 | Issue: | North America I 2016 |
| Article no.: | 4 | |
| Topic: | Understanding the importance of IoT in 2016 | |
| Author: | Raffia Kassarjian | |
| Title: | Executive Director and General Manager | |
| Organisation: | TeamViewer | |
| PDF size: | 358KB |
About author
Raffia Kassarjian, Executive Director and General Manager, TeamViewer
Raffia is a seasoned international executive with public company P&L, product management, strategy design and execution experience. Superior client-facing advisory and presentation skills. Exceptional ability to synthesize market trends, competitive actions, client demand and inherent company strengths into actionable product and go-to-market strategies. Strong expertise in predictive analytics and decision technology for credit underwriting and marketing decisions.
Specialties: Marketing analytics, predictive analytics, corporate strategy, product management, product strategy, product marketing, P&L management.
Article abstract
Gartner estimates total spending of US$235 billion on IoT support and services in 2016, largely to meet the business need to design, install and operate IoT systems. To put this into perspective, Gartner’s predictions suggest that 5.5 million new things will get connected every day worldwide in 2016. This is set to place considerable new demands on enterprise networks, generating both bandwidth and security challenges as well as a corresponding need for remote support to keep these devices up and running.
Full Article
At TeamViewer we’ve been enabling human to machine connectivity for many years. We work with small businesses as well as some of the largest retailers and manufacturers on the remote management and control of devices. We’ve seen the prelude to IoT go through transition and 2015 marked the point where IoT started to really gather pace. We’ve seen a slew of customers using TeamViewer to connect and control devices in projects for a wide range of applications, ranging from cash registers, to fish feeding devices, power turbines and water filtration systems, it’s an exciting time for connected technologies.
You’d be right to anticipate an imminent acceleration in projects and devices that harness the Internet of Things (IoT). After all, Gartner has forecasted that 6.4 billion connected ‘things’ will be in use worldwide by 2016, rising to 21bn by the year 2020.
Yet, IoT isn’t just a consumer phenomenon, it has been brewing in recent years and 2016 will see IoT will move beyond the hype. Throughout the year ahead we expect to see business adoption increasing and use cases starting to broaden out.
Indeed, Gartner estimates total spending of US$235 billion on IoT support and services in 2016, largely to meet the business need to design, install and operate IoT systems. To put this into perspective, Gartner’s predictions suggest that 5.5 million new things will get connected every day worldwide in 2016. This is set to place considerable new demands on enterprise networks, generating both bandwidth and security challenges as well as a corresponding need for remote support to keep these devices up and running.
The fact is, IoT has a growing relevance across a number of different sectors. Deployments can now involve sensing equipment feeding back valuable facilities management data to help manage and even reduce costs. A good example is the UK’s first ‘connected city’. Bristol is already demonstrating the potential of IoT for the public sector. Perhaps the most exciting example of this is Bristol’s Data Dome. Sharing its home with the 3D Planetarium, the Data Dome is a unique space for residents to relax and visualise community data.
Despite IoT still being something of a vague concept, enterprises have sat up to its appeal and those looking to deploy IoT in some way over the coming year will require an efficient management and deployment strategy. So how can companies make sure they are ready for the IoT revolution?
Troubleshoot and provide support correctly
The sheer proliferation of devices that will underpin the IoT revolution is going to put huge demands on technical support teams and create the need for innovative new approaches to one of IoT’s biggest challenges. Each of the millions of devices that are set to be deployed on a daily basis in 2016 will need maintenance, repair and firmware or software updates, often without the luxury of someone nearby to access it.
Unattended access to Android devices is heralding many more opportunities for IoT projects. Android is not only the operating system of choice for smartphones and tablets but also many of the less than obvious devices that will make up the IoT.
For example, devices such as adaptive lighting, heating controls and ventilation systems in homes and offices all require access and management remotely and virtually. Add to that the huge number of connected devices running Android in commercial environments such as point of sale, advertising displays and ATMs and you begin to see the scale of the technical support issue.
This is set to place considerable new demands on enterprise networks, generating both bandwidth and security challenges as well as a corresponding need for remote support to keep these devices up and running.
So, how can organisations make sure they are ready for the IoT revolution?
Have a handle on the data
One of the key challenges of IoT will be how to make sense of the vast amount of telemetry and sensor data being collected. Experience in data science and data analytics is going to be essential to generate insights that drive more effective business strategies. Complex IoT deployments are pointless if they fail to deliver competitive value. Closing the data gap will be crucial to successful IoT deployments throughout the coming year.
The impact of IoT on ‘the way we do things’ is not just going to affect many areas of our daily life as consumers and employees; it will also lead to fundamental changes in the IT infrastructure that our organisations depend upon. In 2016, we will begin to experience the scale of these changes, while the most innovative organisations will start to get to grips with their complexities.
Sort out your bandwidth and get secure
The challenge businesses have when faced with handling potentially millions of devices is the inevitable drain of network resource away from employees. For this reason and to mitigate substantial loss of resource, IoT deployments will add momentum to the trend of organisations moving substantial parts of their IT infrastructure to the cloud.
2016 will mark the point in which multi-tenanted IoT platforms from vendors begin to dominate, as companies look for hosted services to handle the connectivity, device management, and data collection activities of their IoT projects as cost-effectively as possible with minimal demands upon capital outlay and bandwidth resources.
While IoT application enablement platforms will support the implementation of applications, business specific apps might have to access internal services as well as data residing within the company network. In order to achieve this securely, a robust access and rights management process is key to ensure security of the network.
2016: a watershed for IoT
2016 is set to be a watershed year for IoT, driven by increasing enterprise deployments, which will depend on elemental changes in the IT infrastructure that organisations depend upon.
As outlined above, there are still challenges to overcome, and solving them will require a whole ecosystem of technologies – including remote support like TeamViewer. However, the most innovative organisations are already getting to grips with these complexities, paving the way for increasingly ambitious and sophisticated IoT deployments in 2016.
