IoT- a bigger business priority than mobile, cloud and analytics

With IoT turning into an essential component of IT strategies, businesses spend around 24 percent of their budget on IoT projects, taking ground from mobile, cloud and analytics, according to the Vodafone IoT Barometer 2016 report.

As businesses want to capitalize on IoT, 63 percent said they will deliver clearly defined, working IoT projects in the next year.

“IoT has become an integral part of the customer strategy. IoT is not just a technical discussion,” an automotive manufacturer said.

Since 89 percent of enterprises that embraced IoT have noticed an increase in their investment year-on-year, budgets assigned for IoT technology development are growing. After prioritizing IoT projects, 44 percent of respondents noticed most benefit in the area of user experience.

Due to the importance of big data, the integration of new technology raises a controversy around the lack of security policies across segments developing IoT devices. “IT integration is key to using IoT data effectively,” according to the report. “More than 90% of adopters integrate IoT with cloud, analytics, ERP and mobile to enable access to data.”

However, most executives felt optimistic about their efforts to limit security risks, pointing out the importance of working with an end-to-end security provider.

“We have addressed security at each of the different layers in the stack — not only are we bringing in the right technology, but making sure that we have the right processes,” said a Philips Lighting representative.

Vodafone IoT Barometer 2016 discusses industry standards and best practices based on interviews with 1,100 IT decision makers from 17 countries and nine sectors.