From the Earth up to the cloud

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RocKontrol already has 5,000 servers that were put into use in 2011. It will have 50,000 servers, which are equivalent to 400,000 virtual servers, in use by October, when its new IOT park is finished.

"We don't recognize any competitors in China. I don't mean there are none. What I mean is, we really cannot see competitors with our capabilities. We develop project-processing ability and strong applications on the base of the IOT," said Teng. "Our own language in interpreting the communication protocols and computing methods are the data's value-added process and the core competitiveness of RocKontrol."

There's growing public concern about IOT enterprises, which have access to huge volumes of data related to national security and personal information.

Although analysts have urged the government to step up supervision of data security when it comes to the public interest, there's been scant progress so far.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology only drew up China's first IOT five-year development plan in 2012 and issued the first guidelines in early 2013.

"It will take a certain period of time to formulate, revise and implement rules covering the 'new turf' of the IOT," Teng said.

Contact the writer at liyang@chinadaily.com.cn.

What IOT is and how it works

The Internet of Things refers to the concept of devices connected to the Internet, where information gathered by devices is pooled, processed, analyzed and reported to users.

The users can act on the received data, which is represented through various software platforms designed for certain purposes.

In some cases, the devices themselves are set up to act on the data.

Efficient data transmission, analysis, processing, reception and implementation are the core of the technology concept.

Kevin Ashton, a network technology professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, initially proposed the concept in 1991.

The global market value of the Internet of things is estimated to reach about $8 trillion by 2020.

In China, the market has been estimated at $70 billion as of 2013, with 40 percent of it concentrated in Jiangsu province in East China.

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