Half of IT Networks Will Feel the Stranglehold of IoT Devices: IDC Report

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This article originally appeared at The WHIR

Within just three years, IT networks are expected to go from having excess capacity to being overloaded by the stress of Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices. The IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Internet of Things 2015 Predictions released on Wednesday gives the top 10 decision imperatives to be used by businesses IT department to direct future planning.

The IDC has been watching the IoT market for a while and feels it has matured to a point where IT departments need to be concerned with upgrading infrastructure to to deal with the devices and leverage the business opportunities created. Companies have already been heavily betting IoT will be a huge growth and revenue opportunity. In March, Cisco announced a $1 billion dollar investment in IoT. Microsoft it also investing big with an specialized IoT Azure Cloud.

“Between the possible consumer and business applications, analysts have been tripping over each other to make the most grandiose predictions: 1.9 trillion from Gartner, 7.1 trillion from IDC, 19 trillion from Cisco,” according to a Forbes article published on Thursday. “Are they referring to devices or dollars? What’s the difference? It’ll be huge. (For the record, they’re talking about dollars.)”

Cloud computing will be key to the success of the IoT. IDC predicts within 5 years over 90 percent of IoT generated data will be hosted in the cloud. This should make the access to data and thus the interaction among various IoT devices much easier facilitating growth. However, cloud-based data storage will also increase the chance of cyber attacks with 90 percent of IT networks experiencing breaches related to IoT. The amount of data generated by IoT will make it an attractive target.

“The Internet of Things will give IT managers a lot to think about,” says Vernon Turner, SVP Enterprise Infrastructure, Consumer, Network, Telecom and Sustainability Research. “Enterprises will have to address every IT discipline to effectively balance the deluge of data from devices that are connected to the corporate network. In addition, IoT will drive tough organizational structure changes in companies to allow innovation to be transparent to everyone while creating new competitive business models and products.”

Most IoT is currently focused in a few industries but within five years all industries are expected to have IoT initiatives. Local governments will be one of the areas that will realize the value of IoT to create smarter cities. IDC says more than 25 percent of all government spending will be centered on IoT deployment and management by 2018.

This article originally appeared at: http://www.thewhir.com/web-hosting-news/half-networks-will-feel-stranglehold-iot-devices-idc-report