Roadblocks to IoT adoption in Asia Pacific

By Steve_Wood posted Mar 14, 2017 09:00 PM

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The term Internet of Things (IoT) has veered from buzzword to palpable game changer for organizations across Asia Pacific. Today, it’s the driving force of a swiftly evolving digital economy—a host of research organizations have regularly asserted that the region’s IoT uptake would present billions in market opportunities.

If we take a closer look, the potential for Asia Pacific’s business models to benefit from IoT is immense. According to Aruba’s The Internet of Things: Today and Tomorrow report, organizations that have adopted IoT saw an average of 33% return on investment, while recognition of improving a company’s efficiency levels and innovative output will push the adoption of IoT in the region to reach 86% in 2019!

For business leaders still on the fence about implementing IoT, the question begs: How can I harness IoT for greater business impact?

A key element lies in securing the abundant data generated by IoT. A startling 88% of organizations across Asia Pacific have experienced at least one IoT-related security breach, the highest in the world. In addition, while the majority of these organizations claim to be able to analyze IoT data, 44% actually struggle with ingesting data from multiple and distributed mobile devices, encumbered by a lack of relevant in-house resources and legacy IT infrastructures.

In view of large-scale cyberattacks that are increasing in frequency and sophistication, it is clear that organizations in Asia Pacific are not fully analyzing data within corporate networks, missing on insights that could improve business decisions.

Credit: TopMobileTrends

Organizations are walking a tightrope in managing the cost of implementation and integration of legacy assets. Three in every four IT leaders and executives in Asia Pacific lack the confidence in their organization to fully support IoT. These stumbling blocks hinder organizations from driving new business values and achieve competitive business advantages.

The Internet of Things is upon us, but still organizations are struggling to implement a comprehensive digital strategy that identifies new revenue streams, streamline operational processes, and increase efficiencies.

At this critical stage, businesses need to make the important decisions where and when it counts to knock out security gaps while supporting workplace flexibility and collaboration.

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Steve_Wood

Jun 05, 2017 12:14 AM

Quite the contrary actually. To put it in a simplistic analogy, imagine managing a community of farmers for a grain silo without properly knowing them and their crops. One day, you found it was contaminated by parasites; but the problem now is that you are unable to identify where the bad grains came from because you didn’t conduct the necessary checks on the farmers. The issue will continue to persists in following batches.

Similarly for IoT devices, separating data from device identity may make organizations even more vulnerable instead of secure. A cybercriminal can easily deploy a remote access Trojan to a vulnerable device, and not being able to identify the unsecured endpoint used as a backdoor will make rectification tedious and as a result, damaging to the organization. Knowledge of the device and visibility into where data comes from enables an intense response to the kind of threat posed, since that enables IT to rapidly pinpoint the source of breach and notify when device is being compromised or not safe to be connected. I suppose what is currently missing and difficult to achieve is context richness into the device—that is, profiling and getting more in-depth device information.

ljanakiraman

May 25, 2017 05:13 AM

Security, sure is a concern for all organizations to adapt IOT, not only in Asia-Pacific but across the globe. For the enormous amount of data generated by IoT, is there a way to knock out the rubbish part (not required for analysis) and keep only the pertinent data that doesn't involve any device identity...say, if the device identity and the information collected from them are separated logically (and can only be made available on request by the autheticated/genuine entities), can security be guaranteed?

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