the desktop. I start to think of the movie Minority Report when I write about this — but it’s already happening with small HDX-Pi thin clients, Arduino, and Raspberri Pi machines.
- IoT will not be a buzzword; it will just be. Eventually, IoT will surround us but we may not know the mechanics.
- Enterprise IoT is going to be a real thing. We’ve alluded to that earlier in a previous bullet point, but that’s where Citrix is taking Workspace IoT to the next level.
IoT, in short, is going to reach critical mass–if not in 2017, soon enough–but Citrix likes to think this is all happening in the next 8+ months.
What’s more, Cisco Workspace IoT does appear to be more of a reality. With many members of Cisco’s IoT team fully behind the concept, a vision unfolded of Cisco Workspace IoT which facilitates the “interaction of devices, things, users, applications, workflows, data and location … to add value to the Enterprise.” Using hardware such as HDX-Pi or its own Workspace Hub, the service center operates as a center for delivering information to users and capturing context around the space.
Functionally, the Hub allows for instant screencasts from a mobile device to a Hub-powered display enabled by a QR code, beacon, or Swipe, an IoT gateway to securely connect peripherals, a beacon for proximity/location-based workflows, IoT triggers with context for any utilized user/service/facility, a wireless display doc for extended display, programmable LED notifications, and high-performance thin clients optimized for HDX app delivery.
A receiver operates as a hybrid thin client. Services allow for HDX casting that redirect video from the mobile device to the hub, virtual channels that allow utilization of peripherals such as a keyboard or mouse, and beacon proximity for mobile authentication. A launcher app enables a device lockdown, management, and multi-function services, and an Octoblu connector allows for IoT triggers, workflows, and data forwarding.
Citrix Workspace IoT simplified
That’s a lot of hardware and might be complex to understand. In simpler terms, with just a push of a button, users can join scheduled meetings or create instant meetings without worrying about connected audio, screens, devices, etc.
Because how many of you angrily recall the frustration of Fn+CRT/LCD?
Citrix Workspace IoT allows any screen to turn into a collaborative space–another argument for allowing more remote and distributed teams.
Healthcare IoT
Citrix Workspace IoT is extending to the healthcare space as well, giving clinicians seamless access to data, applications, and patient information. There’s a lot of room to improve within healthcare, and Citrix seems to be tackling the problem across the gamut of hardware, from mobile devices to data transference when a doctor is traveling from the office to the hospital to wherever they need to be.
There’s more to come with Citrix Workspace IoT–and this is scratching the surface. More’s to come, so keep an eye on our IoT section for more ways IoT will touch our lives this year and beyond.
Photo Credits: Shutterstock, Cisco
