Business IoT connections to hit 5.4 billion by 2020

Enterprise adoption of the Internet of Things is starting to gain momentum, according to a new report from Verizon Enterprise Solutions. The adoption is being fueled by technological, political and social factors that are driving more organisations to adopt IoT-enabled solutions, the report said.

For example, the use of social media and mobile technology has transformed consumer and citizen expectations. Also, the declining costs of sensors, connectivity and processing power have made IoT a more viable proposition to a broader set of organisations. Changing regulatory requirements across a number of industries are also making an impact.

“When you look across the spectrum, IoT covers a multitude of solutions, from wearable devices, to remote monitoring of energy management devices to industrial transportation to improve safety and efficiency. New use cases are created every day; however, the business case for IoT and enterprise adoption often gets overlooked,” said Mark Bartolomeo, vice president IoT Connected Solutions at Verizon.

“Within the past year, amid an improving economy, we’ve seen a number of new entrants starting to use IoT as a roadmap to improve their customers’ experiences, accelerate growth and create new business models that are driving societal innovation.”

The report noted that “off-the-shelf” IoT solutions are starting to materialise with greater frequency as a replacement for highly customised solutions, which have historically characterized many enterprise IoT implementations. And a broader IoT landscape brings greater security challenges.

Verizon noted that digital certificates can help address growing C-suite and public concerns and meet regulatory demands around IoT and security.

New research commissioned by Verizon from ABI Research forecasts massive growth broadly, with the number of business-to-business IoT connections — more than quadrupling between 2014 and 2020 — rising to an estimated 5.4 billion connections globally.

In the automotive industry, Verizon’s telematics experts noted that 14 car manufacturers account for 80 percent of the worldwide automotive market, and all of them have a connected car strategy. Additionally, ABI Research cited that organisations will introduce more than 13 million health and fitness tracking devices into the workplace by 2018.

By 2025, smart cities capabilities will become a critical consideration for companies deciding where to invest and open facilities, due to their impact on operating costs and talent availability.

Recent growth in M2M connections and a global spotlight on IoT-enabled solutions notwithstanding, Verizon’s experts believe that widespread enterprise adoption is currently low. Only 10 percent of enterprises are estimated to have deployed IoT technologies extensively — suggesting that many organisations are in a pilot phase or are waiting for more insights from early adopters.

This also applies to widely covered categories such as the connected car. More than 600 million vehicles worldwide are currently not connected to a network, the report added.