Success rate of 90% makes it the safest bet
Internet of Things (IoT) installations have met or exceeded enterprise expectations in 90% of projects, according to analysis from researcher Omdia released at a NetEvents Global Media Summit in California. Half (47%) of the world’s IoT projects so far have achieved what they set out to do but the technology exceeded expectations for another 43% of the survey sample.
Spending on new IoT projects is booming, despite the economic uncertainties, with 75% of enterprises telling Omdia they’d invested over $500,000 on IoT during 2022. This represents rise of 65% for 2021 in a time when other technology investments are deemed risky.
Enterprises bullish
Enterprises are bullish about IoT investment, principal analyst for IoT with Omdia John Canali told the summit, but he said many communications service providers are struggling to stake a profitable claim in the IoT value chain.
Service providers can expect to play a strong part in the next wave of IoT installations as priorities change and new high value use cases present themselves to enterprises. They can now see the logic in using AI and ML to process massive amounts of IoT data, and this is a future priority for 44% of Omdia’s respondents.
Almost half (45%) of the survey sample said they can understand how open APIs could link different IoT services at scale. The same number have had a Eureka moment about the use of 5G to support flexible provisioning and high bandwidth low latency IoT connections.
Edge provides a business case
Similar numbers say that edge processing of IoT data at the device or gateway level (46%) has reached its moment of kairos. “We found that many enterprises are keen on deploying 5G as part of their IoT plans,” said Canali. “5G is still not fully matured as a technology, but many enterprises are looking to it strategically for what it can bring to their solutions. Service providers can play a part here.”
“When it comes to 5G, the primary enterprise use case today is still around better broadband,” said Vikas Tandon, AVP of Product Management & IoT with global carrier Tata Communications, speaking at the same event. “It’s about enjoying more connectivity and lower latency and not yet about connecting everything in an overarching sense on a private network. That transition will definitely bring a lot more value.”