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Seeing past the RFID hype

Matt Hines CNET News.com

Published: 04 Mar 2004 10:25 GMT

When it comes to radiofrequency identification technology, the conventional wisdom is that it will certainly revolutionise the way manufacturers, distributors and retailers track products and inventory.

But figuring out details of how this emerging technology should progress and get used remains a source of debate. The issues range from safeguarding the data that the tiny chips transmit to managing the reams of data that RFID readers gather.

That's enough to boggle most minds, including that of Rainer Kerth, the architect of IBM's middleware efforts around RFID technology. Kerth recently spoke with CNET News.com about the potential -- and the potential misconceptions -- surrounding this suddenly hot technology.

Q: Is RFID being overhyped?
A: I would say that there is a lot of excitement in the industry around RFID. I'm not sure if there is the typical level of overhype. There's obviously a lot of potential in RFID. People are a bit focused on its usage potential as opposed to how to make it really happen. It is fairly clear that RFID has the potential to revolutionise many different aspects of the existing IT infrastructure. But it's also about evolving that infrastructure to the point of supporting RFID.

When does RFID truly begin delivering all of these major benefits people are talking about?
It's actually not that far away. There are a lot of companies working under the Wal-Mart Stores and US Department of Defense mandates. You have Metro Group in Germany making announcements and people in the United Kingdom working on it. Pretty much everyone in the industry is working on delivering some level of benefit around RFID in 2004 or early 2005.

Is that work going to deliver the ultimate benefits of RFID?
Probably not; it's going to require multiyear efforts to take full advantage of the technology, but you can't run before you walk. I'd expect that it will be more like over the next 18 months that you see some reasonable information technology functionality to support RFID. It won't be a short-term engagement.