One of my responsibilities here at BTC is to constantly be on the lookout for Technology Trends that in some cases incrementally but many times rapidly are reshaping an entire industry.  The only constant seems to be the speed of change. I read a lot of research papers and prediction documents to understand these trends. 

As we head into the second month of 2016, there are quite a few trends that caught my eyes from those reports. I will cover these trends with some of my thoughts and reflection in a two-part blog.Today the focus is on trends and predictions in the current technology darling – IoT.

• Enterprises are always worried about security breaches. It used to be that those worries were limited to breaches of data and to some extend applications. But in the world of interconnected IoT systems, the risk associated with a breach are no longer isolated to a single data center or one application. A breach into one node of an IoT network can spread rapidly and cause absolute havoc much beyond where the hack originated. So the number one focus area going forward for IoT seems to be increased focus on security and IoT security will become a much-increased component of security budgets.  There also some predictions including one from Forrester that security concern may ultimately cool down the IoT adoption.  

• IoT initiatives are sweeping across all the industries but no industry has embraced the device connectivity more than the car industry. By one estimate close to two-thirds of new cars shipped in US during 2016 will have Internet connectivity. While this access enables car manufactures to track usage patterns and provides remote updates to car software, increasing driver demand for access to media and applications in the car also drives the increase.  This does bring up a lot of questions around privacy; security and safety while regulations and social policy play catch up to the rapid change

• The connectivity in the cars and use of IoT devices has allowed insurance industry in recent years to track car owner behavior and adjust policy pricing. The next wave of this adoption will be for the insurance companies to embrace healthcare and connected home IoT devices as a way to price insurance policies. So that will include providing incentive to customers if they will share data from their health and fitness monitors which can then be used as predictors for health risks when deciding on insurance pricing adjustments driven by individual risk factors and fitness activity levels.  I am certainly looking forward to when my insurance company will finally reward be for being a fitness fanatic 

• Solution Providers like us have been exploring different avenues to understand how we can monetize the rapid expansion of IoT ecosystem. According to IBM, enterprises that are venturing into IoT will look for APIs that will allow the disparate devices to connect into a coherent network while also feeding the ‘enterprise’ information and data into that network in a secure manner. Solution Providers with ability to build these networks and provide the connectivity using the APIs will have greater success in driving revenue from IoT

• But the most interesting data points on IoT that I came across were from a survey done by World Economic Forum of 800 leaders . From that group close to 90% think that 1 trillion sensors from devices will be connected to the Internet by 2025 and 70% believe that over 50% of internet traffic to homes will go to appliances and devices at that time. Those are some fascinating numbers and if true will fundamentally change how we live in just 10 years

Has your company embarked on an IoT initiative?  What has been your experience and if not, what has been holding you back? I would love to hear your thoughts

 Here is a copy of The CIO's To-Do List for 2016. Click on the image to download your copy!

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