New Podcast: SMBs Turn to IoT, Smart Systems to Survive Pandemic

California businesses are dealing with many adverse conditions this year, including severe drought affecting agriculture operations and ongoing COVID-19 workforce disruptions. Fortunately, IoT can help with those challenges, with automation tools that can maintain ideal growing conditions and thermal solutions that can monitor workforce well-being. In our podcast, our editors sat down with solution integrator Luis Alvarez, who describes how IoT is hard at work in the Golden State.

Image credit: Alvarez Technology Group

As the world’s population is predicted to soar to 9.7 billion by 2050, global agricultural production is under intense pressure to keep pace. To meet demand, farmers and agricultural businesses are turning to rapidly developing agtech and IoT applications for smart farming. This market is expected to reach 23.14 billion U.S. dollars by 2022 with 75 million IoT systems deployed for agricultural purposes in the next couple of years.

To gain some boots-in-the-field insights on what’s happening in farming technology in California’s enormous ag industry, the IoT Integrator Wire editors spoke in our podcast with Luis Alvarez, President and CEO of Alvarez Technology Group (ATG), a solution integrator based in Monterey County, CA. His company focuses on business information technology services for small- and mid-sized businesses.

Alvarez discusses how new IoT technology such as thermal imaging, room capacity sensors, and smart building platforms in greenhouses are helping ag businesses in Northern California thrive as the pandemic lingers. He describes how an orchid grower and other ag industries are using intelligent IoT devices to maintain healthy plant growth and manage water during California's severe drought.

During the pandemic, ATG has focused on helping SMBs with automation technology solutions not just in the field, but also in the workplace. It was named one of CRN’s 2020 IoT Innovators Award winners for its ATG Thermal Protect technology.