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H
eightened data security concerns have the
potential to impact the growth in the Inter-
net of Things (IoT) market, according to
research from Accenture. It’s a trend that
will have big implications for global channel partners
looking to sell cloud applications and innovative mobile
services – in both positive and negative ways.
When it comes to the balancing threat awareness with a
product’s hip and cool quotient, the latter usually wins. IoT
gadgets have been wildly popular, with things such as Fitbits
and smartwatches capturing the consumer imagination.
However, there are gaping security holes that come with a
lot of these items, which can leave corporate networks wide
open to attackers, as workers use their personal tech – such
as a smartwatch – to do things like access corporate email.
Further, companies will begin to leverage purpose-
built IoT to improve their bottom lines. Affordable sen-
sors are now available that can measure the occupancy of a
workplace or meeting room minute-by-minute, providing
data for analysis with the right software. Employees will
find workspaces via screens with availability on the build-
ings’ floor plan. Additional functionality in apps can help
users to check the availability of workspaces by scanning a
QR code on a desk or swiping an RFID tag.
Channel partners have an important part to play in all of
this, by helping businesses understand the IoT risk, evaluate
security policies, and choose managed security services that
can help keep them safe.
Interest in IoT Grows
As businesses plan for workplace changes in 2016,
research conducted by software company Planon
suggests that IoT will lead the charge in terms of
how employees do their jobs going forward. This in-
cludes increasing mobility and cloud delivery models,
and the rise of alternate workplaces.
“Many of the trends that will come into focus in 2016
already exist today, but their significance is expected to
grow and become mainstream in the near future,” said
David Karpook, strategic business consultant at Planon.
Planon said that IoT will go hand-in-hand with an
increasingly mobile culture. Today’s work is being done
everywhere – at the office, at home and on the road. The
average workplace occupancy rate is dropping and a large
portion of the workforce have private commitments that
require flexibility. Organizations that recognize the need for
mobility are better placed to attract the right talent. And in a
mobile reality, cloud provisioning not only simplifies the man-
agement of applications and their infrastructure, it also enables
significant IT-related cost savings.
And for similar reasons, organizations are embracing
new ways of working to foster more efficient collabora-
tion, knowledge-sharing, flexibility, speed, innovation and
productivity. More than 90 percent of respondents in
Planon’s research agreed that new workplace concepts will
improve employee productivity.
Security Concerns
Come to the Fore
Despite all of this promise, Accenture thinks that IoT
uptake will be hamstrung by still-lacking security in many
of the devices.
Its polling of 28,000 consumers across 28 countries
found that for nearly half (47 percent) of respondents, se-
curity concerns and privacy risks rank among the top three
barriers to buying an IoT device and service.
Of the survey respondents who indicated they either
own or plan to buy an IoT device this year, nearly three-
quarters (69 percent) said they know that these products
are capable of being hacked and therefore can result in
stolen data or device malfunctions.
Within the groups of IoT device owners or those plan-
ning to buy one in the next year, more than one-third (37
percent) decided to be more cautious when using these
devices and services; 24 percent chose to postpone buying
an IoT device or subscribing to an IoT service; and 18
INTERNATIONAL AGENTs
SECTION
IoT and the Cyberthreat
Opportunity
Source: TeleGeography
Colocation Capacity by Carrier and Region (million sq ft)
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Gross Space (million sq ft)
CenturyLink (?)
Verizon Terremark
(for sale)
TierPoint (includes
Windstream)
AT&T (?)
US Europe LatAm Asia
Source: Accenture
Impact of security concerns on consumer attitude
towards loT devices and systems
24%
decided to postpone
purchasing an IoT
device
18%
decided to quit or terminate
an loT device or service till
they were assured of safety
21%
are not too concerned
about: security breaches
such as hacker attacks
37%
decided to be more
cautious when using
loT devices and services
Consumers who intend to buy these
By
Tara
Seals
28
Channel
Vision
|
January - February 2016