The Internet of Things (IoT) is where IT (Information Technology) meets OT (Operational Technology). But it’s so much more than that. It’s about agile and easily interoperable applications, the sharing of data and the transformation of value propositions and business processes. It’s a whole new technology wave, the impact of which we are only just beginning to perceive.

By Jim Morrish

According to recent research by Machina Research, 38% of US businesses are already actively using IoT technologies, with another 43% planning to do so within the next couple of years. As a result IoT projects are expected to account for 43% of IT budgets by 2020 – a huge proportion when you consider that a significant proportion of 2020 IT budgets will still have to be used to support legacy (non-IoT) systems that are already live. Granted, the survey focussed on US businesses, and the IoT market is developing at different rates in different parts of the world, but the messages from an early-adopting market are clear: the IoT is here, and it’s here to stay. Even more than that, it underlines that IoT can be expected to become ‘business as usual’ for many companies within just a few years from now.

So what are enterprises doing with IoT?

The same research suggests that predictive maintenance, the ability to offer superior services, remote service and support, reducing downtime and decreasing costs are the most important drivers of IoT adoption.

This profile of priorities is consistent with our experience, where we have helped our clients to achieve transformational results such as:

• 50% reduced operating costs through predictive maintenance and real time monitoring of lifts;

• 70% reduced fault rates through remote monitoring of agricultural equipment;

• 50% cost reductions with smart street lighting;

• 30% reduction in the consumption of energy by smart buildings; and,

• 40% reduction in non-technical electricity transmission losses with smart metering;

So the case for IoT is compelling, but that’s still not the full story. Enterprise IoT solutions enable competitive differentiation, both in terms of new product propositions and reduced costs. There’s a simple corollary to this: enterprises must either adopt IoT, or be outcompeted. For any enterprise in today’s market, it’s not a question of ‘whether to do IoT’, rather ‘when and how to do IoT’.

What are the challenges?

The key challenge with Enterprise IoT is how to take the first step. The typical enterprise will have no shortage of opportunities for IoT solutions. The challenge lies in prioritising that list, complete with interdependencies, and in a way that is consistent with a long term commercial and technical vision.

At Huawei we have developed a structured approach that can be used to help companies make the leap from simply aspiring to do IoT to actually doing IoT. The framework is illustrated in Figure 1, and draws from (and is consistent with) a best practice approach as identified by the Industrial Internet Consortium .

Key elements of the framework include:

• Setting an appropriate strategic context for engagement with IoT opportunities.

• Approaches to ideation for new projects, encompassing both new business models and the enhancement of existing business processes.

• The definition of a suitable IoT centre of excellence to support the adoption of IoT technologies within a company.

This structured approach helps clients to overcome specific IoT-related challenges that might arise as IoT solutions are deployed. These could include for instance challenges around data sovereignty, the technical capabilities of different connectivity technologies, or even the distinction between a ‘local’ business case for a new product and a ‘global’ business case that takes into account enterprise-wide opportunity costs.

And what are the key elements of a successful Enterprise IoT Strategy?

Over the course of numerous projects in the Enterprise IoT space, it has become clear to us that there are a few really key elements that need to be in place for an enterprise to successfully leverage IoT technologies. We discuss these briefing in the following paragraphs.

The technical platform is the first key supporting element. It should be standards-based to the extent that standards have been defined. It should be open, to allow integration with a range of technology providers. Clearly it should also be enterprise-grade, and deployable in the cloud, locally and at the edge. The IoT platform also presents an opportunity to productise and standardise as much as possible the development of different IoT solutions. It is therefore key that any platforms provider should commit to continually enhance platform capabilities, by for instance adding higher-level data analytics capabilities to more traditional connectivity and device management capabilities. The platform should also be technology agnostic when it comes to connectivity: all forms of connectivity should be supported, from all providers.

Mastery of the connectivity technologies themselves is key too. These will include wireless communications provided by Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) using licenced spectrum, together with equivalent technologies deployed in unlicenced spectrum. High speed connectivity must be supported and Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) connectivity is a newly emerging category of technologies that will unlock many new IoT opportunities through the provision of wide area connectivity with a battery life of the order of years. But it is also necessary for the enterprise to be able to deploy and manage other technology options, including Wi-Fi, Ethernet, satellite and many more.

Edge computing capabilities are a fast-emerging must-have. The ability flexibly to deploy different components of IoT applications in different locations firstly helps to optimise the use of connectivity (consider the analysis of CCTV feeds at the edge, only reporting exceptions to a central location). But secondly, and more crucially in the medium term, edge computing allows for the kind of flexible development and enhancement of IoT applications over time that really will emerge as the key characteristic of the IoT era.

Security. Clearly security is critical to any IoT deployment. The security solution must be end-to-end, encompassing applications, platforms and devices. It should consider connectivity integrity and support the trustworthiness of any data inputs (and outputs). It must address known threats, and potentially include sensing for new and unknown threats, all underpinned by well-managed access controls and privileges. But above all, any security solution must be ‘right-sized’ for its’ context: not all IoT solutions have the same security needs.

In summary

We have barely begun to imagine the impact that IoT will have on our economy, and society as a whole. The aggregation of a myriad disparate IoT projects will transform the way that our world works, and IoT will fast become the ‘new normal’.

But in the context of a generally early-stage market, Enterprise IoT is special. It represents an opportunity to deploy sophisticated IoT technologies in a more controlled environment than the open IoT. Enterprise IoT solutions afford us a sneak preview of what the future IoT world will be like. In many ways the future is already here, it’s just not very well distributed yet.

At Huawei, we have developed a suite of supporting and enabling technologies that we think cover the key critical needs of any enterprise deploying IoT solutions, and comprising a range of platform, connectivity, edge computing and security capabilities. From Oct. 3rd to 5th, Huawei will present its comprehensive IoT solutions in the IoTSWC 2017 in Barcelona. Experts from Huawei and its partners will share their view on the future IoT technologies and applications in different industries. To know more about Huawei IoT, you can also visit https://e.huawei.com/en/solutions/technical/iot

Download the white papers to learn more about Huawei’s IoT Solution

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Source: Huawei Enterprise Blog
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