If that sounds complex, it’s because it is. And early adopting enterprises have had to work hard to piece together IoT projects – which tend to encompass many technologies and integration points, while unleashing an onslaught of data – and move those projects out of trial and into enterprisewide production. Not that this has persuaded adoption or soured adopters. Surveys suggest IoT budgets are growing healthily, and the vast majority of early adopters are satisfied with initial results. As much as 93 percent of respondents surveyed by 451 Research described their IoT initiatives as “successful,” including 38 percent dubbing them “very successful.” For the next stage of adoption to occur, however, things will need to get much easier for customers. And as the business IoT platform providers pull the ecosystem together, it appears there’s a clear role for channel partners and providers of network and communication services. Make no mistake, despite the emerging long tail of IoT platform and solutions vendors, the major hyperscalers and larger, well-known IT vendors have pulled ahead in terms of offering “IoT platforms” that are integrated with related infrastructure and technologies (emphasizing the importance of cloud compute, storage and data analytics to IoT outcomes). And these types of platforms sit at the center of most IoT enterprise deployments. Among enterprises surveyed for 451, a division of S&P Global Market Intelligence, the most widely deployed IoT platforms come from Microsoft (used by 38 percent of respondents), followed by AWS (30 percent). AT&T comes in third at 28 percent, the first time the company ranked that highly, the study noted, with IBM (18 percent) and Google (17 percent) rounding out the top five. Microsoft was also the highest ranked “primary” platform vendor at 24 percent, “reflecting the ongoing trend of industry platforms often running on top of cloud IoT infrastructure,” said the research group. Most initiatives also involve a systems integrator or consultant type that holds some expertise in the enterprise IoT platform of choice, said the research firm. And in addition to those key partners, enterprises work with an average of nine vendors in their IoT projects, providing elements including connectivity, security, premises gear, analytics and integration, among others. When choosing those vendors, enterprises value above all else the ability to consult on and deliver “best of breed” technologies, suggest the 451 surveys, more than IoT-specific expertise, cost, ability to deliver outcomes and vertical expertise. “IoT platform/infrastructure vendors often sit at the center of such projects, but other providers are also critical,” wrote Rick Karpinski, principal analyst at S&P Marketing Intelligence. IT service providers and consultants help from deployment through data analysis, while vertical application vendors, especially in the industrial sector, play a key role as well, he continued. “Coordination of those vendor relationships and a pilot-to-production, edgeto-cloud view of how IoT technologies fit into enterprise-wide architecture choices are essential.” Enterprises are pretty evenly split between a build, buy or partner approach to creating their IoT ecosystems. The largest group, at 38 percent, choose to “build,” assembling individual pieces on their own, while 31 percent buy pre-integrated platforms, applications and services, and 30 percent enlist partners such as cloud providers and systems integrators to do the heavy lifting. The three choices “are certainly not mutually exclusive,” said Karpinski, as many organizations likely leverage all three approaches. MOBILE & WIRELESS In addition to platform functionality, has your organization purchased other products/services from an IoT platform vendor? Choose all that apply. Cloud storage 50% Cloud compute 44% Security 39% Data platforms/analysis 38% SaaS/IaaS/PaaS 33% System/infrastructure management software 33% Servers/gateways 28% Network switches/routers 26% Line of business applications 18% On-premises storage 17% Sensors 15% Other 1% None 3% Source: 451 Research; S&P Global Market Intelligence 32 CHANNELVISION | SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2023
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