Cisco Wants To Teach Us All About The Internet Of Everything

As our lives become ever more connected, it is becoming vital for businesses and organisations to ensure their workers become more clued up on the technology behind these links.

The Internet of Everything (often also called the Internet of Things) is set to revolutionise the way we live and work, and could provide huge benefits to a wide range of industries.

But the technology behind the Internet of Everything (IoE) is still developing and evolving all the time, meaning it can be tough to keep track of just what is going on. Cisco is looking to change all this however, launching a new curriculum aiming at providing individuals with the ICT skills they need to understand and utilise the IoE to the fullest extent.

Teach first

The company has high hopes for the IoE, estimating that 50 billion devices will be connected by 2020, with the IoE capable of providing around $19 trillion of economic value to private and public sector industries worldwide by 2022.

To try and harness some of this value, Cisco’s curriculum launched in October with an entry-level “Introduction to the Internet of Everything” course which looks to provide an overview of the potential of the IoE without the need for any in-depth knowledge of the technology behind it.

“Given the immense opportunities that the Internet of Everything as a concept seems to have created, bringing together people, processes and data, (this course) really makes an effort to connect these things more relevant and valuable – turning information into actions and experiences, as well as opportunities for individuals, businesses and countries,” Nuno Guarda, head of corporate affairs and Cisco’s Networking Academy lead, told TechWeek Europe.

“The modules basically describe how the IoE drives the convergence between an organisation’s operational technology and information technology systems and the business processes for evaluating a problem and implementing an IoE solution.”

The course will be available free as a self-learning course to members of the Cisco Networking Academy, a non-profit scheme Cisco has been running since 1997, although an instructor-led option is available too.

It is currently offered in English but will become available in Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish and rolled out progressively from spring onwards.

Reap the benefits

Guarda (pictured right) thinks that the Internet of Things will bring a substantial amount of benefits for small to medium businesses. It will provide a greater platform for them to innovate, develop and bring products to market.

He sees the IT and healthcare industries benefiting in particular from this knowledge, thanks in part to the information systems and technology already embedded in their operations, helping them to streamline processes and cut costs.

Guarda said he hopes the course will create an appetite for innovation and broaden perspectives on what the future will look like, so everyone can be aware of and prepared for the opportunities the IoE can and will offer.

Asides from benefiting the Networking Academy students, Guarda also believes the new course could help businesses whose employees sign up to boost their own knowledge.

Following on from the initial learnings, Cisco is also working on more advanced modules which can add extra information and understanding, meaning that more people and hopefully more businesses will be able to benefit in the future.

“The beauty of the IoE is that the impact can be felt across all industries,” Guarda says, “because each and every one of them will have exciting things that can be connected in order to make their businesses more meaningful and effective from a business standpoint.”

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