As we start 2023, the IoT Analytics team has again evaluated the past year's main IoT developments in the global "Internet of Things" arena. This article highlights some general observations and our top 10 IoT stories from 2022, a year characterized by a skyrocketing inflation rate, ongoing supply disruptions, and a looming recession. The 4.4% global growth forecast for the year (from January 2022) was almost certainly not reached, and the outlook for 2023 has been lowered to a meager 2.7% (as of Oct 2022). The Nasdaq Composite, one of the key indices for technology companies, fell 33.1% in 2022. Against this backdrop, IoT 2022 markets held up somewhat steadily, with the number of connected IoT devices growing to approximately 14.4 billion (exact update coming in a few weeks) with roughly $202 billion in IoT enterprise spending (IoT Analytics will publish the 2022 IoT spending actuals shortly). The public relevance of the term "IoT," which had been on the decline since October 2018, climbed back up by more than 30% to reach its all-time high levels in Q1 2022. Throughout 2022, we monitored significant developments regarding IoT technology. In the aftermath of the global pandemic and war in Ukraine, reports of congested ports, suppliers halting production, or critical cargo going missing became normal news in 2022.

THE current pandemic has shown the oil and gas sector how dependable enterprise operations can be upended almost overnight. Work force routines at extraction sites and refineries have been disrupted, causing unplanned outages, as we saw at the Sharara oilfield. With supply chains interrupted, parts manufactured in traditional source markets could not be delivered on time, delaying essential maintenance. Border closures and an unprecedented drop in demand have further constricted already tight economic operations. Not only do these conditions look set to continue over the short term, but other challenges loom over the foreseeable future.

Kim Custeau, senior vice president of asset performance management and manufacturing execution systems at AVEVA, explains why performance intelligence will be critical in a post-pandemic industrial world that demands organisations develop a high level of agility, sustainability and resilience. Why is performance intelligence a critical focus today? The global big data and analytics market is growing at lightening pace and projected to be worth $274 billion by 2022. Staying ahead of the curve requires a new understanding of the scope and scale of industrial information to leverage that data effectively. Insight into industrial information from edge to enterprise reduces downtime, production costs and energy consumption, allowing organisations to optimise resources and drive sustainability.

Aveva, a global leader in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, has stressed how the role of the'Connected Worker' will be instrumental in enabling digital solutions to optimise business returns in a post-pandemic world. Now more than ever, keeping frontline industrial workers safe, while at the same time ensuring business continuity and operational resilience, is vital. For example, Connected Worker technology is helping many Aveva customers maintain their critical operations and keep workers safe, while in parallel saving businesses time and money. Those that haven't digitised their operations will struggle as they face the demand for social distancing and remote work brought on by the pandemic. According to Aveva's Head of Asset Performance Management, Kim Custeau, the business drivers for digital transformation have evolved considerably since the onset of the pandemic a year ago.