The Internet of Things has connected different facets of the enterprise in ways that were previously only imagined. Now companies and customers demand to see results and understand those results in real time or near-real time.
IoT can connect enterprise assets to gain real-time insights, which improve decision making, drive efficiency, empower employees, and create better customer experiences. Here, executives of leading companies offer 6 predictions for what's ahead in 2020 for the IoT space.
Growth of IoT will necessitate an innovative storage solution: “Gartner predicts there will be approximately 20 billion IoT-connected devices by 2020. As IoT networks swell and become more advanced, the resources and tools that managed them must do the same. Companies will need to adopt scalable storage solutions to accommodate the explosion of data that promises to outpace current technology’s ability to contain, process and provide valuable insights.” - Bob Moul, CEO of machine data intelligence platform, Circonus
Latency and processing speed will separate business leaders from laggards: “As organizations struggle to handle the influx of volumes and complexity of data, reducing latency and response time will become a hallmark of business success. A recent survey conducted by Hazelcast found that 25% of companies that measure latency in seconds have an “extremely difficult” time managing advances in technology speed, compared to those measuring in smaller time scales (milliseconds and microseconds). In 2020, ultra-low latency and split-second processing speeds will enable organizations to tackle new frontiers in AI, IoT, 5G, edge computing and more, leading to better decision-making and improving the customer experience. Processing new data at the speed in which it is generated will become the new normal as businesses operate in a completely new time scale.” - John DesJardins, VP of solution architecture & CTO, Hazelcast
IoT/smart city security will continue to grow as a target for attackers: “Securing cities must begin with preventing phishers from gaining access to computers where they could push out commands to IoT devices remotely. There are many challenges with IoT security, least of which is authenticating device-server communications. Additionally, using default passwords and outdated encryption makes these systems easy to hack. In 2019 we read about some annoying and spooky incidents based on IoT hacking – but heading into the new year what we really need to be concerned about is hackers targeting energy grids and other major infrastructure to cause serious economic and social disruption.” - Peter Goldstein, CTO and co-founder, Valimail
Rationally operationalized connected enterprises: “Thanks to the advent of IoT and cloud technology in 2019, the buzz term “connected enterprise” has emerged as what is touted as the ultimate goal of any enterprise that seeks to apply the advantages of modern technology. As organizations look to achieve the coveted status of a “connected enterprise” and implement various new technologies, they should not lose sight of what aspects of that technology actually matter to their business and can improve operations. Define what is meaningful to the enterprise, and don’t waste time on implementing technology that does not provide immediate value.” - Himanshu Palsule, chief product & technology officer, Epicor
IoT data finally becomes queryable: “The explosion of IoT devices has created a flood of data typically landing in data lake storage such as AWS S3 and Microsoft ADLS as the system of record. But while capturing and storing IoT data is easy, the semi-structured nature of IoT data makes it difficult to process and use: data engineers are forced to build and maintain complex, and often brittle, data pipelines to enrich IoT data, add context to it, and accelerate it. Software AG has stepped in to tackle this problem head on with their Cumulocity IoT Data Hub, and we predict in 2020IoT data will be directly queryable at high performance via business intelligence, self-service analytic, machine learning, or SQL-based tools.” - Dremio's CEO Tomer Shiran
Without built in security, IoT devices and their users will suffer: “In today’s age of connectivity, security for IoT devices must be brought to the next level. In 2020, widespread transformation will become a necessity as organizations will need to build security into devices and applications rather than bolting it on to existing technology. Repercussions of not prioritizing this will become dire as connected devices evolve from seemingly trivial tools such as thermostats and refrigerators towards higher stake technology such as autonomous vehicles and more. Without building security into these environments, organizations will put end-users’ physical safety, privacy and more at risk.” - Sean Peasley, Internet of Things (IoT) Security leader in Cyber Risk Services, Deloitte Cyber