TOP TAKES is IoT Sources’ filtered content channel, bringing you the most important breaking news and notable events surrounding the Internet of Things. Today’s post originated from: Zdnet.com and authored by Corinne Reichert.
Three quarters of all Internet of Things (IoT) projects are “failing”, according to Cisco’s Australian CTO Kevin Bloch, primarily because they have been designed to solve individual problems, and have become siloed and unsupported as a result.
“The inaugural phase of IoT is characterised by numerous point solutions from a multitude of new — often startup — vendors. Typically, these solutions have been designed to solve a particular societal problem such as lighting or parking. In each case, a complete IT stack needs to be built in support of the solution,” Bloch explained.
“Eventually, customers find themselves with multiple siloes from multiple vendors that don’t interoperate, are not cybersecure, use different protocols, and generate more complexity at greater cost.”
According to Bloch, this is why Cisco is constructing an “IoT Phase 2” foundation, which consists of a platform that is able to cope with multiple different sensors, vendors, applications, and data interchanges.
The CTO added that IoT projects are also failing due to a lack of cybersecurity, qualified skills by those running them, project definition, governance, and support.
Again, Bloch said that most of the new IoT solutions being brought to market are being developed by companies or startups without any experience — including experience in security.
Cisco IoT CTO Shaun Cooley in June explained that as many devices also don’t have the power to protect themselves, network-side security must be emphasised, along with improving processors, enforcing the better labelling of devices, and requiring a notification and approval process prior to allowing connectivity.
Under this axiom, Bloch said there are two main components needed to be able to “measure” the physical world and enable automation: Sensing via a camera, sensor, or processor; and connectivity, or the transferring of data measurements to a computer.
“Sensing and connectivity provide data that enable a product to externalise its capabilities and provide a range of new opportunities and services,” he explained.
Another of Bloch’s IoT axioms argued that the key is having the right data, knowing what to ask of the data, and knowing how to find the answers — with the CTO correlating this to another assumption: That by 2025, 40 percent of all data will never make it to the cloud.
“While amassing data may seem important, the critical question to ask is ‘what do you need the data for?'” he said.
“Most organisations already have more data than they can manage, yet most often don’t have the right data. If they did, would they know what to ask of the data? If they are able to formulate the problem, how would they go about finding the answers needed within the data?”
Cisco has been focused on providing IoT solutions globally, in June announcing its Kinetic IoT operations platform with a focus on managing connections, “fog” computing, and the delivery of data, which “streamlines the capability of companies bringing their IoT initiatives to market”.
