Microsoft survey shows strong IoT adoption amongst enterprises

The internet of things (IoT) could account for 30% of organisations' revenue in just two years' time, but those organisations are still battling security challenges and IT skills shortages that may prevent them from reaching that target.

Those are some of the findings from Microsoft's IoT Signals research report, which surveyed more than 3000 IoT decision makers in enterprise organisations.

According to the report, 85% of those surveyed work in IoT adoption, with almost 75% working with projects in the planning stages.

Amongst IoT adopters, 88% believe that IoT is critical to business success. However, nearly 30% of projects fail in the proof-of-concept stage, often because implementation is expensive or bottom-line benefits are unclear.

"IoT is transforming businesses in every industry and is powering breakthrough innovations," comments Microsoft head of Azure IoT, Sam George.

"Our research shows that unlocking IoT's full potential requires the industry to address key challenges like the skills shortage, security concerns and solution complexity. Microsoft is leading the way on simplifying and securing IoT so that every business on the planet can benefit."

The proliferation of IoT devices is enabling companies to bring cloud intelligence to the edge, to create solutions that are adaptive and responsive to their environments, Microsoft says.

"According to IDC's Worldwide Global DataSphere IoT Devices and Data Forecast, IDC expects there to be 41.6 billion connected IoT devices by 2025 - growing at a rate of 8.9% over the forecast period," says IDC's vice president of IoT, 5G and mobility, Carrie MacGillivray.

 "As the market continues to mature, IoT increasingly becomes the fabric enabling the exchange of information from 'things' to people and processes. Data becomes the common denominator - as it is captured, processed, and used from the nearest and farthest edges of the network to create value for industries, governments, and individuals' lives."

Microsoft says it is investing $5 billion in IoT and intelligent edge technologies and ecosystem by 2022 in order to advance customer and partner success.

In the last year, Microsoft has added more than 100 new features and services and released 70 new IoT partner announcements, and has an ecosystem of over ten thousand IoT and intelligent edge partners to help customers, no matter where they are on their IoT journey.

Highlights from Microsoft's IoT Signals report below.

• Nearly all IoT adopters - 97% - have security concerns when implementing IoT, but this is not hindering adoption.
• 38% of IoT adopters cite complexity and technical challenges to using IoT as a barrier to furthering their IoT adoption.
• Lack of talent and training present challenges for half of IoT adopters, and 47% say there are not enough available skilled workers.
• Respondents believe critical technology drivers for IoT success in the next two years are AI, edge computing and 5G.