By Bill Chamberlin, IBM
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a key technology that will provide the data that will fuel the cognitive business era.
Cognitive systems will ingest all the IoT data and use it to infuse intelligence into systems and processes. As a result, businesses will become more efficient, improve overall customer experience, discover new business opportunities and better anticipate risks and threats.
Our research over the past year has revealed three important trends driving adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) as we move through 2016. They are:
1) IoT systems are moving beyond the hype: If you don’t have a strategy for implementing IoT changes in your business, you may already be behind competitors in your industry.
Industry use cases of the IoT are well defined, including manufacturing, energy and utilities, transportation and retail. Business executives and developers indicate through surveys that they are increasingly implementing IoT systems in order to transform their business processes.
Gartner, for example, says that more than 40 percent of organizations expect the IoT to transform their business or offer significant new revenue or cost-savings opportunities over the next three years.
And 28 percent of software developers say they are currently working on applications for IoT-connected devices.
2) Data and analytics will drive value: A solid approach to big data and analytics is necessary to enhance the value of IoT implementations. Simply connecting lots of sensors and devices to a network is not enough.
Organizations must have an IoT information strategy. Data skills are needed to understand how to collect and integrate IoT data with data from other sources, such as internal data stores.
Advanced analytics and dashboards must be built to deliver insights from the data generated. Certainly business value will come only to those who improve their data capabilities including storage, integration and analysis.
3) Challenges must be overcome: There are adoption challenges, including security and standardization across all elements of the IoT. Overcoming these challenges is essential to widespread adoption. Making the IoT secure is important.
Consider:
- 77 percent of U.S. IT and cybersecurity professionals say manufacturers are not implementing sufficient security in IoT devices.
- More than 20 percent of enterprises will have digital security services devoted to protecting business initiatives using devices and services in IoT by year-end 2017.
Organizations must consider how to manage the complexities of connecting to a seemingly unlimited number of devices. In addition, standards must be developed so IoT devices, platforms and systems can communicate with each other.
To fully implement IoT systems, businesses need to establish an integrated fabric of devices, data, connections, processes and people. This requires that IoT systems be built on top of a solid technology platform including cloud, analytics, big data and mobile. Most important, security must be designed into IoT systems at every level.
Even with all the challenges, once implemented, IoT systems can be a game-changer for enterprises that embrace them, changing the way work gets done and improving the top and bottom lines. In 2016, watch for innovative industry leaders to break through these challenges and begin disrupting industry models and processes.
IoT systems offer concrete business benefits, such as increased operating efficiencies, improved customer experiences and accelerated innovation. In 2016, we will start seeing more companies realize these benefits.
Bill Chamberlin is Principal Analyst for IBM Market Research.
To learn more about the new era of business, visit ibm.com/outthink
A version of this story appeared on the IBM Center for Applied Insights blog on Jan. 21. IBM will be discussing Security topics as the world's top security experts convene at the RSA Conference this week in San Francisco.
