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Global IoT Connections will Reach 83 Billion by 2024

The Internet of Things (IoT) has moved into the mainstream by virtue of the rapidly evolving key benefits across a variety of industries. Due to developments in radio technology and falling component costs, the Internet is now being used for machines to communicate with each other and/or directly with humans.

Juniper Research has identified private cellular wireless networks as a key driver of the growth of IoT adoption over the next five years. This trend has been slowly establishing itself as LTE networks can be leveraged to do so, offering a wireless data connection.

With the introduction of fifth-generation (5G) wireless networking technologies, Juniper Research now anticipates that the infrastructure deployment will serve to accelerate the adoption of private cellular networks over the next five years.

IoT Technology Market Development

According to the latest worldwide market study by Juniper Research, the total number of IoT connections will reach 83 billion by 2024 -- rising from approximately 35 billion connections in 2020.

This deployment represents a growth of 130 percent over the next 4 years. The study identified the industrial sector as a key driver of this growth. Juniper analysts forecast that this expansion will be driven by the increasing use of private networks that leverage cellular network standards.

Juniper found that the industrial sector -- including manufacturing, retail and agriculture -- will account for over 70 percent of all IoT connections by 2024.


They anticipated that the emergence of cost-efficient private cellular networks would be a key driver of growth over the next 4 years, and expects that the recent increase in demand for private LTE networks will carry forward to private 5G networks as the cost of the technology decreases over the next 2 years.

Moreover, analysts also forecast that the number of industrial IoT units in service will grow 180 percent over the next 4 years.

"Industrial networks will need to scale rapidly as industrial IoT users adopt new technologies to expand the services available on their networks. However, IoT platforms must ensure that the security processes can scale alongside this network growth," said Sam Barker, senior analyst at Juniper Research.

Outlook for IoT Applications Growth

According to the Juniper assessment, the increasing complexity of private IoT networks will mean that platforms must implement steps to maximize security in all layers of the IoT ecosystem, including devices, connectivity and the platform itself.

Therefore, IoT technology vendors must implement security procedures that are highly scalable and can cope as network architectures become increasingly complex.

Juniper analysts have suggested two key areas of focus; the use of network segmentation to mitigate the risks of lateral movement cybersecurity attacks, and ensuring that the lifecycle management of network assets is properly maintained.

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