Forrester has come up with my new favorite IoT term: I&O

IoT infrastructure is more than just an edge and the cloud. In fact, the emerging architectures will be very different from the traditional architectures based on the use case, location, and even the industry involved. It’s so confusing, we’re throwing around terms like “the skinny edge” to refer to sensors and “constrained connected devices” and “fat edge” to refer to a bunch of high-powered servers on a factory floor. We also toss around terms like “IT” and “OT” and debate the value of proprietary wireless networking technology vs. cellular or unlicensed. We know we need to “lock everything down” and/or build for a “zero-trust” world while realizing that doing so is expensive and in fact, basically impossible. In other words, everything is still in flux, which makes it really tough for companies that are trying to buy equipment to support IoT or AI efforts in their organizations.