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More Leaders Push Progressive IoT Initiatives in 2017

While some CEOs, and their executive leadership team, ponder potential plans for digital transformation projects in 2017, an increasing number of their competitors are moving forward with a progressive business technology agenda.

A recent survey of IT buyers worldwide revealed that 71 percent of enterprises are already gathering data for Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives today. This is a three percentage point increase from a previous similar quarterly survey.

One again, security is a concern, with 50 percent of respondents citing cyber threats as the top impediment to IoT deployments. This was followed closely by 41 percent who cited a lack of perceived ROI benefits.

Regardless, many business leaders are pursuing and funding IoT initiatives. In fact, survey respondents with initiatives already underway expect their IoT-related spending to grow by ~33 percent during the next year.

IoT Market Development Trends

Current IoT deployments and usage are gaining momentum on transaction-intensive workload categories, such as data analytics and security, according to the latest global market study by 451 Research.

Today's IoT-specific projects include data collection and analysis of financial, healthcare or industrial functions, mission-critical servers and applications, and costs related to a specific business operations or departments.

There's more IoT transitions occurring organically as IT infrastructures are enabled by intelligent sensors and predictive analytics capabilities that are embedded within equipment -- such as semiconductors, devices, software applications, network switches and routers.

"The survey data indicates enterprises currently use IoT for practical technology purposes that have an immediate and tangible impact on daily operational business efficiencies, economies of scale and increasing the revenue stream," said Laura DiDio, research director at 451 Research.

The survey also revealed that data analytics is crucial in delivering value to IoT ecosystems, with 69 percent of respondents using data from IoT endpoints -- such as security and compliance -- to reduce IT risk.

Other key highlights from the survey include:
  • 90 percent of enterprises will increase IoT spending over the next 12 months and 40 percent of respondents will raise IoT-related investment by 25 to 50 percent compared to 2016.
  • Enterprises are split regarding a present IoT skills shortage: 54 percent of respondents said a lack of trained IoT staff is not an issue for their organization, versus 46 percent who said they are having difficulty filling IoT-related positions. The latter group identified IoT security and data analytics as the areas with the greatest dearth of expertise.
  • 68 percent of corporations currently take advantage of IoT data to optimize operations -- such as performing preventative maintenance, reducing downtime in factory equipment and fleet management.
  • 42 percent of enterprises report using IoT data and associated analytics to develop new products and services, or enhance existing products and services.

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