Nearly half of IT budgets will be dedicated to IoT development and implementation by 2020 as IoT services adoption continues to grow.
IT budgets are in for a significant transformation as Internet of Things (IoT) services become a top priority for businesses. By 2020, IoT should indeed account for 44 percent of IT budgets on average among U.S. businesses, according to new research conducted by Machina Research and commissioned by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), InterDigital and Telit. The research, conducted among 200 U.S. businesses, found that almost half of decision-makers (48 percent) are already actively using IoT technologies today, while another 43 percent are looking at deploying IoT solutions within the next two years.
System integrators have the upper hand
System integrators and end-to-end service providers are set to benefit the most, playing a leading role in the development and deployment of IoT solutions. This should come as no surprise as the integration of new IoT solutions with legacy systems is seen by businesses as a priority. In fact, the majority of early IoT adopters already works with a system integrator to some extent. “Overwhelmingly businesses have woken up to the transformational benefits of IoT and are rushing to deploy those services, but at the same time appreciate there may be a rocky road ahead turning a good idea into a technically feasible and profitable one,” said Jim Nolan, executive vice president, IoT Solutions, at InterDigital. “This is where companies like IBM, HP, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Accenture and other system integrators are worth their weight in gold, making the link between specialized IoT providers and the applications that companies need to leverage connectivity.”
In the meantime, only 8 percent of respondents view mobile operators as their partner of choice for IoT services development and implementation.
Cost savings over business expansion
The research also found that cost savings are the primary driver to IoT services adoption for half of respondents, while only a third say business expansion is a top strategic reason for deployment. Fewer than one in five (18 percent) consider expanding revenue opportunities or better competing with rival products and services to be an adoption driver.
IIoT News Recap: GE and HPE partner on industrial edge analytics; IEEE SDN and EIT Digital launch open testbed community for 5G; Qualcomm unveils connected car platform; Worldsensing and Q-free partner on smart parking in Ljubljana; Midokura raises $20 million; Today’s forecast: The wearables market
Industry 4.0: GE and HPE partner on industrial analytics at the edge
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and GE Digital (GE) have entered a strategic agreement to combine IoT technologies from HPE with GE’s Predix platform, enabling industrial edge analytics. “In order to fully take advantage of the Industrial IoT, customers need data-center-grade computing power, both at the edge – where the action is – and in the cloud,” said Mark Potter, senior vice president and chief technology officer, Enterprise Group at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. “With our advanced technologies, customers are able to access data center-level compute at every point in the Industrial IoT, delivering insight and control when and where needed.” HPE will be a preferred storage and server infrastructure provider for Predix cloud technologies, while GE will leverage HPE technology for its virtual infrastructure and OEM offerings.
5G: IEEE SDN and EIT Digital to boost 5G innovation with open testbed community
IEEE Software Defined Networks (IEEE SDN) and EIT Digital launched an international open testbed community (OTC) to stimulate 5G innovation.“We estimate that the combination of these new Open Federated Testbeds and the IEEE Testbed Catalog will result in a 50 percent reduction in the time to test network functions, applications, services and even new, disruptive business models,” said Roberto Minerva of Telecom Italia, chairman of the workshop on Federated Testbeds which led to the OTC initiative. All stakeholders are encouraged to participate in the OTC.
Connected car: Qualcomm unveils reference connected car platform
Qualcomm Technologies presented the Qualcomm Connected Car Reference Platform, a platform for connected cars that supports 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. The platform promises to solve challenges such as wireless coexistence, future-proofing and the multitude of in-car hardware architectures. “With the Connected Car Reference Platform, Qualcomm Technologies has developed a platform for automakers, module OEM customers, and developers that emphasizes scalability, modularity and security for integrating and managing multiple cutting-edge wireless technologies inside vehicles,” said Nakul Duggal, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies. The platform will be available by the end of 2016.
Smart city: Worldsensing and Q-free partner on smart parking in Ljubljana
Worldsensing has partnered with Q-free to install 51 Fastprk sensors in the Slovenian city of Ljubljana. Three sensors have been installed in each parking spot, which continuously send data in real time to a gateway. ”Our Smart Parking solution also allows the city to monitor and manage the parking spaces 24/7, obtaining real-time occupancy information and correlating it with payment information. The system informs drivers where to find vacant parking spaces via smartphones or electronic street panels,” said Worldsensing. Drivers in Ljubljana spend on average 20 to 40 minutes a day searching for a parking space.The Fastprk mobile app is free to use for car drivers.
Today’s startup: SNV specialist Midokura raises $20M in Series B financing
Software network virtualization (SNV) specialist Midokura raised $20.4 million in Series B funding in a round led by Japanese Fintech company Simplex Inc. Existing investors Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) and Allen Miner, member of Midokura’s board of directors, also participated in the financing round. The funding will be used to support the increasing demand for Midokura’s SNV technology, Midokura Enterprise MidoNet (MEM). ”We look forward to further developing our globally adopted MEM network virtualization technology to support the world’s appetite for microservices and IoT connected devices, as well as growing our team, strategic business partnerships and valuable channel alliances,” said Dan Dumitriu, co-founder and CEO of Midokura.
Today’s forecast: Wearables market to reach $171.2 billion in 2021
BCC Research expects the global market for wearable computing products to reach $171.2 billion in 2021, up from $22.6 billion in 2016, growing at a CAGR of 50 percent over the forecast period. While the consumer market will remain the largest segment, the non-consumer segment will grow the fastest at a CAGR of 71.6 percent. The segment will reach a value of $66.5 billion by 2021. “Traditional markets for wearable devices have been focused primarily on non-consumer niche applications, including those in the healthcare, defense/security, enterprise and industrial markets,” said BCC research analyst Andrew McWilliams. “However, recent advances in materials science, electronics, photonics and software have enabled the emergence of a potentially vast range of new lightweight, wearable computing products. These technology advances are not only growing traditional non-consumer markets but also enabling the emergence of a number of new consumer applications.”
