IoT: Data Worth Collecting
Which decision will this data change? Sensors are cheap and readings are easy. Answering that question before anything is installed is the hard part, and the part that decides whether it pays back.
Four layers, all of which have to work
Device
Sensors and hardware
Chosen for the environment they will actually sit in — heat, humidity, dust, and whoever unplugs things to charge a phone.
Network
Getting data out
WiFi, cellular or LoRa depending on range and power. The wrong choice here is expensive to reverse once devices are installed.
Platform
Storage and rules
Where readings land, how long they are kept, and the thresholds that trigger an alert rather than a chart nobody checks.
Interface
The dashboard
What a supervisor sees on a phone at 6am. If it takes more than a glance, it will not get used.
Where it usually pays back
Cold chain
Temperature monitoring with alerts before stock is lost, not after.
Utilities
Water and power metering across sites, so anomalies are visible in days rather than on the bill.
Occupancy
How space is actually used, which usually contradicts how it was planned.
Equipment health
Maintenance scheduled from usage data instead of a calendar.
Beyond IoT
This works harder alongside
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