There's a familiar pattern to a recent article about interoperability in military robotics and autonomous systems: “Despite substantial increases in capability and applications, U.S. and multinational robotics and autonomous systems have limited information interoperability, convoluting an already complex data-sharing environment. The U.S. Defense Department finds itself in a predicament created by rapid and independent fielding of systems over the past 10 to 15 years along with the use of proprietary software and payload and bandwidth restrictions.”
We see this in business too. Organizations can't wait for data standards – they need to execute today. Effectiveness today generates ineffectiveness for tomorrow.
There's no way out of this dilemma. If data standards don't exist, you have to go with what you have. It's good to be honest about the remedial work you'll need to do farther down the pike. It's also sensible to set a standards development activity in progress alongside the development of point solutions.
The development of industry data standards means many sectors, like insurance, don't need to take this kind of risk. I hope the close involvement of insurance players with the development of IoT will mean the commercial sector does not repeat the experience of the military with robotics and autonomous systems. Our industry needs to take a strong lead.
The article which inspired this post is fairly dense and technical. But there's a catchy nugget of business insight there too. The writers observe: “Data is to information as sand is to silicon.” AFCEA
Comments