Developments in 5G, artificial intelligence (AI) and IoT technologies are leading towards what is being hyped as the era of intelligent connectivity. While this fusion of technologies has the potential to change the way we live and work, there are still uncertainties and challenges that need to be addressed before the benefits can be realized.

Intelligent Connectivity: the fusion of 5G, AI and IoT.

Intelligent connectivity is a concept that foresees the combination of 5G, the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence as a means to accelerate technological development and enable new disruptive digital services. In the intelligent connectivity vision, the digital information collected by the machines, devices and sensors making up the Internet of Things is analysed and contextualised by AI technologies and presented to users in a more meaningful and useful way. This would both improve decision-making and allow delivery of personalised experiences to the users, resulting in a richer and more fulfilling interaction between people and the environment surrounding them.

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly sophisticated thanks to advances in computing power, the education of data scientists and the availability of machine learning tools for creating advanced algorithms, the Internet of Things is getting closer to becoming a mainstream
phenomenon. 5G represents the missing element to bring these technologies to new levels and enable the intelligent connectivity vision. The ultra-fast and ultra-low latency connectivity provided by 5G networks, combined with the huge amount of data collected by the Internet of Things and the contextualisation and decision-making capabilities of artificial intelligence technologies will enable new transformational capabilities in virtually every industry sector, potentially changing our society and the way we live and work.

Intelligent connectivity is expected to play a major role in five key areas:

1. Transportation & logistics,
2. Industrial & manufacturing operations,
3. Healthcare,
4. Public safety & security and
5. Other sectors.

1. Transportation & Logistics

In the transportation sector, intelligent connectivity could lead to an increased level of road safety and efficiency resulting in a smoother traffic flow. While in the logistics sector, intelligent connectivity has the potential to improve efficiency and flexibility in the delivery of goods, making logistics faster and cheaper.

The combination of 5G and AI would allow driver assistance and traffic monitoring systems to reach their full potential. (Image credit: Intel)

USE CASE 1: AI-based driver assistance and traffic monitoring systems. Exploiting the low latency of 5G networks, road users and the roadside infrastructure could collect and share an abundance of real-time information. For example, data about the location and speed of vehicles, bikes and pedestrians on the road, weather and road surface conditions, traffic jams and other obstacles on the road. Intelligent traffic monitoring systems and AI-based on-board computers would then use this information to provide assistance to the drivers. For example, helping them avoid accidents and collisions with other vehicles,
or dynamically planning the best route to the destination.

USE CASE 2: Self-driving vehicles. Eventually, 5G and AI will lead to reliable self-driving vehicles. These will be provided with an AI-based on-board computer that, based on data both collected by on-board sensors and provided by roadside units and other vehicles via the 5G network, will be aware of the vehicle’s surrounding environment and able to adjust to any situation. Self-driving vehicles will also lead to new Mobility-asa-Service models similar to what we have today with services like Uber but tailored for driverless public transport. The latter would eventually be less expensive than current public and private transport options, as they would allow savings in time and money needed to train and pay drivers.

USE CASE 3: Deliveries by unmanned vehicles. 5G networks will be able to support high volumes of both terrestrial and aerial unmanned vehicles, such as unmanned delivery robots and drones, and allow operators to precisely coordinate their movements, avoiding collisions with other unmanned vehicles, buildings or other static obstacles along their path. Drones, for example, are already a very promising means of delivering goods in a fast and secure way. Drones are particularly convenient when the end location is characterised by challenging terrain or congested roads, and they have a lower cost than current human-based delivery systems.

2. Industrial & Manufacturing operations

In the industrial sector, intelligent connectivity will lead to improved productivity and reduced human errors, while resulting in lower costs and increased worker safety. By enabling remote operations to industrial facilities, intelligent connectivity may also lower the need for on-site employees and thus increase the flexibility in choosing where to locate production facilities, as the latter would become independent on the geographical availability of skilled labour.

USE CASE 1: Factory automation and remote control of industrial robots. 5G’s high data-rates, ultra-low latency and high reliability would enhance the automation of industrial processes and the remote control of machines and robots. For example, machine learning algorithms can use data collected from sensors and cameras along a supply line to immediately alert an operator of any inconsistencies in the process or the system could automatically correct the mistake in real-time. 5G would also enable human operators to monitor and adjust the actions of industrial robots from a remote location and interact with them in real time using both haptic and visual feedback enabled by connected tools such as touch-sensitive gloves and virtual or augmented reality (VR/AR) headsets.

USE CASE 2: Remote inspections and maintenance, and worker’s training. At the same time, tactile internet applications driven by Intelligent Connectivity would also enable conducting tasks such as inspections, maintenance and repairs remotely. This results in much lower costs and reduced risks related to operations in hazardous, inaccessible or inhospitable locations, such as in nuclear plants, oil rigs or mining sites. The same tools could also be used to perform or support workers training and simulate complex situations in a safe environment.

3. Healthcare

Intelligent connectivity will help provide a more effective preventive care at a more affordable cost while allowing healthcare managers to optimise the use of their resources. In addition, intelligent connectivity could also facilitate remote diagnosis and enable remote surgery, potentially revolutionising access to medical care that today is limited to the geographical location of medical experts.

USE CASE 1: Remote health monitoring and illness prevention. 5G’s high availability and its support of a massive number of connections is expected to help accelerate the adoption of wearable devices used for the monitoring of different biometric parameters of the wearer. As these
solutions become more commonplace, AI-based healthcare platforms will analyse the data collected from these devices to determine a patient’s current health status, provide tailored health recommendations and predict potential future issues. In addition, by having a more informed, real-time overview of the medical status of their patients, healthcare managers could optimise the use of their resources and make sure their clinics are always provided with enough medicine and medical tools
and equipment.

USE CASE 2: Remote diagnosis and medical operations. The tactile nature of intelligent connectivity internet applications enabled by the high speed, low-latency, and ultra-high reliability delivered by 5G networks, will enable doctors to provide a full medical examination from remote locations with full audio-visual and haptic feedback, making it possible to provide a diagnosis anywhere at any time. With 5G and IoT, it would even be possible for doctors to perform remote surgery by operating specialised robots.

4. Public safety and security

Intelligent Connectivity has the potential to make cities safer and help governing bodies fight crime, mainly by improving the efficiency of video-surveillance, security systems and emergency services while reducing their costs.

The fusion of 5G, AI and IoT would allow governing bodies make cities safer places to live and make emergency services more efficient. (Image credit: Intel)

USE CASE 1: Intelligent video-surveillance and security systems. 5G networks will facilitate the deployment of massive numbers of security alarms, sensors and cameras, and enable the transmission of real-time, high quality videos for enhanced remote surveillance and better assessment of crime scenes. On top of that, AI-based systems will automatically analyse activities, body language and facial expressions of suspects, detect crimes and spot offenders in real-time such as for tracking suspicious characters as they move among the fields of view of different cameras. In addition, by analysing data on past crimes, AI-based platforms will be able to predict future offences and help optimise the use of crime prevention resources.

USE CASE 2: Emergency services and border controls. Massive amounts of 5G connected cameras, either fixed, mounted on moving vehicles, body-worn or installed in drones, will help control and coordinate emergency service operations. Remotely controlled or autonomous robots will replace humans for operations in hazardous environments, such as for looking for survivors in collapsed or burned-out buildings, while drones will be used to survey areas hit by disasters or to patrol coastlines and mountainous areas to detect smugglers and other unwanted situations.

5. Other Sectors

In addition to the applications described above, intelligent connectivity may enable innovation in many other contexts.

USE CASE 1: Virtual personal assistants, for example, could be further empowered by the combination of 5G and AI and make it much faster and easier to retrieve information, make reservations or buy goods.

USE CASE 2: Cloud-based gaming servers could allow players to enjoy videogames without the need for bulky and expensive equipment, while making their experiences more immersive through the use of AR/VR visors and devices with haptic feedback.

USE CASE 3: 3D hologram displays could provide users with a realistic feeling of a live sporting or music event in a location far away, while comfortably sitting at home or in a nearby location specifically equipped for that purpose.

Furthermore, the combination of AI capabilities with the massive capacity of 5G networks would further enhance the real-time collection and analysis of data from sensor networks, increasing the efficiency of how we use energy, irrigate fields or distribute goods while reducing waste and pollution. The table below shows some examples of existing 5G trials that could be a solid foundation for intelligent connectivity trials.

From vision to reality

The applications described provide a good representation of what the intelligent connectivity concept may enable. While some may seem farfetched, others are already possible today and, in some cases, already deployed – although leveraging different connectivity technologies than 5G, such as LTE, Wi-Fi or fibre. The powerful combination of 5G, AI and big data coming from the IoT would provide the basis to enable the most futuristic applications, while allowing the ones already possible today to reach their full potential.

Takeaway 1: It is too early to declare that the era of intelligent connectivity is already here.

Technologically speaking, the elements required to enable this vision are yet to reach maturity, in spite of the excitement in the mobile industry. Applications that involve aspects such as VR/AR, the tactile internet or self-driven vehicles are still at a very early stage of development, with lots of technical and regulatory issues that still need to be solved. IoT Analytics believes it will take at least another five to ten years before these issues are solved and the application scenarios described earlier become viable.

5G is also still at an early stage of deployment, however in the past couple of years mobile operators have made quick progress with the development and testing of 5G technologies, and the standardisation process is expected to be completed in 2020 with 3GPP release 16. Only after that point will the industry start to see the first 5G networks that can really provide the performance improvements promised by the technology.

Takeaway 2: The main challenge is to ensure intelligent connectivity technologies fit with the real needs of the industry and society.

Reaching such technological maturity is not the main problem here. Technologically speaking, the industry will get there eventually. The real challenge is to make sure these intelligent connectivity technologies fit with the actual needs of the industry and society. Technology providers often tend to push heavily technologies without properly assessing the real demand for it. And by doing so the risk is that on the other side there is no one really ready to embrace it.

The 5G example is probably the most prominent. There is no doubt that 5G will enable improvements in virtually all industries. However, operators have realised that there are no compelling business cases yet to motivate the huge investment it would require to build the infrastructure, especially when it comes to ultra-low latency and massive connectivity. This doesn’t mean that no one needs it, but simply that the expected improvements in terms of productivity, efficiency and monetary returns
are not deemed enough to justify its cost. We believe this is the aspect where the industry still has to mature, in determining the actual needs of the technology users.

Takeaway 3: Media and entertainment will be the primary business case for 5G in the short run.

In the short term, operators have identified the media and entertainment industry as their primary business case for 5G. Consumers want more bandwidth and higher speed to be able to watch Netflix, do video calls and stream live videos to their Facebook and Instagram accounts from any place at any time. The story is simpler here, and easier to sell. Following that, the automotive sector seems to be quite promising as well. The connected car environment is quite mature on an IoTcontext, new consumer-facing services have emerged, and people are willing to spend money for it. But beyond these two sectors, the story seems to be more uncertain.

Conclusion

There are a lot of promising use cases, however there is still much to be done before we reach the intelligent connectivity era. Technologies have to mature, policies have to be perfected and – lots of – money has to be spent. However, if all the parties interested in this cooperate towards this common goal we’ll eventually get there. For more information on intelligent connectivity check out the IoT Analytics’ existing LPWAN connectivity report and upcoming report on 5G.

In case of questions you can contact the author Eugenio Pasqua HERE. 

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage (Enterprise subscription) with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time, contact us now and tell us what you are specifically interested in.

This article was also published in the IoTNow magazine. 

The post How 5G, AI and IoT enable “Intelligent Connectivity” appeared first on IoT Analytics.

Smart City IoT projects are becoming fundamental for city development. The EIP-SCC (European Innovation Partnership for Smart Cities and Communities), for example, is spending up to €1bn to develop 300 smart cities in Europe by the end of 2019. The opportunity is evident for IoT solution vendors – in an analysis performed by IoT Analytics in Q1/2018, Smart City was the #1 implementation area of all IoT projects globally.

IoT Analytics recently launched its Smart City Research Series in order to provide market insights and strategic recommendations on how to engage with this complex sector. The Research Series explores different smart city applications such as:

• Connected Street Lights
• Smart Parking
• Smart Metering (release date Q2 2019)
• And more…

The analysis shows that markets are growing, but at paces not necessarily comparable with other IoT sectors such as Connected Industry (CAGRs >30%). The Connected Street Lights market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 21% between 2018-2022 while the Smart Parking market is growing at a CAGR of 14% during the same period.

Considering the complex nature of Smart City IoT projects in public service areas, the growth rates are very promising. In most cases, projects are inspired by digital transformation policies of municipalities. However, as public sector organisations need to consider various city stakeholders (e.g., projects are subject to strong public accountability) the procurement process can be cumbersome and time consuming.

In this article we share 5 key insights emerging from the 350 smart city IoT projects analysed by IoT Analytics as well as subsequent discussions with city decision makers.

1.      Sensor networks should be strategically designed with appropriate sensors for specific environments

Two of the most important principles when choosing sensors for smart city IoT projects are:

1. a) the context in which the solution is deployed and
2. b) the results that need to be achieved.

For example, in the case of smart parking, magnetometers are best suited for outdoor smart parking environments as they are resistant to weather interferences and lighting conditions. On the other hand, video camera sensors are well suited for off-street parking locations such as garages and parking lots – as they are easy to deploy and their performance is affected by lighting and weather conditions.

Magnetometers and video camera sensors are just two options for smart parking projects. IoT Analytics’ recent Smart Parking report has identified 8 types of sensors currently used in smart parking projects. The report also defined several criteria that can help smart parking designers to identify the right sensors for their projects as showed in the table below.

2.     LPWAN and 4G/5G are becoming the key connectivity choices for smart city applications

As with sensor selection, choosing the right form of connectivity depends on the solution that needs to be deployed. For example, if the smart city solution requires video monitoring of parking spaces or streets through surveillance systems on lighting poles, the connectivity option should offer the necessary bandwidth. In that case, cellular technologies (4G and the coming 5G) are the most appropriate connectivity solution. In cases of low data traffic (e.g., presence sensors, lighting intensity sensors), LPWANs, in their various forms – as shown in the picture below, are the most suitable connectivity solution for smart city IoT projects. IoT-Analytics’ recent research on LPWANs reveals that smart parking and connected street lighting are the most adopted smart city applications using LPWAN – while smart metering is the largest adopter of LPWAN in all sectors.

3.      Software middleware tools are the central backbone to successful smart city IoT projects

Smart city IoT projects provide a new view of the city via sensors and the data they gather. The landscape of sensors must be managed remotely. The data gathered must be used for analysing the behaviour of the solutions, for predicting malfunctions, and, most importantly, for taking decisions that can positively impact the life of city inhabitants. All that requires a set of software middleware tools as the central backbone of the smart city solution. For example, the architecture of a smart parking software middleware tool is shown in the picture below.

This architecture can be provided by a number of players such as , smart city software solution specialists or even traditional vertical solution specialists (e.g., parking companies, lighting companies, etc). For example, there are several IoT platform providers with strong experience in smart cities and communities such as theThings.io, Verizon ThingSpace, and well-known players such as Microsoft Azure and AWS. Others offer software solutions for specific applications or in some cases more holistic smart city IoT projects such as Living Plan IT, UrbanOS, Chordant by , and Interact by Signify (formerly Philips Lighting).

Choosing the right vendor is not easy, but it is a necessary step . There are several examples of cities using software middleware solutions such as Silverstone (Chordant), Montevideo (FIWARE), Toronto (Microsoft Azure), Manchester (consortium including CISCO), and Almere Smart City (Plan IT Urban OS). More insights on IoT platforms can be found in the extensive IoT-Analytics market report on the topic.

4.      Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) are the most dominant financial and operational modus operandi for smart city IoT projects

Smart city IoT projects clearly have a strong public sector nature. However, municipalities cannot deliver smart city applications on their own as, often, they cannot afford the financial investment and/or they lack the necessary technical and managerial resources for running the project. Public-private partnerships are becoming an important way of overcoming that situation. In a typical PPP set-up, a private entity will finance the design, deployment and management of the smart city project. At the end of the collaboration, the private entity will transfer the smart parking facilities to the public local authority at zero cost.

For example, the Chicago Parking Meter project is a PPP. A concession was granted the project against an upfront payment of US$1.2bn. The concession is involved in running, maintaining, and improving over 36,000 on-street parking meters and retains the generated revenues. The local authority in Chicago is only in charge of parking law enforcement.

5.      Main barriers to adoption of smart city IoT projects are not technology related

Almost everywhere in the world, cities have embarked on smart city IoT projects. IoT Analytics has identified and assessed 350+ projects to find some common challenges cities are currently facing. Surprisingly technology related aspects were not highlighted as the main barriers to adoption. For example, recent IoT Analytics’ research shows the key challenges observed in smart lighting projects.

Funding was the #1 barrier due to budget constraints and various non-IoT priorities of governing bodies of cities. Silos were the #2 barrier as most smart city IoT projects are vertically driven rather than a holistic smart city approach. Politics was the #3 barrier identified as the complexity of smart city IoT projects touches multiple stakeholders including the general public which can be cumbersome and time consuming.

However, governing bodies can learn how to solve these challenges by looking at other successful project approaches. For example, projects such as Paris’ City of Light and Madrid’s Connected Lighting Project show how public-private partnerships are good models to overcome cost issues. Furthermore, the move from a vertical project-based view of smart cities to a more holistic view has been successfully addressed by cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam and Bristol. Finally involving all stakeholders early on to gather opinion and ideas can help reduce friction and avoid damaging politics in smart city project design.

Further Information

This article builds upon IoT-Analytics’ experience in smart city IoT projects. It also heavily relies on several IoT-Analytics’ reports.

If you are interested in smart city IoT projects, the insights discussed in this article are based on details in the following reports:

Smart Parking Market Report 2019-2023

Connected Streetlights Market Report 2018-2023

If you want to expand your knowledge and understanding of LPWAN technologies and their role in smart city IoT projects, you can also look at the following report:

LPWAN Market Report 2018-2023

For a detailed analysis of IoT platforms and the IoT platform vendor landscape, please refer to the following reports:

IoT Platforms Market Report 2018-2023

IoT Platforms Vendor Comparison 2018

Finally, if you are interested in continued IoT coverage and updates (such as this one), subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Linkedin and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage (Entire Subscription) with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content and reports including dedicated analyst time.

The post 5 Key Insights from 350 Smart City IoT Projects appeared first on IoT Analytics.

Hannover Messe (or Hannover Fair) has established itself as the #1 global industrial tradeshow (215,000 visitors and 6,500 exhibitors). The event that took place from April 1-5, 2019 in Hannover, Germany showcased once again the latest developments and industrial IoT trends. The fairgrounds were buzzing and filled with senior executives from most (if not almost all) of the leading industrial hardware, software and service providers. It is one of those rare fairs where you randomly walk into senior executives, like a Head of Engineering for a major industrial conglomerate, and not only into pre-sales people that are giving you the usual pitch.

IoT Analytics had a team of 3 analysts on the ground, visited ~150 booth, conducted ~80 individual interviews and attended ~20 presentations – with the aim to get a handle on the current state of industrial IoT trends and to find out how digital is impacting manufacturing.

Top industrial IoT trends at HMI 2019: 5G, IoT, Cloud

We related our findings to an analysis of articles and press announcements (media analysis) corresponding to different technology topics that were released before or at Hannover Fair. This is the outcome:

5G was the most discussed industrial IoT topic at Hannover Fair 2019 but it didn’t live up to the hype.

The media analysis reveals that 5G was mentioned most often in articles, followed by the terms IoT, Cloud, Platforms and MES. Our examination of the “5G for industry” area showed that there was rather little interest compared to other areas of the fair. We found that while there is a vision for closed-loop manufacturing using 5G, many experts remain skeptical (for various reasons discussed in our detailed Hannover Messe analysis for IoT Analytics corporate subscribers). Those discussions also showed that “5G for industry” has a number of challenges that still need to be overcome, and in factory settings 5G is likely to only touch smaller, well-defined use cases in the near future (most notably Automated Guided Vehicles AGVs).

IoT was everywhere

Vendors of all types (hardware, software and services) and sizes (start-ups to MNCs) were touting their new “connected” and “IoT” offerings. We counted at least 6 PLC / remote I/O vendors that now offer or will soon offer “IIoT-enabled” hardware: Wago (PFC200), Jumo (variTRON 500), Schneider Electric (Modicon M262), Turck (TBEN-L-PLC), Weidmüller (UC20-WL2000-IOT) and Kunbus (RevPi Connect).

Cloud firms stole the show

Cloud did live up to the hype. The booths of cloud vendors like Microsoft and AWS clearly had the highest amount of traffic at the fair while the stands of other notable software vendors in the same hall were much less in demand. The one cloud company that was absent from the fair was Google.

Upcoming industrial IoT trends at HMI 2019: Cobots, Digital Twin, Predictive Maintenance

Compared to Hannover fair 2018, the following industrial IoT trends saw the biggest increase in media coverage: Cobots, digital twin and Predictive Maintenance.

Cobots – robots are becoming mobile and collaborative

Leading collaborative robot vendors (such as ABB, Fanuc, Kuka and others) had large booths promoting how their latest cobots are safer and easier to use. Many of the demonstrations coupled the cobots with other Industry 4.0 support technologies, such as self-driving vehicles (mobile collaborative robots), machine vision (part identification) and additive manufacturing (custom grippers).

Digital twin – physical devices get their virtual counterpart

A number of companies were showing how they have started to develop a digital software replica of some of their assets, often referred to as either “Digital Twin” or “Asset administration shell”. ABB and Festo for example have built digital twins in accordance with the “Plattform Industrie 4.0 asset administration shell (AASX)” standard and were highlighting how this enables a standardized way to quickly connect and analyze data from various assets.

Predictive Maintenance – becoming part of the overall maintenance workflow

The fair showed that a lot of companies are trialing Predictive Maintenance of their assets. In order to keep up with that trend, some of the leading maintenance software providers (CMMS software) discussed how they are now integrating both their own and third-party Predictive Maintenance/Condition Monitoring results into their workflow software. IBM Maximo, for example, has created a suite of tools for engineers to create workflows that act on a probabilistic chance of an asset failing rather than a preventive schedule.

More information and further reading

The analyst team at IoT Analytics has created a 40-page Hannover Messe post-show report which highlights 55 insights from the fair in-depth with pictures and interview quotes. Most of the above-mentioned industrial technologies are discussed in detail. The report also includes a section on 6 of the leading industrial IoT providers (ABB, Bosch, Microsoft, PTC, Schneider Electric, Siemens). The report is available for all IoT Analytics corporate research subscribers.

If you are not a corporate research subscriber you may take a sneak peak by requesting a sample HERE.

This short event recap video from our team also talks about some of the highlights

For continued (free) IoT coverage and updates such as this one, don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Linkedin or Twitter.

The post The top 20 Industrial IoT trends – as showcased at Hannover Messe 2019 appeared first on IoT Analytics.

PRESS RELEASE: Hamburg, Germany – 30 April 2019 //

IoT Analytics, a leading provider of market insights & competitive intelligence for the Internet of Things (IoT), M2M, and Industry 4.0, today published a comprehensive 155-page market report on Industrial IoT Platforms for Manufacturing 2019-2024.

The research uncovers that the Industrial IoT Platforms market is accelerating in 2019 as more and more industrial manufacturers prioritize their transformation into IoT data-driven companies. Spending on Industrial IoT Platforms-related software and services for connected manufacturing solutions is forecast to grow at a rate of 40% per year until 2024.

Report Insight:

Discrete manufacturing identified as the #1 area for Industrial IoT Platforms for Manufacturing in terms of market spending by 2024

• Among other things, the report highlights how IoT platforms are increasingly being used for optimizing discrete manufacturing products and environments. Discrete manufacturers (e.g., in automotive, industrial machinery) are faced with unprecedented pressures (e.g., mass customization, decreasing product lifecycle span) to transform what they design, build, sell and service while remaining competitive in today’s increasingly connected world. As part of this digital transformation, discrete manufacturers are investing in new technologies that leverage the capabilities of IoT, cloud, and big data analytics to enhance their ability to innovate and maximize return on their assets. Industrial IoT Platforms are being implemented as the central backbone of these discrete manufacturing environments enabling remote command, continuous sensing capabilities from equipment on the factory floor, giving access to new streams of data, and supporting new capabilities such as predictive maintenance. The aim is to drive greater efficiencies and productivity throughout operations in the plant, deliver higher-quality outputs, and increase profitability. For example, Jabil (a manufacturing solutions provider for a range of industries such as automotive, energy and aerospace) is using Microsoft Azure’s IoT Suite to integrate predictive analytics in real-time manufacturing environments to help create the ‘Factory of the Future’ by increasing the throughput of products while simultaneously decreasing the chance of waste and the need for human touch.

Report Content Overview:

The Industrial IoT Platforms for Manufacturing report forecasts a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 40% over the time frame of 2019-2024, with annual spending surpassing US$12.4 Billion by 2024. These numbers are based on the industrial IoT Platforms related revenue of the leading companies in the field, across 21 manufacturing industry subsegments (including Manufacturing of Chemicals, Machinery, Transportation equipment, Fabricated metal, Primary metal, Nonmetallic Minerals, Food, Plastics & Rubber, Petroleum, Paper, Wood, Printing, Textiles, Computers & Electronics, Electrical Equipment & Appliances, Beverage & Tobacco, Apparel, Furniture, Leather, Miscellaneous, and Other). The market is broken down into two distinct categories of within factory versus outside factory environments. Within factory environments are further broken down into discrete, process and batch manufacturing providing spending forecasts for across the 21 manufacturing subsegments.

The Industrial IoT Platforms for Manufacturing market is broken down into 7 regions (Asia, Europe, North America, MEA, South America, Oceania, Rest of World), 5 platform types (cloud platforms, application enablement platforms, device management platforms, TelCo connectivity platforms, advanced analytics platforms), and 4 deployment types (on-premise, hosted private cloud, hybrid cloud, public cloud).

In developing the 155-page report, the analyst team at IoT Analytics studied over 150 technology companies that offer industrial IoT platforms technology elements for the manufacturing industry and reviewed 260 implemented industrial IoT projects. Further input to the report included surveys from leading industrial IoT platforms providers and end-users. In addition, 30+ industry interviews and numerous expert discussions at 15+ leading IoT conferences. 

The Industrial IoT Platforms for Manufacturing report also calls out 7 major industry trends as well as various challenges, adoption barriers for technology providers as well as the needs and perspective of customers.

Commenting on the report findings, IoT Analytics Managing Director Knud Lasse Lueth said:

“In the last 2-3 years, many manufacturers have woken up and realized that IoT and digital will be impacting their business tremendously. These companies are at an important inflection point, performing lots of industrial IoT Proof-of-Concept projects, getting an understanding of what works for them and what doesn’t. As part of these PoCs, IoT Platforms have increasingly become a central part of the overall technology solution. Using IoT Platforms as the unifying backbone, selected OEMs have started to monetize software alongside the actual physical product that they have been selling for years. Some OEMs even started their journey to sell equipment-as-a-service (EaaS) with the help of an IoT Platform. I expect this to become a major trend in the coming years but it will still take a while until EaaS is a dominant theme in the industry.”

The Market Report is available to download HERE.

A sample of the market report can be downloaded HERE.

About IoT Analytics

IoT Analytics is the leading provider of market insights & competitive intelligence for the Internet of Things (IoT), M2M, and Industry 4.0. The specialized data-driven research firm helps more than 40,000 Internet of Things decision-makers understand IoT markets every month. IoT Analytics tracks important data around the IoT ecosystem such as M&A activity, Startup funding, company projects, use cases and latest developments. Product offerings include in-depth market reports, technical whitepapers, sponsored research, regular newsletter, as well as Go2Market and consulting services. As a research pioneer, IoT Analytics combines traditional methods of market research such as interviews and surveys with state-of-the art web-mining tools to generate high-caliber insights. IoT Analytics is headquartered in Hamburg, Germany.

Industrial IoT Platforms for Manufacturing 2019-2024 – Market Report Structure

Executive summary

Introduction to IoT platforms (general)

       1.1 Role of IoT platforms in the IoT

       1.2 Definition of IoT platforms

       1.3 Industrial IoT platforms for Manufacturing

Technical overview

       2.1 Technology segmentation

       2.2 Hosting environment

       2.3 Application deployment architecture

       2.4 Security elements of the platform

       2.5 Role of edge computing

       2.6 Role of digital twins

       2.7 Role of interoperability and standardization

       2.8 Role of data analytics and AI

Market analysis

       3.1 Market characteristics overview

       3.2 General IoT platforms market (incl. non-manufacturing)

       3.3 Industrial IoT platforms for Manufacturing Market size (by technology, deployment type, within outside factory environments, discrete, process, batch, subsegments, and by region)

Customer needs, use cases and case studies

       4.1 Customer needs

       4.2 End user use cases and case studies

       4.3 OEM case studies

Market trends and challenges

       5.1-7 Trend 1-7

       5.8 Challenges / adoption barriers

Appendix

Companies Mentioned (selection from report)

Amazon AWS, Ayla Networks, Bosch, C3 IoT, Carriots, Cisco, Emerson, Evrythng, Fanuc, Foghorn, Fujitsu, GE, Google, Greenwave, Honeywell, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, PTC, Relayr, Rockwell, Schneider Electric, SAP, Siemens, Software AG, Tencent, Uptake, Verizon, and more…

Further Information

Direct Purchase/Request a Sample

• The Market Report is available to download HERE
• Sample of the market report can be downloaded HERE.

Bespoke Research on the topic

• If you are considering a project of a similar nature or require related research services, get in contact with our bespoke research team to see how we could assist you. Contact us: research@iot-analytics.com
• If you are already in the process of implementing a project of this nature, check out our supporting documents website: iot-analytics.com

Sales & Marketing

• For all other sales, marketing or partnership related inquiries please contact our Head of Sales, Leon Whyte: sales@iot-analytics.com

Public Relations

• For further comments or more information on this press release, please contact: Stephanie Baumann press@iot-analytics.com

The post Industrial IoT Platforms for Manufacturing market to become a $12.4B opportunity by 2024, driven by deployments in discrete manufacturing environments appeared first on IoT Analytics.

In short

• New 180-page report on IoT Platforms. IoT Analytics released the 2019 IoT Platform End-User Satisfaction Report, that ranks the best IoT Platforms based on 800+ data points from actual users of various IoT Platforms.
• 4 in 5 users report positive IoT Platform ROI. An overwhelming 80% of users reported positive ROI of their IoT Platform investments, highlighting how viable IoT Platforms have become in 2019. This finding is in strong contrast to other studies that report large numbers of failed IoT projects.
• Cloud firms score best. End-users are most satisfied with the IoT Platform capabilities of big cloud companies – there are some exceptions.
• AWS IoT and Microsoft Azure IoT are top. AWS IoT is the best IoT Platform globally by end-user satisfaction. Users praise their various IoT services, particularly Analytics and Device Management and mention other stand-out aspects such as “usability”. Microsoft Azure IoT also scored “best-in-class” on several aspects, including “security features”.
• Several smaller providers stand out. Several IoT Platforms provided by startups and SMEs were rated highly. The most notable ones are MyDevices and Adamos.
• Variety of IoT Platform use cases. IoT Platforms are used for many different use cases – besides general dashboards and process improvement initiatives, using IoT Platforms for either condition monitoring or Predictive Maintenance are the most cited use cases.
• IoT Platforms are an important enabler for Artificial Intelligence. IoT Platforms play an increasingly central role for companies in their AI journey because the platforms ensure “standardized data collection and curation”.

Best IoT Platforms 2019

AWS and Azure take top spots. Amazon AWS IoT and Microsoft Azure IoT top the 2019 ranking of best IoT Platforms as reported by users of those platforms. Out of the hundreds of IoT Platforms on the market today, IoT Analytics shortlisted 50 and asked decision makers in organizations that have these platforms in use (or have tested them) how they made their platform selection decisions and what they did and did not like about individual vendors (on various different selection criteria). The top 25 platforms (in terms of popularity among those surveyed) made it into the final ranking.

Cloud firms dominate the ranking. Other providers of cloud technology also scored rather well, particularly Google, Oracle, and IBM. The common recurring themes for these vendors revolve around “ease of use”, “integration with other systems”, “scalability”, and great “support”. As a CTO of a municipality in Asia commented:

“The cloud platforms enable quick learning and setup along with practically immediate scalability. This ease of entry, usability, and integration with related platform services has led to a comprehensive offering particularly for collection, store and analysis of IoT data.”

8 platforms classified as “Leaders”. Besides the already mentioned firms, Cisco Kinetic, Verizon Thingspace and PTC Thingworx complete the picture of best IoT platforms. Both Cisco and PTC scored particularly well with industrial/manufacturing users. Cisco Kinetic particularly excels with their “connectivity management features”. Out of all telecommunications IoT platforms, Verizon Thingspace scored best.

Upcoming IoT Platforms. In order to understand how some of the smaller startups and SMEs are stacking up, the report has a dedicated section on “Upcoming Platforms”. Those providers are scoring particularly well with customers but are too small to be considered in the main ranking. The two providers that stand out are MyDevices Cayenne and Adamos. MyDevices scored particularly well for its user centricity, Adamos stands out for its platform technology targeted at machine builders.

Co-opetition among providers. It is important to note that not all IoT Platforms are completely comparable because features, capabilities, and sector strengths vary. In fact, some vendors may claim that another vendor is rather a “partner” than a competitor. This statement is particularly often made for cloud providers. The customer-view shows why: Many customers choose more than one IoT platform provider, often with a set of unique and a set of overlapping features. The recent announcement of Volkswagen to connect their factories (Industrial Cloud) through a combination of AWS/AWS IoT features and Siemens Mindsphere features is a good example of that.

Other report highlights

IoT Platform investments pay off. An overwhelming 80% of users reported positive ROI of their IoT Platform investments. This shows how viable and important IoT Platforms have become in 2019. The best IoT Platforms are often amortizing themselves in less than a year. This finding from the study is in strong contrast to other studies that have reported large numbers of failed IoT projects.

Variety of IoT Platform use cases. Dashboards and general process improvement initiatives are the top cited use cases for IoT Platforms. Condition Monitoring and Predictive Maintenance type of use cases represent the other top family of use cases cited.

IoT Platforms are an important enabler for Artificial Intelligence. As companies ramp up their AI initiatives, they often discover just how important IoT Platforms are as a necessary complement/building block. The study shows that companies pursuing AI initiatives, view IoT platforms as a crucial prerequisite for “standardized data collection and curation”.

Commenting on the findings of the study, IoT Analytics Managing Director Knud Lasse Lueth said:

“This study was purposely designed to take a very broad perspective of IoT Platforms. We looked at a wide variety of providers and surveyed a rather senior audience. I am particularly stunned by the positive ROI that people are reporting. A couple of years ago, many people were claiming that the IoT is failing. The data coming from this study shows quite the opposite and indicates that the millions of dollars spent in recent years by IoT platform providers to build out the technology is finally starting to pay off.”

More information and further reading

The full 180-page “IoT Platforms End User Satisfaction Report” is available for purchase HERE.

This report provides answers to the following questions:

• What are the needs of IoT Platform end-users (e.g., dominant platform selection criteria)?
• Which IoT Platforms are ranked best-in-class (by technology and main selection criteria)?
• What are the profiles of leading IoT platform vendors (incl. individual strengths and weaknesses of all 50 vendors)?
• What does the platform selection process look like (e.g., timeframe, methods to select the platform)?
• What are the dominant use cases that get implemented with the IoT Platforms?
• Which benefits and what kind of ROI are companies seeing from their IoT Platform investments?
• How are end-users thinking about the interplay of IoT Platform, edge, digital twin, and AI?
• Which smaller IoT Platforms (startups and SMEs) are scoring well with end-users?

A sample of the report can be downloaded HERE.

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time check out Enterprise subscription.

Report Methodology

• Type of research. Primary research via prequalified online survey
• Audience type. C-level / Senior predominantly in IT / Engineering domains with either technology end-users or system integrators
• Study timeframe. January – March 2019
• Region mix. 40% North America, ~25% Europe, ~25% APAC, ~10% MEA
• This survey has been designed to be as objective as possible. All respondents were randomly chosen from locations across the world and no responses were routed through any particular IoT Platform Vendors. All results are solely based on the survey findings and not the opinion of IoT Analytics analysts.

The post The 25 best IoT Platforms 2019 – based on customer reviews appeared first on IoT Analytics.

There are now more than 1,000 startups creating Internet of Things (IoT) products or services, according to the IoT Startups Report & Database 2019 by IoT Analytics.

Starting with a long-list of more than 3,000 companies that claim they work on Internet of Things solutions, the analyst team at IoT Analytics verified and classified 1,018 upcoming firms around the world that are active today, no older than 6 years and fit the definition of Internet of Things (see definition below). The analyst team then picked the top 10, based on 6 criteria:

1. Size of existing investment (>$10M or more)
2. Employee growth (>~50% in last 2 years)
3. Quality of partnerships/investors (Reputed companies / organizations)
4. Quality of team (Experience of board members)
5. Quality of customers (Reputed companies)
6. Analyst opinion (Known customer sentiment, market disruption potential, others)

List of Top IoT startups

While many of the 1,018 IoT startups that were screened do offer promising technology there are 10 that stand out according to the above (listed in alphabetical order):

1.      Arundo Analytics (IoT Middleware & Software Infrastructure)

Arundo Analytics is a hot IoT Startup that provides analytics software for industrial and energy companies. The company has formed several strategic alliances e.g., with Dell Technologies and WorleyParsons. Arundo has also formed a joint venture with DNV GL to provide stream data analytics for maritime companies. The board of directors includes Tore Myrholt, Senior Partner at McKinsey and Thomas Malone, the founding director of the MIT Center for Collective Intelligence. Recently, Arundo launched several applications incl. machine monitoring and fuel efficiency.

2.      Bright Machines (IoT Middleware & Software Infrastructure)

Bright Machines is currently the fastest growing IoT Startup, having grown from virtually zero at the beginning of 2018 to almost 200 employees a year later (April 2019). The firm focuses on “micro-factories” made up of its software and robot cells as well as new software tools that make manufacturing more efficient. The leadership team is filled with former executives from Autodesk and Flex, including Amar Hanspal, former Co-CEO of Autodesk and Mike McNamara former CEO of Flex. The company recently entered into a strategic partnership with BMW i Ventures.

3.      Dragos (IoT Middleware & Software Infrastructure)

Dragos is a cybersecurity startup that offers a software-defined security platform for manufacturers. The company has seen a 300%+ growth in headcount the last 2 years, and collaborates with GE, Deloitte, OSIsoft, ThreatConnect, Crowdstrike, and several other companies. The company recently acquired Atlanta-based NexDefense and collaborates with Waterfall Solution for a joint solution.

4.      Element (IoT Middleware & Software Infrastructure)

Element (also known as Element Analytics) is a fascinating IoT Startup that focuses on industrial analytics software such as Digital Twins, particularly in heavy industries. The company counts an impressive list of investors, including Kleiner Perkins, GE, Honeywell, and ABB. Element partners with Microsoft, Uptake, OSIsoft, and Radix (consulting).

5.      FogHorn (IoT Middleware & Software Infrastructure)

In recent years, US-based startup FogHorn has gained an excellent reputation with leading manufacturers and oil and gas organizations around the world for its real-time edge computing and analytics software. The company has seen an 89% employee growth in the past 2 years and has secured partnerships with 50+ industrial solution providers, OEMs, gateway providers, and consultants/SIs, including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft, Cisco, HP, NTT Data, and more. FogHorn is also a member of LF Edge, an umbrella organization to drive an open, interoperable framework for edge computing to accelerate deployment among the growing number of edge devices. Investors in FogHorn include The Hive, Bosch, Dell, GE, Honeywell, Intel, Saudi Aramco, and Yokogawa.

6.     Iguazio (IoT Middleware & Software Infrastructure)

Iguazio is a hot startup that provides a state-of-the-art data science platform for various verticals, including Industrial IoT, Smart Mobility, and Telecommunications. The company recently entered into collaborations with NVIDIA, Microsoft and Google. Iguazio markets its Nuclio platform product as a “serverless” framework for multi-cloud environments and is thus well-positioned for the next wave of cloud computing.

7.      IoTium (IoT Connectivity)

IoTium is a quickly upcoming IoT startup from the Silicon Valley area that focuses on software-defined network infrastructure in manufacturing and related verticals. The company has seen a 100%+ growth in headcount over the last 2 years and now counts John Chambers, former Cisco CEO, as an investor along with other well-known corporate investors incl. Juniper, Qualcomm, SafeNet and Wind River. The company is also very active in the EdgeX Foundry and recently joined the Siemens’ MindSphere partner program as a gold member.

8.      Preferred Networks (IoT Middleware & Software Infrastructure)

Preferred Networks is one of Japan’s IoT hot shots, focused on applying real time machine-learning technologies to new Internet of Things applications. The company has seen a 100%+ employee growth in the last 2 years and now collaborates with world leading organizations incl. Toyota Motor Corporation, Fanuc, and the National Cancer Center. The company is also very active in developing the deep-learning framework Chainer™ together with IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nvidia.

9.      READY Robotics (IoT Hardware)

READY Robotics is a rare robotics startup that is looking to benefit from the increasing automation and flexibilization of manufacturing processes around the world. The company emerged from the cutting-edge robotics research at Johns Hopkins University to develop their industrial robotic software called Forge.  The company has seen a 150%+ growth in headcount in the last 2 years and is now producing roughly 15 robot systems per month.

10.      SparkCognition (IoT Middleware & Software Infrastructure)

SparkCognition excels in AI-powered analytics, particularly in manufacturing and related verticals. SparkCognition has seen a 100%+ growth in headcount over the last 2 years. The company has launched Skygrid, a joint venture with Boeing and it has partnered with Siemens as part of its Mindsphere program. The company is also a Google Cloud Technology Partner and works with IBM as a trusted partner.

Other report findings

In addition to highlighting the top 10 IoT startups, the 62-page report presents the main findings from the analysis of the current IoT Startup landscape, based on the database of 1,000+ IoT Startups.  

Selected findings:

• IoT startups continue to attract millions of dollars. The total funding of all verified IoT startups to date stands at $3.6billion (see methodology for the definition of IoT startup). It shows that IoT continues to be a significant area of innovation, with some startups having raised $100M+ in less than 6 years.
• 7 of the top 10 IoT startups focus on Analytics/AI/Data Science. Analytics, AI, and Data Science are extremely hot topics right now from an IoT point of view. Startups that are focusing on the intersection of these 3 topics and IoT are seeing beyond-average funding amounts. Many of those have developed state-of-the-art software that is optimized for harnessing real time sensor data and learning from it continuously, catering to use cases such as increased automation and predictive maintenance for downtime prevention.
• Most IoT Startups focus on the manufacturing vertical. 30% of identified startups focus on Industrial/manufacturing clients. Industrial/manufacturing environments offer great potential for IoT disruption and in recent years the vertical has experienced high growth in the number of IoT deployments. Most of these startups are developing software to enhance operational efficiencies and create new factory and field applications e.g., interactive robots.
• North America is the #1 region of identified IoT Startups. 43% of the startups are founded in North America. USA and in particular the San Francisco Bay area is a traditional hotbed for tech startups with many reputed investors and a strong talent pool. The region has a relatively high share of Analytics, IoT Platform, and IoT Security focused startups while having a rather low share of hardware focused startups (e.g., complete IoT device solutions and other hardware).

Commenting on the findings, Knud Lasse Lueth, Managing Director of IoT Analytics said:

“8 years ago IoT hardware device startups like Nest (acquired by Google) were hot, 4 years ago IoT software platform startups like Relayr (acquired by MunichRe) were hot. The topic landscape continues to shift. The hot IoT startups today have a strong focus on data analytics and AI and are increasingly targeting industrial and manufacturing clients. It remains to be seen how much of the analytics technology that today’s startups are building will really be scalable across IoT use cases and across industries. For now, most of the IoT startups are adding value in specific industries or for specific use cases.”

Methodology

The methodology for this research involved analyzing ~3,000 companies, and selecting those offering products or services for IoT. This resulted in over 1,000 companies making it into the database. From this database, the Top 10 (1%) of IoT startups were determined based on 6 criteria (see chart).

Definition of the Internet of Things: IoT Analytics defines the Internet of Things as a network of internet-enabled physical objects. Objects that become internet-enabled (IoT devices) typically interact via embedded systems, some form of network communications, as well as a combination of edge and cloud computing. The data from IoT-connected devices is often (but not exclusively) used to create novel end-user applications. Connected personal computers, tablets, and smartphones are not considered IoT, although these may be part of the solution setup. Devices connected via extremely simple connectivity methods such as RFID or QR-codes are not considered IoT devices.

More information and further reading

The full 62-page report (+ 1,018 line item database) titled “IoT Startups Report & Database 2019” is available for purchase HERE.

This report provides the following analysis:

• Global IoT Startup analysis, by founded year
• Average funding per startup by Technology layer focus
• Global IoT Startup analysis, by Technology focus type
• Total & average IoT Startup funding by Technology focus type
• Breakdown of IoT Startups by industry
• Funding of IoT Startups by industry
• Global distribution of IoT Startups by region, country, and city analysis
• Regional deep-dive IoT Startup analysis
• IoT Startup employee analysis, by department and region
• Average funding per employee by region, segment, and technology
• And More

A sample of the report and the database can be downloaded here.

Continued IoT coverage and updates 

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time check out Enterprise subscription.

The post The Top 10 IoT Startups 2019 appeared first on IoT Analytics.

IT and OT both started on individual paths in the 70s and slowly converged in the 90s and 2000s to form today’s widely accepted 5-layer architecture. Over the past few decades, hundreds of successful companies such as Wonderware (SCADA/MES), Modicon (PLC) and Keyence (I/O) began providing products and services for each of the different layers in the 5-layer stack.

As we head into 2020, the clear lines between the 5-layers are becoming more blurred than ever before. Early adopters of new industrial connectivity technologies and protocols are creating new data collection architectures that challenge the 5-layer architecture status quo and promise to usher in a new area of more scalable, cost-effective and purpose-built industrial connectivity solutions.

IoT Analytics’ latest Industrial Connectivity Market Report 2019-2024 looks at the different industrial connectivity architectures, components and protocols that are being deployed to create industrial data collection solutions. Here are 5 key industrial connectivity trends that emerged from the research:

1.   ~50% of industrial assets in factories will be connected by 2020

An increasing number of industrial asset operators and manufacturers are adding industrial connectivity to their assets. IoT Analytics’ latest report finds that by 2020, ~50% of industrial assets in factories will be connected to some form of on-premise or remote data collection system. The proportion of connected assets is projected to continue to rise and will be a key growth driver of the 5% CAGR that the $38.2B industrial connectivity market is projected to have between now and 2024.

Industrial connectivity hardware (such as gateways, PLCs, and remote I/O modules) is by far the largest industrial connectivity segment; however, the faster-growing software and services segments will take an increasing share of the spend by 2024 as more processing moves away from gateways and PLCs and into industrial PCs and datacenters. The solutions segment of the market will also grow faster than the overall market, as an increasing number of factories opt for end-to-end data collection solutions that bypass the traditional automation pyramid and send data directly to the cloud.

2.      340+ industrial connectivity vendors are fighting for market share

There are now more than 340 companies in the Industrial Connectivity market. The hardware and services segments contain the largest number vendors (170+ and 130+, respectively), and they are home to the two largest sub-segments: gateways (70+ vendors) and OT integration (100+ vendors). These large sub-segments are particularly fragmented despite ongoing consolidation; in 2019 at least four companies in these segments were acquired, including Comtrol Corp. (by Pepperl+Fuchs), Maestro Wireless (by Lantronix), Trimax (by Tesco Controls) and JR Automation (by Hitachi).

3.   New edge-to-cloud architectures

As the top of the traditional 5-layer automation pyramid consolidates and moves to the cloud, new industrial connectivity architectures are being used to achieve direct edge-to-cloud connectivity.

The traditional method of communication through centralized SCADA and MES systems usually depends on OPC servers to translate Industrial Ethernet and fieldbus protocols into OPC compatible protocols. Technological advancements in A. Connectivity, B. Computing Hardware, and C. Software enable new connectivity architectures that bypass the traditional automation stack and provide direct edge-to-cloud connectivity.

1. Connectivity: Companies like Oleumtech and WellAware are using novel connectivity protocols, in this case LPWAN networks (SigFox and RPMA, respectively), to connect their industrial sensors directly to the cloud.
2. Computing Hardware: Industrial PC manufacturers like HPE or PLC/RTU manufacturers like Advantech are taking advantage of low-cost edge computing by developing products that can run software applications which enable edge-to-cloud industrial connectivity.
   • HPE’s Edgeline industrial PC has been optimized to run a variety of industrial connectivity software applications, including HPE’s Edgeline OT Link, Kepware’s industrial connectivity software, and Softing’s dataFEED OPC Suite
   • Advantech’s ADAM-3600 RTU natively supports connectivity to the Azure cloud
3. Software: Industrial connectivity software vendors are now offering software specifically designed to run on edge devices as small as a Raspberry Pi. To streamline the connectivity process and reduce integration costs, edge connectivity software vendors have created partner programs that pre-certify industrial connectivity hardware from 3^rd party vendors. Examples of hardware pre-certification programs include: 
   • Inductive Automation’s Ignition Edge Onboard program
   • Microsoft’s Azure Certified for IoT program
   • Telit’s deviceWISE Ready Partner program

4.   Software enables small firms to challenge incumbents

More powerful edge processing, the increasing popularity of Linux, and new virtualization technologies are helping drive two key trends that are enabling smaller and medium-sized industrial automation vendors (SMEs) to better compete with the larger incumbents:

1. De-coupling of hardware and software. Traditional industrial connectivity included embedded software that was written specifically for that hardware. Moving forward, industrial connectivity hardware will be Linux-based and able to run variety of 3^rd party industrial connectivity software applications. Factories and machine builders alike are adopting these de-coupled, Linux-based solutions in part because they help avoid hardware vendor lock-in and enable more scalable and future-proof architectures.
2. Consolidation of the hardware stack. Industrial connectivity functions such as protocol conversion, cloud connectivity, and even process control can now be performed on a single piece of Linux-based hardware using software from 3^rd parties. Combining all of this functionality within a single device (such as an industrial PC or data center) can dramatically reduce hardware costs for end users who have traditionally purchased separate pieces of equipment to perform each function.

Small and medium-sized industrial automation hardware vendors (such as those in the picture above) have been leading the way in offering Linux-based industrial connectivity hardware that takes advantage of the above-mentioned trends. Many of the large incumbents are faced with an innovator’s dilemma and are dis-incentivized to take advantage of these trends because doing so could lower their existing customers’ switching costs and potentially cannibalize highly profitable existing businesses.

Two hardware-agnostic software applications that are enabling these trends are CODESYS and Node-RED.

1. CODESYS is an IEC 61131-3 compliant software-based PLC that runs on Linux and is embedded in a wide range of Linux-based industrial connectivity hardware offerings, including remote I/O (such as the Beijer Electronics BREN577), PLCs / RTUs (such as the KEB C6 Smart), HMIs (such as the Turck TX500) and gateways (such as the TTTech Nerve). By writing PLC programs in a hardware-agnostic software platform like CODESYS, factories and machine builders are able to more seamlessly execute control logic on different types of industrial hardware. This flexibility has a number of advantages, including better negotiating power with hardware vendors, avoidance of expensive PLC conversion projects (e.g. PLC-5 migrations) and the ability to more seamlessly scale up computing power as requirements evolve.
2. Another Linux-based software offering is Node-RED, which is the most popular open-source software tool for enabling (among other things) protocol conversion and edge-to-cloud connectivity. Industrial connectivity hardware vendors that support Node-RED in their offerings include Advantech and at least 12 others.

5.   New industrial connectivity protocols

IO-Link, OPC UA and MQTT are emerging as the fastest growing I/O, OT and IT protocols, respectively, as vendors and end users alike look to capture richer industrial datasets more efficiently. A key barrier preventing more widespread adoption of the OPC UA and MQTT protocols is the lack of widely adopted data structure standards. Efforts are being made to establish standard data structures (such as OPC UA companion specifications), but in practice most installations resolve to using custom data structures corresponding to custom PLC tag structures. Despite these remaining challenges, many industrial connectivity vendors have introduced products that natively support these protocols, such as:

• IO-Link remote I/O modules (10+ vendors, including ifm’s IO-Link masters) 
• PLCs with native OPC UA servers (5+ vendors, including Schneider Electric’s M262)
• IoT and SCADA platforms with native support for MQTT (10+ vendors, including Microsoft’s Azure IoT)
• Gateway vendors with native support for MQTT (10+ vendors, including Hilscher’s netIOT gateways)

Further reading

Interested in learning more about the industrial connectivity market?

The 5 trends discussed in this article are explored in much further depth, including numerous additional examples, in the 159-page Industrial Connectivity Market Report 2019-2024. The report takes a deeper look at the industrial connectivity market, including architectures, protocols, hardware, software, services, solutions, key players, case studies and trends. The study, published in August 2019, also includes an industrial connectivity case studies database (60+ case studies), vendor list (340+ vendors) and market model data (21 tables) in Excel format.

A sample of the report and the database can be downloaded here.

Interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? 

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time check out our Enterprise subscription.

The post 5 Industrial connectivity trends driving the IT-OT convergence appeared first on IoT Analytics.

There are hundreds of software, hardware and connectivity technologies that are relevant for IoT-type projects.

As part of the “State of the IoT – Summer 2019 Update”, the analyst team at IoT Analytics handpicked 43 of the most promising technologies that are relevant to IoT projects around the globe. The team ranked the IoT technologies according to their perceived maturity (based on expert interviews, vendor briefings, secondary research, and conference attendances).

The resulting Emerging IoT Technologies Radar serves as a guide for anyone working in IoT-type environments and projects to understand what technologies they should be watching, evaluating, and perhaps deploying. Many of the topics highlighted on the radar are discussed in much more depth in the State of the IoT 2019 Q1/Q2 Update report.

Here is the complete list of all software, hardware, and connectivity IoT technologies (each ranked by maturity):

A.     IoT Software Technologies

B.     IoT Hardware Technologies

C.     IoT Connectivity Technologies

What the radar measures and what it does not measure?

Technology maturity. The radar shows a subjective measure of maturity as put together by the analyst team at IoT Analytics. The maturity scores are developed based on expert interviews, vendor briefings, secondary research, and conference attendances. The radar is targeted at IoT practitioners that deploy IoT.

The Internet of Things. IoT Analytics defines the Internet of Things as a network of internet-enabled physical objects. Objects that become internet-enabled (IoT devices) typically interact via embedded systems, some form of network communications, as well as a combination of edge and cloud computing. The data from IoT-connected devices is often (but not exclusively) used to create novel end-user applications. Connected personal computers, tablets, and smartphones are not considered IoT, although these may be part of the solution setup. Devices connected via extremely simple connectivity methods such as RFID or QR-codes are not considered IoT devices.

Relevance of individual technologies. Not every technology is relevant for a given IoT context. Some technologies may be purely used in specific IoT settings (e.g., LPWAN for remote, low-power applications), others are used in a variety of settings and IoT only plays a minor role (e.g., Cloud computing which is also used in many non-IoT scenarios).  IoT Analytics is aware that there are many more technologies out there that could be highlighted in such a radar.

Other selected research findings

In addition to the 2019 Emerging Technologies Radar, the 96-page “State of the IoT” report presents 67 current insights on the IoT market, including market breakdowns by industry, region and tech stack. The report also includes an IoT-focused investment and M&A analysis, a look at adjacent technologies, and gives insights from major IoT-focused conferences. This is a small selection of other insights:

• IoT technologies often take more than a decade to move towards the center of the emerging technologies radar. The typical technologies depicted here take roughly 12 years to move from being “far on the horizon” to becoming so mature and widely adopted that IoT Analytics considers them “mainstream” (in case a technology does become mainstream which is not always the case). Cloud computing, for example, took ~12 years from being far on the horizon to being considered “mainstream” for IoT settings (Note: AWS was first launched in 2006). Research on 5G was initiated in 2012 and was considered far on the horizon at that time. It has moved to the “Coming up” level now and is expected to hit mainstream for IoT applications in the 2024-2025 timeframe (~also 12 years later). One should note though that some technologies do mature quicker than others. Research on 6G started in 2019, by the way.

• Digital/IoT markets are currently affected by the global slowdown. IoT vendors are lowering their outlook while technology users are (partially) reducing CAPEX. At the same time, shifting supply chains and skill shortages are becoming key inhibitors to further growth in IoT.

• Lower growth going forward. IoT Analytics expects IoT markets to grow 30% in the medium-run (next 2 years) and 32% in long-run (5 years thereafter). The market is expected to cross the $1trillion mark in 2025.

• Manufacturing/Industrial hit the hardest. The global slowdown is currently mostly a manufacturing slowdown with Automotive and Machinery hit the hardest and with weakest outlook. Chemicals/Pharma and Food&Beverages are holding up the best.

• Analytics/AI driving the market. Companies are doubling down on their Analytics/AI investments which is why we expect this area of the tech stack to be the only one that will see a growth increase. 

• US startups dominate large IoT funding rounds. Top recent IoT investments focus on cybersecurity (13%) and IoT connectivity (13%) – mostly in the US (45%), followed by Israel (10%) and China (10%).

Further reading

The Emerging IoT Technologies Radar discussed in this article is explored in further depth, in the 96-page State of the IoT 2019 Q1/Q2 Update report. The report takes a deeper look at the IoT market and provides 67 insights across the IoT tech stack, adjacent technologies, investments and M&A, and conference highlights.  

A sample of the report and the database can be downloaded here.

Interested in continued IoT coverage and updates?

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time check out our Enterprise subscription.

The post 40+ Emerging IoT Technologies you should have on your radar appeared first on IoT Analytics.

Exhibit 1: 44 5G IoT use cases based on their current level of IoT maturity and the estimated market potential for 5G

76M 5G IoT connections across 40+ use cases by 2025

5G is the fifth generation of mobile communication technology and the first that is specifically designed for various vertical IoT use cases with demanding requirements, including gigabit data rates, millisecond latencies, ultra-high network reliability and massive connection density.

IoT Analytics’ recent study on 5G reveals 44 different IoT use cases and estimates these use cases will account for 76M 5G connections by 2025 . This article highlights seven of the most promising 5G use cases in IoT settings that could have the largest market potential.

5G IoT Use cases #1: Vehicle Telematics

Exhibit 2: Example of OEM vehicle telematics architecture. Image Credit: FIPA

Automotive & Transportation (A&T) is expected to be the #1 sector for adoption of 5G technologies in IoT applications. A&T is already one of the most “IoT” mature segments that already has millions of connected cars using telematics applications such as vehicle diagnostics, location tracking and user-based insurance. These applications mostly involve the transmission of small volumes of non real-time data collected from the vehicles and today they are mostly deployed over traditional cellular (2G/3G/4G) technologies, that in general provide a satisfactory performance to handle their current communication needs. However, the launch of 5G offers the possibility to collect more granular data in real-time about the health and performance of the vehicle and the drivers’ behavior and enable the delivery of more sophisticated services (e.g., automotive OEMs and car dealerships) and new pricing plans (e.g., insurance companies). While LTE will likely remain the leading connectivity technology for these applications in the near future, especially with the planned switch off of 2G and 3G networks in many areas of the world, in the next few years IoT Analytics expects many vehicle telematics implementations to support both 4G and 5G connectivity, to future-proof their solution and take advantage of 5G’s enhanced capabilities where available while operators continue their progress with network roll-outs. 

• Example: Harman announces the first 5G-ready car telematics solution.

5G IoT Use cases #2: In-Vehicle Infotainment

Exhibit 3: The set-up of Nissan’s filed test of its 5G- and AR-based technology for connected cars.

In-Vehicle infotainment is another relatively mature A&T application that is expected to benefit a lot from 5G connectivity. This use case involves the delivery of information and entertainment services to drivers and passengers, such as updates on the current traffic situation or weather forecasts, but also more data-intensive video and music streaming. Compared to its major alternatives (LTE), 5G connectivity offers the ability to enhance these applications and enable new ones, such as in-car retail and marketing or even AR/VR-based navigation systems and entertainment services. While for the next couple of years vehicle infotainment on 5G is expected to be mostly via tethered connections (e.g., using a 5G smartphone for the car connectivity), the emergence of dual mode 4G/5G solutions for connected cars over the next few years, as highlighted in the previous paragraph, will pave the way for more sophisticated in-vehicle infotainment applications.

• Example: Nissan and NTT DoCoMo test AR- and 5G-boosted driving.

5G IoT Use cases #3: Smart Grid Automation

Exhibit 4: Example of a smart grid and its communication network. Image credit: ABB, Deutsche Telekom.

In the energy & utilities sector, 5G’s enhanced capabilities make the technology particularly suited to the real-time management and automation of the smart electricity grid. These solutions are aimed at optimizing operations and maintenance by quickly detecting and responding to faults along the grid, but also meeting the increasingly stringent demand on their grid, driven by trends such as the integration of Distributed Energy Resources (DER) like renewables into the power grid, tighter regulations and evolving cybersecurity threats. In particular, the integration of these DER “micro-grids” to the electricity network is quite challenging due to the high variability of their energy production, and requires real-time control and automation of the feeder line systems (i.e., what manages the feeding of the generated energy into the grid) to avoid overload and ensure system reliability, but also extensive message signaling between all the micro-grids elements. All of these translates into strict requirements in terms of communication latency and network reliability, that today can be fully satisfied only via wired communication technologies. As a matter of fact, most utilities today already have a power grid monitoring system in place, typically based on wired communication networks over power lines (PLC), optical fiber or copper, while wireless communications are limited to the less mission-critical applications. However, as utility operators upgrade their grids to increasingly automate operations with new sensors and control system and integrate renewable energy sources and electric vehicle charging stations, 5G is expected to be largely adopted due to its higher deployment flexibility and lower cost compared to wired alternatives, while offering a similar level of performance.

• Example: Nokia, ABB and Kalmar successfully demonstrate 5G-based URLLC for smart electricity grids.

5G IoT Use cases #4: Mobile and Collaborative Robots

Exhibit 5: A 5G-connected AGV demo from Bosch Rexroth during Hannover Messe 2019. Image credit: Next Robotics.

In the industrial sector, there is a general consensus that 5G is most relevant for connecting industrial robots with various degrees of mobility, from static collaborative robots to fully mobile robots such as autonomous guided vehicles (AGVs). These robots have many sensors for situational awareness while technological advances are making them increasingly intelligent and able to autonomously perform various tasks, such as moving goods or carrying out repairs. As a result, they need to be able to process an increasing amount of data. However, accommodating enough processing capabilities into these robots can be very challenging and expensive, especially for smaller robots. 5G can help solve these issues and thanks to its low latency and high reliability, 5G will make it easier to offload part (if not all) of this processing need to edge or cloud-based servers and thus minimize the hardware complexity (and cost) of the robots.

• Example: 5G Transformer project demonstrates a 5G connected cloud-based mobile robot performing warehouse operations.
• Example: Ericsson trials 5G to connect wireless production robots in Audi’s factory.

5G IoT Use cases #5: Video Surveillance

Exhibit 6: The 5G-based video surveillance set-up by Samsung and KDDI at the Haneda Airport International Terminal in Ota, Tokyo. Image credit: Samsung.

Video surveillance and analytics is another application that is expected to thrive with 5G connectivity. Due to the increasing threats to public safety in recent years, many governments and municipalities around the world are investing in public surveillance and security systems, and the trend is expected to accelerate in the future. Today, the majority of public video surveillance systems still rely on wired connectivity, but the adoption of wireless communications such as Wi-Fi or cellular is gaining popularity due to an easier and faster set-up and generally lower cost compared to wired networks. While Wi-Fi is the preferred method in static CCTV systems, cellular connectivity, in particular LTE, is more popular for temporary static installations (e.g., construction sites, public events such as concerts, festivals, election rallies, etc.) and in mobile video surveillance (e.g., cameras installed on vehicles such as police cars, public transport, and surveillance drones or body-worn by law officers). While LTE networks offer a decent level of performance for remote access to live and recorded HD video, the adoption of 5G will provide the performance boost required for more sophisticated video content analytics in real-time and the deployment of massive numbers of cameras.

• Example: Samsung and KDDI demonstrate demonstrate real-time transmission of UHD surveillance video via 5G.

5G IoT Use cases #6 & #7: Cooperative Intelligent Mobility

Exhibit 7: 5G-enabled traffic safety service. Image credit: SK Telecom.

On the mid-long term, the largest impact that 5G is expected to have in the A&T sector is to enable the sharing of real-time information about traffic and road conditions among cars and other road users. These new cooperative mobility and driver assistance services are for both for private and public transportation (represented by two different bubbles in Exhibit 1, respectively by cooperative mobility for private and intelligent urban mobility for public transport). This requires the build-up of a 5G-based V2X (Vehicle-to-Everything) infrastructure made of roadside sensors and V2X base stations, in addition to 5G communication devices into vehicles and other road users (e.g., pedestrians, cyclists, etc.). By analyzing real-time traffic data collected from the roadside infrastructure and the vehicles on the road, such Intelligent Transportation Systems would be able to timely warn drivers about hazardous road conditions, traffic blocks and impending safety-critical situations ahead, increasing road safety and traffic efficiency. Currently, cellular-based V2X communications are supported on LTE networks as part of the 3GPP Rel-14 & 15, while 5G-based V2X will be introduced as part of 3GPP Rel-16 set to be released in 2020. 

• Example: SK Telecom is building a 5G-enabled intelligent transportation system in Seoul.

More information and further reading

Interested in learning more about the 5G market?

The seven 5G use cases discussed in this article are explored in much further depth, including numerous additional examples, in the 193-page 5G Market Report 2019-2025.

The report takes a deeper look at the 5G connectivity market, including the standardization process, spectrum analysis, technological building blocks, applications and use cases, the economics of 5G, market sizing and outlook, vendor landscape, drivers, challenges and trends.

IoT Analytics’ estimates the global installed base of 5G connected devices to reach 1.2B by 2025. The study, published in August 2019, also includes a 5G connectivity project database (20+ case studies), vendor list (120+ vendors) and market model data (29 tables) in Excel format.

A sample of the report and the database can be downloaded here. 

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time check out Enterprise subscription.

The post The Leading 5G IoT Use Cases appeared first on IoT Analytics.

There are now officially 620 IoT Platform companies on the open market, up from 450 IoT Platforms companies in 2017 – this is according to the latest IoT Platforms competitive Landscape & database 2020.

Disclaimer: This article does not provide guidance or intend to compare technical features of different IoT platforms. It looks at the market and compares platforms purely on a market meta level.

Some of the key findings from the competitive landscape report include:

1.     The market for IoT Platform companies is NOT consolidating

Despite numerous articles circulating the internet claiming that the IoT Platform market is showing signs of consolidation, our research shows that the exact opposite is happening: The market is becoming even more fragmented.

Of the 450 IoT Platform companies that made the IoT Analytics list in 2017, 47 ceased operations and 70 were acquired. Of the 70 acquired, 22 continue to operate standalone. One may think that this reduces the total number of IoT Platforms to 355. However, through our research of hundreds of websites, presentations, and other materials, IoT Analytics identified an additional 265 IoT platforms which satisfy the IoT Analytics definition of IoT Platform, thereby bringing the total number up to 620.

These additional companies include new IoT Platform startups like IOTech (founded in 2017)  as well as IoT platforms provided by larger companies or joint ventures (e.g., Adamos – founded 2017, Open Manufacturing Platform by BMW and Microsoft – launched 2019). 

There are several reasons why many of the small players continue to survive in a market with hundreds of competitors.

• There are many niches in IoT. By focusing on specific use cases or industries, some firms bring a value proposition to customers that the larger more horizontal players cannot.
• It is easy to become an IoT platform company on paper. Several companies seem to have gone the route of doing a customized IoT software project with a customer and afterwards standardizing the elements of that solution to market them as a platform.
• Many smaller providers are profitable. Our team has talked to several providers who sometimes just cater to 5-10 customers with a team of 20 people and are profitable. Their customers seem to enjoy the service they are getting so one can imagine these players to continue to exist for a while.

2.     The market is concentrating around a few providers

While the IoT Platform market is not consolidating, it is certainly concentrating around a few key providers. The top 10 of the 450 providers in 2017 held about 44% of the market share according to IoT Analytics estimates. In 2019, the top 10 of the 620 providers are estimated to hold 58% market share.

Cloud companies AWS and Microsoft stand out particularly. Both firms have added tremendous capabilities to their IoT platform offerings since 2017. At that time, their IoT Platform offerings were extremely limited. In April 2018, Microsoft committed an investment of $5B to their IoT offering. The investments seem to have started to pay off already. Both companies rank very well in the list of top 10 IoT Platforms by revenue and they also dominate end-user satisfaction of IoT platforms.

One should note that there are some large well-known multi-national companies that do not manage to keep up with the pace of the market and therefore seem to be falling behind. Instead of pulling out of the market, some of these firms are quietly retracting their IoT Platform marketing and using the existing platform technology to build their own IoT software applications (SaaS) instead e.g., focusing on specific end-user applications such as machine health monitoring or factory OEE analysis.

3.     Many providers still growing ~40%+

The article that described the research findings of the 2017 IoT Platform companies landscape highlighted the fact that leading platforms were growing 50%+ at that time. While the growth rates are slowly coming down, most providers are sustaining very high growth rates (e.g., Software AG ~50% Q3 2019 vs Q3 2018). On average, the market as a whole is still growing at around 40% and has become a single-digit billion dollar market that is expected to grow into double digit $B territory within the next 2 years.

4.     Manufacturing is the #1 focus area of IoT Platforms

50% of all profiled IoT Platform companies now have a dedicated focus on manufacturing/industrial use. Many of those companies highlight numerous case studies on their own website that showcase how their technology has helped manufacturers save costs or capture new revenue streams. Typical use cases of IoT Platforms in the manufacturing space include condition monitoring and predictive maintenance, general dashboards and visualizations, energy monitoring, and quality control.

SAP stands out as the company with most public case studies in the manufacturing domain (Please note: This number does not mean that SAP is the market leader for IoT Platforms in the manufacturing domain).

The other two large target areas for IoT Platforms are Energy (34%) and Mobility (32%).

More information and further reading

Interested in learning more about the IoT Platforms market?

The 4 IoT Platform findings discussed in this article are explored in much further depth in the 70-page “IoT Platform Competitive Landscape & Database 2020 report”. The report also provides a detailed excel database with 40+ columns of information for 620 IoT Platform companies currently on the market today. A meta-analysis of the database provides market breakdowns by region, country, city, tech stack, industry and by number of case studies. Furthermore, recent news and current market trends are outlined in the report.

A sample of the report and the database can be downloaded here:

REQUEST SAMPLE

Other IoT Platform related content includes: 

• IIoT Platforms for Manufacturing 2019-2024
• IoT Platforms Market Report 2018-2023
• IoT Platforms End-user Satisfaction survey 2019

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time check out Enterprise subscription.

The post IoT Platform Companies Landscape 2019/2020: 620 IoT Platforms globally appeared first on IoT Analytics.

As we go into 2020 the IoT Analytics team has again evaluated the main IoT developments of the past year in the global “Internet of Things” arena. This article highlights some general observations as well as our top 10 stories from 2019. (For your reference, here is our 2018 IoT year in review article.)

A. General IoT 2019 observations

Faster than expected IoT device growth – 9.5bn active IoT devices

According to IoT Analytics estimates there were roughly 9.5 billion connected IoT devices at the end of 2019. That number is significantly larger than the forecast of 8.3B devices. The 3 main drivers:

• An explosion of consumer (particularly Smart Home) devices
• Much stronger than expected cellular IoT/M2M connections
• Particularly strong device connectivity growth in China.

The number of total connected IoT devices is now expected to reach 28B by 2025, further driven by new low-power wide-area (LPWAN) connections as well as 5G. (Please note: The number of connected IoT devices does not include laptops, smartphones, tablets or similar)

More and more large-scale roll-outs

Despite global softness in manufacturing throughout 2019 (Note: Manufacturing is the largest IoT segment on a dollar-basis), IoT markets continued to record a strong year.

Roll-outs are happening at scale (in the hundred of thousands or even millions of devices category). Recent announcements such as the Landis+Gyr 1 million smart NB-IoT meters roll-out in Sweden is not a rarity anymore. ThyssenKrupp now has more than 100,000 connected elevators, Tesla more than 0.5 million cars on the road that have the ability to perform over-the-air updates, and Maersk now has 380,000 connected refrigerated containers deployed on ships around the world. IoT platforms account for a significant portion of those device connections. The Bosch IoT suite (one of 620 IoT Platforms on the market) for example now connects 8.5 million devices.

Positive outlook with some caution

The overall picture for IoT technology, going into 2020, looks bright, although some macro concerns regarding the global economic outlook as well as weaknesses in certain industries (e.g., automotive) should be followed closely.

B. Top 10 IoT 2019 Stories

Throughout 2019, we monitored major developments around IoT technology. In our opinion, these are the top 10 stories of IoT 2019 (in chronological order):

1. Most exciting new IoT connectivity technology: Nano satellites

In the 2018 year in review article, we discussed the first commercial launch of 5G networks. Despite the fact that many more 5G networks were switched on in 2019, we did not consider 5G as the connectivity story of the year as the global roll-out of 5G networks was largely foreseeable.

The fact that several companies are launching IoT nano-satellite services that promise to provide ubiquitous connectivity, even in places where no connectivity has reached before, is really exciting. Eutelsat in November announced that it will launch 25 satellites to serve the IoT market. The company is partnering with Sigfox and is targeting transport, oil and gas, and agriculture deployments with its new technology. The Eutelsat news comes on the back of several startups that hope to capitalize on the same opportunity, including Switzerland-based Astrocast and Australia-based Myriota and Fleet Space Technologies. Only 24 hours after launching its Lora-based satellite network “Project Galaxy”, in February 2019, Fleet Space reported that 1 million devices were registered to be connected. In May 2019, Myriota became one of the first companies to connect to the new AWS managed satellite service called “AWS Ground Station”. The service lets users manage their satellite communication and data and can be used for IoT-type scenarios (but it is not exclusive to IoT).

In a similar move, in April 2019, Amazon (AWS), announced that it plans to launch a constellation of 3,236 satellites into low Earth orbit in order to provide internet to “unserved and underserved communities around the world”. The company did not specifically mention IoT applications as a target.

2. Most controversial IoT story: Huawei 5G equipment ban

One of the major tech stories of IoT 2019 involved the Chinese company Huawei and its 5G equipment. In May 2019, the US government blacklisted Huawei due to accusations of helping the Chinese government with espionage. The US has major concerns regarding the upcoming rollout of 5G base stations across the country and believes Huawei may be sharing data with the Chinese government.

Some experts initially predicted that other countries would follow the U.S. with a similar blacklisting strategy, however this did not happen. Although the blacklisting represented a major blow to Huawei’s international business, the company managed to shrug off the news by posting an 18% top-line revenue growth in 2019, compared to 2018. This was in part driven by Chinese consumers who majorly backed Huawei during the dispute with the US.

The whole story has a twist that is not too positive for the U.S.. Huawei, which was a major customer for several US-based chip manufacturers has now switched a majority of its chip supplier basis to Chinese, Taiwanese, and European firms instead.

3. Most influential publication: Microsoft IoT Signals

In July 2019, Microsoft published a comprehensive IoT research report, called IoT Signals. The report stands out due to its large sample size of n=3,000 IoT adopters. It gives a candid look at the current state of IoT adoption, highlighting the top use cases in various verticals among other things. The report also found that “Security” is becoming less of a challenge and that one-third of IoT projects fail in proof of concept (POC) – which is in sharp contrast to a 2017 study published by Cisco claiming that “60% of IoT initiatives stall at the Proof of Concept (PoC) stage”

4. Most important IoT technology evolution: Containers/Kubernetes

IT architectures are fundamentally changing. Modern (cloud-based) applications build on containers, thereby bringing a whole new set of flexibility and performance to deployments. This is also becoming true for any centralized or edge IoT deployment.

It is fair to say that by now, Google’s open-source platform Kubernetes has largely won the race of container orchestration platforms, and Docker is the most popular container runtime environment (desipite the companies financial issues)

2019 saw several heavyweights in the IT and OT industry refine their container strategy:

1. VMware. In August 2019, at VMworld 2019, leading virtualization software provider VMWare laid out a holistic Kubernetes strategy. The company believes that “Kubernetes will prove to be the cloud normalisation layer of the future”. It launched VMware Tanzu, a cloud platform that manages Kubernetes container distribution and allows to build and deploy applications.
2. Cisco. The networking giant which had launched its “Cisco Container Platform” in early 2018 and announced joint projects with Google Cloud and AWS, in July 2019 completed its big 3 cloud partnership portfolio by announcing that Microsoft’s Azure Kubernetes Services are now natively integrated into the Cisco platform
3. Siemens. Industrial giant Siemens in October 2019 bought Pixeom, a software-defined edge platform, with the goal to embrace container technology for edge applications in factories. The Pixeom technology is built on the Docker runtime environment.

Further notable news saw HPE launch its own Kubernetes container platform in November 2019, and high-flying startup Mesosphere changed its name to D2iQ in August 2019 and shifting its strategy partially away from its own “Mesos” standard to focus further on Kubernetes deployments.

5. Largest startup funding: Samsara

In September 2019, Samsara, a San Francisco-based maker of IoT hardware and software, raised $300M in Series F funding. This round represents the largest single startup funding round in IoT 2019.

Samsara is quite a story. Founded in 2015, the startup has gone from 0 to 1,500 employees in less than 5 years, backed by well-known VC fund Andreessen Horowitz. Samsara makes both IoT software and hardware components. The hardware portfolio includes (among other things) cloud-based machine vision systems, industrial controllers, gateways, HMIs, and environmental sensors. The firm has a strong focus on IoT in transportation and fleet management. Samsara claims to serve over 10,000 customers and is active in 10 countries. Many of the customer case studies on the Samsara website highlight IoT projects with logistics and trucking companies as well as with cities as Samsara’s initial product was geared towards these firms.

Notable other investment rounds of 2019 (with relevance for IoT) included:

6. Largest M&A Deal: none (but many small acquisitions)

2019 saw no IoT-related mega deal as in the previous years (for example, we highlighted the $34B Red Hat acquisition by IBM last year).

The reason for the lack of mega acquisitions in IoT 2019 may be the combination of two factors. Firstly, many publicly listed companies achieved new all-time high valuations, thereby making the acquisition multiplies higher than in the past.

Secondly, the majority of the most visible IPOs in 2018 and 2019 disappointed in their first year of being public. Most notable are ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft which both declined 30-40% in value since their IPOs earlier in 2019. We highlighted the Sonos IPO last year as an IoT story; that stock is down 25% since its IPO. When talking to investors, it also becomes clear that the story of the failed WeWork IPO (which saw WeWork’s valuation plummet from $47B to $10B in a matter of weeks) is overshadowing investment decisions and leading to more caution going forward.

Notable acquisitions of 2019 (with relevance for IoT) included:

Note: The acquisitions of CarbonBlack ($2.1B) and Pivotal ($2.7B) by VMware in the summer of 2019 may be regarded as IoT-related acquisitions in the wider sense but were not considered further here as IoT is not mentioned as an acquisition rationale.

7. Consumer IoT breakthrough: Micromobility

Light IoT-enabled vehicles such as smart scooters, electric skateboards, and shared bicycles swamped the streets of hundreds of cities throughout the world in 2019. These new modes of transportation make up a new and burgeoning category of products referred to as micromobility solutions. Leading providers include Uber Jump, Lime, Bird, and Spin in Europe and North America as well as Meituan / Mobike, Ofo, Hellobike and Didi Qingju in China.

The explosive growth of micromobility in 2019 is breathtaking. Lime, which is now active in 120 cities around the world, in September celebrated its 100 millionth ride, a 16-fold increase from its 6 million ride landmark achieved just 14 months earlier.

Despite the impressive growth of micromobility solutions questions linger whether these new services are a short-term fad that will vanish, whether the companies supplying the bikes actually will become profitable, and whether regulation will stand in the way of their success in 2020. Regulators around the world have been targeting micromobility, with France imposing 25 kmh speed limits and banning scooters from pavements and Singapore imposing a “zero-tolerance” ban on the use of personal mobility devices (PMDs) on pedestrian footpaths. Meituan already retracted its growth ambitions by pulling out of non-Chinese markets in March 2019.

8. Most promising new technology: Secure cloud-ready chips

In October 2019, Microsoft announced that its Azure Sphere microcontroller (MCU) would be generally available in February 2020. Microsoft Azure Sphere is a promising new microchip technology that allows any device manufacturer to create equipment with native, highly secure cloud integration. The new offering presents a way to securely connect the billions of MCU-based devices which cannot currently be connected in a secure fashion very easily due to their limited compute and storage capabilities. Current hardware partners of the technology include chip makers MediaTek, NXP, and Qualcomm as well as Avnet, seeed and a few more.

Starbucks is an early adopter of the new technology. The company retrofitted some of their coffee machines with an external device called a “guardian module” in order to securely aggregate data and proactively identify problems with the machines.

Cisco, in December 2019, also announced its own silicon architecture, called Cisco Silicon One as part of its new “Internet of the Future” initiative. The company claims that Silicon One is the industry’s first networking chip designed to be universally adaptable across service provider and web-scale markets, designed for both fixed and modular platforms. Instead of maintaining numerous chip architectures across different devices, Cisco will now just focus on one programable ASIC. It is part of Cisco’s strategy that will see networks become more converged, cloud-enhanced, and fabric-based.

9. Most promising upcoming new theme: IoT and the environment

2019 goes down as the year in which a new era of climate change awareness started. Driven by Greta Thunberg and the Friday’s For Future initiative, 2019 saw two globally coordinated multi-city protests involving over 1 million students each. In May 2019, Thunberg was featured on the cover of Time magazine, which named her a “next generation leader” and noted that many see her as a role model.

It seems that this new awareness for climate action and sustainability not only reached millions of individuals but is also leading large corporations (in the IoT domain) to reprioritize their top-level strategies.

In September, wireless sensor network hardware and software provider Libelium, published a report examining at how IoT contributes to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and how the company is providing the right technology that supports achieving these goals.

In November 2019, leading industrial conglomerate Siemens let the world know that it is witnessing that customer requirements are changing and that from now on “environmental efficiency is just as important as productivity, flexibility and time-to-market”, something the company hadn’t spelled out that explicitly before. Siemens highlighted how it uses IoT and related technology to help a chocolate manufacturer reduce primary energy consumption by 20% and how the use of Digital Twins and the MindSphere IoT Platform may lead its customer Grundfos to save 50 billion liters of fresh water in the future. One of Siemens’ main competitors, Schneider Electric, uses a similar theme to describe its top-level company strategy: Schneider Electric is now positioning itself to provide “Energy and automation digital solutions for efficiency and sustainability”.

Many IoT providers now have sections on their websites that are dedicated to the environment, sustainability or simply “IoT for good”. Example include connectivity providers Aeris Communications, AT&T as well as Lora/Semtech.

10. Consumer IoT failure of the year: Smart Home Security Cameras

In early December 2019, a series of hacks of the popular home security camera system Ring (which was purchased by Amazon in 2018), shocked the world. Hackers in various U.S. locations managed to get access to the video live stream of unsuspecting Ring users, in several instances talking to and scaring children in their bedrooms. The first victims of the hacks are now suing Amazon over the incidents.

On December 30, 2019, another major Smart Home Security firm, Seattle-based Wyze, reported that it also had become the target of a major hack that is estimated to have affected 2.4 million customers. The hack exposed user email addresses and information about the last time they logged in, and it is reported that some customers even had their health data leaked.

While home security firms Ring and Wyze may have been the most prominent examples of IoT device hacks, there were many other attacks on consumer IoT products that received much less attention. Kaspersky reported that it had detected over 100 Million IoT device hacks in the first half of 2019 alone, a 9x increase from the same period in the previous year.

In July, two security researchers discovered that a user database belonging to a Chinese company called Orvibo, which runs an Internet of Things (IoT) management platform, had been left exposed to the Internet without any password to protect it. The database included more than 2 billion logs containing everything from user passwords to account reset codes and even a “smart” camera recorded conversation.

In August, Microsoft exposed a group of Russian hackers that were responsible for an IoT-based attack on a number of Microsoft customers.

C. Further information:

For a deeper look at current trends in IoT markets, check out our semi-annual “State of the IoT” market update (note: this is Enterprise subscription-only content).

Our IoT coverage in 2019: 

If you would like to take a deeper look at current IoT markets, you may be interested to know that IoT Analytics publishes a semi-annual “State of the IoT” market update (Enterprise subscription-only content).

Our IoT coverage in 2020: For continued coverage and updates (such as this one), you may subscribe to our newsletter. In 2020, we will keep our focus on important IoT topics such as IoT Platforms, IoT Connectivity, Industry 4.0, and Smart Cities with plenty of new reports due in the first half of the year.

For a complete enterprise IoT coverage (Enterprise subscription) with access to all of IoT Analytics paid content & reports as well as dedicated analyst time, your company may subscribe to the Corporate Research Subscription.

Much success for 2020 from our IoT Analytics team to yours!

Follow us on Linkedin or on Twitter

NOTE: The article has been updated to correct for an inaccuracy describing the AWS satellite service.

The post IoT 2019 in Review: The 10 Most Relevant IoT Developments of the Year appeared first on IoT Analytics.

Covid-19 is having an unprecedented impact on our society and our economy. There are also strong indications that many technologies will see accelerated adoption in the coming years because people become more digitally minded as they embrace technology while working from home.

But how does Covid-19 impact the Internet of Things, its technology, and its applications specifically? In the last weeks, we did our own research and talked to various IoT decision-makers to understand what the Covid-19 IoT impact in their organizations is and where they see things going from here.

The results are 25 different Covid-19 IoT effects, published as part of a 2-part blog series. This is part 1 of 2.

IoT Analytics also, today, published the new 105-page State of the IoT Q1/2020 report. The Covid-19 IoT impact presented in this blog post is discussed in even greater detail in that report – together with the IoT Analytics view on 70 overarching current trends in the fields of IoT software, connectivity, hardware, and security as well as an update on the number of globally connected IoT devices and a drill-down into regions, verticals, and technology segments.

The impact of Covid-19 on enterprise needs

In order to understand the Covid-19 IoT impact on specific applications, one first needs to understand the enterprise needs that drive some of these applications.

1.      Cost (CAPEX) has to be reduced

As demand for products and services dries up throughout the crisis, one of the most important needs is to cut costs accordingly.

Oil companies are particularly hard-hit by the Covid-19 crisis due to a combination of a decline in demand and a subsequent fall in prices. Major companies such as Exxon have reduced their CAPEX plan for 2020 by 30% or more already. Although most of the CAPEX will be related to technology-low investments such as new oil rigs, it can be expected that non-necessary tech will also see a cut.

2.      Better business transparency is needed

The quickly changing dynamics of the Covid-19 pandemic and the inability to visit some physical sites has led to the realization that transparency about employee whereabouts and wellbeing, about goods in transit and about manufacturing has become crucial.

Firms that operate in the business of data visualization are seeing a spike in tool usage. Widely popular Tableau, for example, saw its app climb 600 spots in the ios “Business” category in one week.

3.      Processes become more automated

It can be expected that in the coming months, businesses will need to automate their processes more. Before the crisis, automation was in many cases seen as the enemy of our jobs as robots, autonomous vehicles and other technologies were threatening to replace them.

Now the question has become: “How can automation accelerate our recovery and protect us from future pandemics?”. Robots working alongside humans in hospitals to perform cleaning and automated warehouses have shown how humans can be protected through automation.

Many automation experts foresee the topic to take off. “Economic literature over the last decade shows that investments into automation are made especially during a crisis.” says Mark Muro, Senior Fellow at Brookings Institution. Melonee Wise, CEO at Fetch Robotics reports: “We’re hearing from customers that many of their budgets have been frozen except for budgets for automation. We’ve been fielding a lot of inbound from new customers around, ‘How can robots enable us to continue manufacturing while keeping social distancing’?

4.      Supply chains and manufacturing capacity become flexible / resilient

The recent ISM Global Supply Chain Survey (published March 11, 2020) shows that “75 percent of companies report supply chain disruptions in some capacity due to coronavirus-related transportation restrictions, and more than 80 percent believe that their organization will experience some impact because of COVID-19 disruptions.”

Due to the severe impact of the crisis on supply chains, it can be expected that one Covid-19 IoT impact will be that companies will need to change their supply chain strategies. Most notably:

1. 1. Multiple suppliers / supply locations. Companies will re-think some of their single-supplier and single country of origin strategies that have helped them to cut costs when things were stable. The pandemic shows that it is too risky in times like these to rely on one or few sources.
   2. CAPEX to OPEX will be a “theme”. In a Q4/2019 IoT Analytics survey of manufacturers, 58% indicated that they would prefer to procure equipment as a service or lease it instead of keeping it on their balance sheet. In times of crisis this conversion of CAPEX to OPEX makes it much easier for companies to scale their costs down as demand disappears.

The impact of Covid-19 on IoT applications

The need towards more transparency, reduction in Capex and automation of processes do explain why some enterprise IoT applications right now are in high-demand. It is a different story for consumer IoT devices.

1.      Decreased interest in consumer IoT devices

Although consumers are spending considerable time at home, it appears as though they do not go out and buy personal IoT devices at a large scale.

App downloads for major consumer IoT devices are a key indicator for sales volume. The ranks of these apps (as well as their download volumes) are down considerably (e.g., Philips Hue in the US dropped from rank #233 to #351 in 2 months)

2.      Remote asset access becomes important

Conference tools like Zoom are booming because they connect people remotely. In a similar fashion, remote asset access tools are also booming because they connect the people with their machines and assets. They enable people to remotely communicate with machines and perform virtual inspections, remote diagnostics as well as remote support. Librestream recently reported a surge in their remote expert software usage.

Keith Blodorn, Business Director at Prosoft Technology confirmed this trend in a recent interview with IoT Analytics: “We are seeing many new users for our ProSoft Connect Remote Access Solution as companies are in need to access their PLCs from afar”.

3.      Digital Twins help with scenario planning

Many companies are currently affected by production, shipping, and distribution delays as well as demand variability due to Covid-19. In response, digital twins are being used to create digital representations of the end-to-end supply chain that enables customers to explore dynamic sourcing options, assess risks and evaluate trade-offs to speed or automate decisions. Llamasoft, a US-based supply chain analytics software company for example, combines digital twins with data science to model and engineer anti-fragile supply chains and develop resilient long-term risk management plans.

4.      New uses for drones

Drones have been of help during the crisis.

1. For medical deliveries. E.g., Zhao Liang, COO at Antwork said that “During the past month, our drone delivery system in Xinchang County has helped local hospitals with more than 300 flights delivering medical samples and medicines related to the COVID-19 virus”.
2. For Surveillance & Monitoring (used in many countries to monitor public spaces)
3. For Broadcasting messages and spread information
4. For spraying e.g., on Jan. 30, agricultural drone manufacturer XAG Co. Ltd. and Huawei converted 2,600 smart robots and drones into disinfectant sprayers.

5.      Specific IoT health applications surge

Healthcare is obviously at the center of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Early data suggests that digital health solutions that relate to COVID-19 are surging (others not necessarily). This includes:

1. 1. Telehealth consultations. Telehealth (where a doctor speaks to the patient via a video conference and gives advice) has surged as people are locked down. The Stanford Children’s Health Hospital for example is now performing about 620 digital visits per day (up from previously just 20).
   2. Digital diagnostics. The next step from telehealth is the inclusion of IoT devices to perform digital diagnostics. Hospitals are still experimenting with it. However, consumers here are at the forefront. Kinsa, for example, a digital thermometer saw a spike in usage as the pandemic spread in the US. Sidenote: Kinsa also has a very nice overview on their website tracking the spread of the flu in real-time.
   3. Remote monitoring. Remote monitoring, particularly of the elderly, is also on the rise. Livongo Health, which provides a line of remote IoT monitoring solutions for “chronic diseases” that increase the risk of dying from COVID-19, unexpectedly raised their quarterly guidance on April 7, 2020.
   4. Robot assistance. Particularly in China, robots have been used to disinfect and clean hospitals and perform medicine delivery.

6.      Track & Trace solutions get used more extensively

As supply chains get disrupted and demand patterns change, real-time supply chain visibility is proving to be extremely important. David Hewson, Global IoT Network Manager at Vesseltracker.com confirmed this in an interview: “A significant portion of our customers are reporting that the ability to track vessels is proving to be extremely helpful.  Local lockdowns have caused major disruptions, so some partners are relying on Vesseltracker to figure out if a vessel is actually coming to their port, or if there has been a significant change to its ETA”.

Providers of IoT technology are making use of their data and updating the public on what is going on in their IoT networks.

• Vesseltracker.com for example recently published updates (in German) on global cruise ship and freight activity.
• Geotab is providing regular updates on the commercial road transportation activity across North America.

7.      Smart City data platforms become key

Among the many Smart City initiatives, it turns out that the ability to have an overarching data platform and make use of that during the crisis is one of the most important tools a city can have.

Korea, the country that perhaps best handled the pandemic, used its “Smart City Data Hub” to allow epidemiological investigators request, obtain and confirm data about coronavirus cases and people they had come into contact with. Other cities, such as Boston, built up new platforms as the pandemic spread.

8.      Increase in easy-to-install IoT retrofit solutions

Companies and end-users that are not digitally connected may find it beneficial to use a retrofit solution that is easy to install but doesn’t necessarily provide all the same benefits of a completely engineered IoT solution.

Bosch’s smart meter retrofit is a good example that enables utilities to continue meter reading of legacy meters without much effort. Rocky Emmler, Business Owner Connected Energy at Bosch.IO explains: “During this crisis, we are seeing increased inquiries for our IoT Meter Add-on device. We send the client a small device that they attach to their meter. The data then gets sent in a secure fashion through Bosch IoT Suite to the utility company so that they do not need to dispatch a person to perform on-site meter reading.”

Graham Immerman, VP Marketing at MachineMetrics sees the same trend: “Some of our OEM customers are sending their customers cellular edge gateways to provide remote machine maintenance, diagnostics and service.”

More information and further reading

Part 2 of this blog series will be published soon and will focus on the Covid-19 IoT impact on technology, security, and people.

Interested in learning more about the current State of the IoT?

The State of IoT Q1/2020 & Covid-19 impact report  is part of IoT Analytics’ ongoing coverage of IoT and is available to corporate IoT research customers.

This report provides answers to the following questions (among others):

• 70 insights on the current market environment and technology developments.
• Market update of global IoT connections 2019
• Impact analysis of Covid-19 on IoT(25 effects)
• Tech stack analysisacross 6 layers (IoT Hardware, Connectivity, General Software, Platform/Cloud, Analytics/AI, IoT Security)
• Investment & M&A highlights
• Top IoT stories of 2019 on investments, funding, M&A deals, and new startups.
• Insights provided with examples and proof points uncovered in the last 8 months by leading more than 100 expert interviews, attending industry conferences, and listening to various briefing and analyst calls.

A sample of the report can be downloaded here:

REQUEST SAMPLE

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? 

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time check out Enterprise subscription.

The post The impact of Covid-19 on the Internet of Things – now and beyond the Great Lockdown: Part 1 appeared first on IoT Analytics.

Covid-19 continues to have an unprecedented impact on our society and our economy.

In part 1 of our analysis on the “impact of Covid-19 on the Internet of Things” we highlighted how the crisis is causing companies to require more transparency, reduce Capex and reconsider supply chains. We also discussed how IoT applications like “Track & Trace”, “Remote Asset Access” and specific healthcare use cases benefit from these shifting needs during and after the crisis.

This article is part 2 of the blog series, and it focuses on the Covid-19 technology impact, security implications and the implications on people and partnerships

The impact of Covid-19 on technology in general

Before we look at the Covid-19 technology impact for IoT, we will first explore how Covid-19 is impacting technology in general.

1.      Ongoing projects are paused

The consensus opinion right now is that there is a general decline in technology budgets as many projects are put on hold or slowed down. Recent research by ETR suggests a 4% drop in budgets, although the data was assembled in the early days of the crisis.

There are two exceptions of projects that do not get paused:

1. Highly strategic initiatives
2. Projects involving technologies that are directly linked to COVID-19 (see next aspect)

2.      Some enterprise technologies take off

There is a notable ramp-up in technologies such as

1. Work-from-home infrastructure (e.g., laptops, screens, connectivity, etc.)
2. Collaboration tools (e.g., ideo conferencing, team chat, project planning, etc.)
3. Virtualization infrastructure (e.g., remote desktops)
4. VPN networking
5. Mobile devices
6. Security
7. Desktop support

Zoom has become the posterchild of the Covid-19 technology impact. Interest for the video conferencing solution is surging during the crisis. In March, Zoom reported 200 million daily users, up from 10 million in December 2019.

3.      Declining demand for new projects/devices/ services

The sales pipelines for firms around the world are drying up as companies become more cautious about procuring new services, starting new projects or buying IoT hardware.

IoT Analytics recently talked to several people on this topic:

A Business development manager at an online marketplace for enterprise consulting projects in Europe told us in April that “In the last weeks, we have seen a drop in ~50% of new projects being advertised on our portal.”

The Head of Business Development at a cellular IoT network provider said in the last March week that: “Our website traffic is down 20%, resulting in less conversions. Currently I expect March to reach to result in a sales decrease of ~13% compared to January.”

4.      Many digitalization initiatives get accelerated or intensified

There are strong indications that the current decrease in demand for technology and digital solutions will be just a short-term phenomenon. In the medium-to-long run the Covid-19 technology impact may be extremely positive..

COVID-19, in a matter of weeks, changed both employer and employee behavior as well as working practices in firms around the world. Everyone (including the executives) is forced to embrace new technologies and discover their benefits (and challenges). On top of that, companies will want to build more resilience in order to be better prepared in case another pandemic rattles the world. Additional investment in digital infrastructure can be expected.

A business director at an industrial communications solution provider we interviewed in April 2020 confirmed this view: “As a provider of remote asset connectivity solutions, we are seeing increased interest in our solutions right now. Our customers and prospects are telling us that we are the first step in their digitalization and that they are planning to accelerate their digitalization initiatives now.”

5.      The digital divide widens

In the long-run, Covid-19 may lead to a digital divide.

IoT Analytics has seen two extreme reactions of different companies during the current crisis. One firm that was interviewed laid off their entire digital team as one of the first cost-cutting measures. Another company cut costs elsewhere and ensured their digital initiatives would continue uninterrupted.

COVID-19 may prove to be a decisive event that further widens the digital divide between those who cut digital initiatives and those that prioritize them. Those that were just sailing along with some digital initiatives but didn’t take it too seriously, now fall behind, while others pull ahead and may find new digital business models that put them in a leading position in their industries for years to come.

The impact of Covid-19 on specific IoT technologies

1.      IoT networks largely unaffected

Unlike the Internet in general, which is seeing much higher data throughput rates as people stay home and consume videos and perform teleconferences, the “Internet of Things” does not see the same effect.

IoT devices are running and sending similar amounts of data as they had prior to the crisis. The core networks are largely unaffected.

The head of Business Development at a cellular IoT network provider told us in late March 2020 that “In terms of traffic we don’t see any changes yet since most of the applications we track on the network side are up and running. So in terms of devices attached to our network (and that means regularly transmitting data) we don’t see an impact (yet). The only small change we see of course are telematics – we have a lot of applications running in Italy, which has some negative impact.” 

Teppo Hemia, CEO at Wirepas, has a similar view: “I am very pleased to see that the millions of IoT devices already connected are up and running and continue to operate thanks to the de-centralized local optimization. As a company, we are also continuing to close new projects –  so we see little impact on that end so far. I do expect, however, a softer Q2/Q3 for us though, as it is currently difficult for field personnel to travel to various sites to install and setup new connectivity networks.”

2.      Technology roadmaps get delayed

Many technology standards rely on a lively exchange and decision-making of a group of experts. COVID-19 makes I more difficult for these experts to work together, which is resulting in delays of new technology standards.

For example, on March 23, 3GPP announced that the all-important Release 16 for 5G was delayed by 3 months due to COVID-19, and subsequently Release 17 will also be delayed. Release 16 is very important for Industrial IoT as it will enhance URLLC capabilities by strengthening network latency and reliability and introducing support for time-sensitive networking (TSN).

It should be expected that the works of other such organizations (e.g. IEEE) will run into similar issues and further delays will occur.

The impact of Covid-19 on security & privacy

1.      Cyberattacks increase & hacker strategies change

Statistics from various sources show that cyberattacks are on the rise during Covid-19.

According to research performed by Checkpoint, “71% of security professionals have noticed an increase in security threats or attacks since the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak.”

The most notable are:

1. E-mail phishing campaigns
2. Fraudulent web pages or sites claiming to collect donations or advice
3. Malware
4. Ransomware

A particularly grave case of ransomware was reported this week. IT services provider Cognizant became a victim of the well-known Maze ransomware leading to service disruptions for some of their clients.

None of the currently reported security breaches directly target IoT networks but many can have an effect on IoT networks as access credentials may be leaked or new devices at home may infiltrate corporate networks.

2.      Privacy gets re-evaluated

Part of the success of containing the virus in Korea and China can be attributed to an app that infected people had to download that revealed exactly where they went and whom they met with. EU law, however, would consider such an app a breach of privacy rules. The privacy vs. transparency debate has thus reached a new peak.

“There are times that not using the information that we have is morally hard to defend, and I think this is one of them,” says Michelle Mello, Health Law Professor at Stanford University. At a time in which transparency and tracking may prevent death, strict privacy rules may thus be wrong.

IoT plays an important role in this debate because IoT devices could be used for tracking. In Spain, Accent Systems, for example, developed an IoT-based contact tracing wristband for COVID-19 tracing.

3.      Additional focus on security

The increase in cyberattacks and new vulnerabilities being discovered (e.g. Zoom’s security issue) is leading organizations around the world to rethink their security setups. IoT Analytics talked to Kristen Poulos, Vice President/General Manager Industrial Cyber Security at Belden and she confirmed that “Our customers are much more concerned about security now than they were a few months ago.”

The current security focus may soon lead to new and stricter security regulations which in turn may lead to an upcycle in cybersecurity in the medium to long-run. As Kristen Poulos further explains: “The past has shown that extreme events that involve large scale security breaches often lead to new security standards which then creates a much higher demand for cybersecurity solutions. Covid-19 could lead to exactly that scenario.”

The impact of Covid-19 on people & relationships

1.      Fewer IoT jobs

While certainly not true for all companies, several firms have stopped hiring IoT talent, and in some cases they are laying off their personnel.

An analysis performed by IoT Analytics via simplyhired.com showed that the number of newly advertised jobs that contain the keyword “IoT” fell by 28% over the course of a little more than 2 weeks (Note: The analysis of all jobs in the same period revealed a 22% decline).

2.      Vendors provide free products / services to customers

Many IoT vendors are offering customers free upgrades, services or software in response to coronavirus. Some companies are only offering free services for industries directly affected by the pandemic (e.g. health-tech companies, companies producing essential products, etc.), while others are offering free products / services for all industries. Most free products / services expire later in 2020.

Here is a non-exhaustive a list of 10 (IoT) technology vendors that provide free products / services during the crisis:

3.      Skill shortage becomes less of an issue

Survey data by IoT Analytics has shown time and time again, that missing talent and skills is clearly the #1 problem that IoT end-users (and also vendors) face when implementing their projects. The challenge intensified in recent years as unemployment rates declined.

Sought-after tech talent will become available for hire as people lose their existing jobs due to COVID-19. With demand for new jobs declining (see above) and more talent becoming available, “missing talent” may soon not be the #1 challenge anymore.

Covid-19 IoT impact: The complete picture

The complete picture of all 25 effects of Covid-19 on the Internet of Things can be seen in the below picture, which is part of the 105-page State of the IoT & Covid-19 impact report, published by IoT Analytics in April 2020.

More information and further reading

As the digital divide widens in the coming months and years (see discussion above), IoT Analytics continues to supply those companies that continue to invest in digital and IoT topics with trusted data, insights and services that help them make the right technology decisions and ensure they stay ahead of the competition and do not fall behind.

Are you looking for part 1 of this blog series? 

For part 1 of this blog series, click here.

Are you interested in learning more about the current State of the IoT?

The Covid-19 technology impact is explored in greater depth in IoT Analytics latest 105-page State of IoT Q1/2020 & Covid-19 impact report  . The report is part of IoT Analytics’ ongoing coverage of IoT and is available to corporate IoT research customers.

This report provides answers to the following questions (among others):

• 70 insights on the current market environment and technology developments.
• Market update of global IoT connections 2019
• Impact analysis of Covid-19 on IoT (25 effects)
• Tech stack analysisacross 6 layers (IoT Hardware, Connectivity, General Software, Platform/Cloud, Analytics/AI, IoT Security)
• Investment & M&A highlights
• Top IoT stories of 2019 on investments, funding, M&A deals, and new startups.
• Insights provided with examples and proof points uncovered in the last 8 months by leading more than 100 expert interviews, attending industry conferences, and listening to various briefing and analyst calls.

A sample of the report can be downloaded here:

REQUEST SAMPLE

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? 

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time check out Enterprise subscription.

The post The impact of Covid-19 on the Internet of Things – now and beyond the Great Lockdown: Part 2 of 2 appeared first on IoT Analytics.

In short

• Covid-19 is leading to a surge in IT, OT and IoT security adoption.
• IoT Analytics published a comprehensive 123-page report detailing the $2.8B IoT Security market (2019), including current trends, technologies, and competitive landscape.
• IoT Analytics suggests for organizations to particularly look at 5 IoT Security best practices after the Covid-19 lockdown: 1. Managing the asset inventory 2. Scanning for shadow IoT devices 3. Reviewing cloud security 4. Implementing “shift-left” security practices 5. Integrating security automation and AI.

Why it matters

• Covid-19 has led to an increase in new cyber attacks
• Corporate boards are asking their engineering, OT, and IT departments to improve and review their cybersecurity setup. Technology vendors and users alike should educate themselves on the new reality now.

Covid-19 is leading to an acceleration in worldwide cybersecurity adoption

While almost all industries and many technologies have experienced a drop in demand in the first months of 2020, the opposite is happening in the cybersecurity industry: demand is increasing. On May 21, 2020, one of the leading cybersecurity vendors, Palo Alto Networks, raised Q4 2020 revenue guidance. CEO Nikesh Arora said that in his view Covid-19 has led to an explosion of the attack surface and he believes “Covid-19 accelerated the [security] trends in the direction of integration, consolidation, and cloud transformation”.

“Covid-19 accelerated the [security] trends in the direction of integration, consolidation, and cloud transformation”.

Nikesh Arora, CEO at Palo Alto Networks

IoT Analytics already reported in April 2020 in the article titled “The impact of Covid-19 on IoT” how cyberattacks in general had increased throughout the first months of the Covid-19 crisis, and how it raised the importance of IoT security in light of the changing threat landscape.

This week, IoT Analytics published an in-depth 123-page market research report titled “IoT security market report 2020-2025” which sizes and analyzes the $2.8B IoT security market (2019) in detail. For clarification: IoT security refers to the portion of the global cybersecurity market that deals with securing connected consumer and enterprise IoT devices that reside in (often cloud)-connected environments.

(Note: Pure on-premise/local networks as well as pure IT application and IT infrastructure security solutions are not classified as IoT).

Among other things the report looks at 20+ current IoT security trends and a number of other areas of interest such as cloud-based IoT security. This article highlights 5 of these areas that are particularly important for companies as they come back from the Covid-19 lockdown and look to secure their IoT devices and assets:

IoT security best practice 1: Revisit how you manage your asset inventory

As CEOs ask their IT, OT and engineering departments to review corporate security strategies in light of the Covid-19 lockdown, one of the immediate priorities is to ensure that the organization has a decent overview of their inventory of assets and IoT devices. Unfortunately, this overview is often incomplete and only available on a high level. The restart after Covid-19 presents a unique opportunity to build a holistic asset inventory with a much deeper knowledge of individual assets. It will prove invaluable for all other security initiatives that follow.

A proper asset inventory should provide answers to 4 key questions:

1. What assets do I have? A list of all assets including their hardware and software specs is the basis of any asset inventory.
2. What are the typical traffic patterns of my existing assets? An analysis of the typical network traffic between devices is the basis for observing abnormalities (i.e., potential attacks) and allows for running software tools for automated threat detection/response.
3. How updated are my assets? Lifecycle management becomes easier when an enterprise keeps track of all updates and patches.
4. How fast can we react in case of an attack? Cyber- as well as physical attacks on an asset require a rapid response. The longer it takes to locate and to fix an asset, the higher the costs for the organization. The director of security services at a major industrial conglomerate shared this with IoT Analytics:

“Once, we detected a vulnerability at some asset with a size of a matchbox, which is located somewhere at a huge industrial facility. An automation engineer was very upset, as he could not find it. I cannot stress enough the important of knowing your assets.”

Without a proper asset inventory, implementing a decent security strategy is like “trying to grow a harvest without knowing what crops you planted.”

IoT security best practice 2: Scan for shadow IoT devices and implement stronger cyber hygiene among employees

The millions of employees working from home during the Covid-19 crisis have brought to light a new security issue: “Shadow IoT devices”. Shadow IoT refers to employees bringing unauthorized devices into the enterprise. These devices present a significant source of vulnerability at every organization, because they increase the attack surface by giving access to an enterprise network, while having little security measures.

In February 2020, ZScaler, a leading cloud security provider, announced that they tracked a 1,500 percent increase in IoT devices usage increase at enterprises. The biggest categories of unauthorized IoT devices that Zscaler observed include digital home assistants, TV set-top boxes, IP cameras, smart home devices, smart TVs, smart watches, and even automotive multimedia systems. Each asset can be used as a point of exposure to get access to an enterprise network.

IT and security professionals at enterprises should pay more attention to this phenomenon and double down on educating employees about the security hygiene practices. They should design security trainings with the goal to minimize the risk from employee action, such as an unintentional negligence, privacy violation, or insider threat. Numerous vendors, both SMEs and big enterprises, increasingly provide a “security awareness training”, which aims to provide employee trainings and to consult on the risk management. 

IoT security best practice 3: Review which security applications should run in the cloud

Companies that had migrated some of their tools and applications from an “on-premise” setup to the cloud before the Corona pandemic struck found it easier to manage these remotely.  

As a result, many technology executives and experts believe that a massive wave of cloud adoption is on its way post Covid-19. Cloud security will be part of that wave as security tools share many benefits with other cloud-hosted applications such as the ability to scale to new assets quickly, apply software patches remotely, and integrate with other tools easily through standardized APIs. At the same time, cloud connections can significantly increase the risk of exposure or data breaches because they open up a closed-loop system to allow access from the outside by connecting to the cloud.

Now is the time for IT, Security, and Operations departments to revisit which existing security applications may need to migrate to the cloud. Not less importantly, they should revisit which ones should come back on-premise, with a thorough risk assessment. Security software tools that are currently enjoying traction in the cloud include intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS), security information and event management (SIEM), and virtual firewalls.  

IoT security best practice 4: Implement “shift-left” security practices in your development efforts

Until recently, security and software development were two different areas of practice. This separation has proven over time to lead to an increase in security vulnerabilities. In the last 5 years, the so-called “shift left” security approach has gained popularity. “Shift-left” refers to the practice of moving security to the earliest possible point in the software development process. It is leading to the DevOps process transforming into something known as DevSecOps. In DevSecOps, collaboration is key: security professionals work closely with the rest of the DevOps team to minimize potential hazards.

As Covid-19 lifts security to one of the main corporate digital initiatives, the implementation of shift-left in the development teams should be closely examined.

The shift-left approach can lead to large savings. The System Sciences Institute at IBM found that addressing security issues in design was six times cheaper than during implementation. The same study also found that addressing security issues during testing could be 15 times costlier. As the number as well the nature of security attacks worsened with the Covid-19 crisis, the shift-left security concept is now becoming a best practice.

IoT security best practice 5: Analyze which security efforts can be automated with AI/detection security software tools.

With the ongoing rapid development of AI, several traditional security solutions are being supplemented by Machine Learning capabilities to deliver better and often faster outcome. Many of the product announcements of security vendors in the last months relate to AI-based security tools, such as Cisco’s recent introduction of AI network analytics. Security professionals should consider these new tools as they pave the way to moving from strict security prevention to a detection strategy.

One area of interest is machine learning-enabled anomaly detection for threat detection. Algorithms constantly run through IoT device traffic data to detect abnormal behavior. An instant notification is generated in case something is off. Applications can be programmed to automatically trigger reaction to specific abnormalities – this feature is helpful when rapid response is needed.

Another area that is witnessing AI-enhancement is traditional Security Information & Event Management (SIEM) solutions. They are nowadays often supplemented by analytics capabilities to provide streaming data analysis and threat modelling. An example of such solution is IBM Qradar.

More information and further reading

Interested in learning more about IoT security?

The 123-page IoT Security Market Report 2020-2025 is part of IoT Analytics’ ongoing coverage of IoT Software, Services and Hardware and includes many additional insights not discussed in this article.  The main purpose of the report is to help our readers understand the current IoT security landscape by defining and analyzing the market.

This report provides answers to the following questions (among others):

• What is IoT Security (a definition)?
• How is IoT Security different from traditional IT Security and OT Security?
• Which IoT technology companies are OEMs partnering with to build IoT Security solutions?
• What is the market size and forecast for IoT Security solutions?
• How does the market break down by security type, industry, and geography?
• What are the main trends & developments shaping the IoT Security market?
• What are the key IoT Security threats and what frameworks are used to measure a security risk?
• How is Covid-19 affecting the IoT Security market?
• What is the end-user view of IoT Security in terms of adoption, ROI, and budgeting?

A sample of the report can be downloaded here:

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? 

The post 5 IoT Security best practices to consider after the Covid-19 lockdown appeared first on IoT Analytics.

In short

• Thousands of smart connected IoT products were introduced to the market in the last 6 years 
• IoT Analytics published a comprehensive 189-page report studying the success factors of early IoT business model innovators such as iRobot, thyssenkrupp Elevators, and Caterpillar 
• An overwhelming 61% of study participants claim a competitive advantage thanks to the IoT solution. This article highlights 6 insights from the report. 

Why it matters

• Smart Connected IoT products are disrupting the dynamics of entire industries 
• The study provides quantitative data to support OEMs and their technology vendors in decision-making on IoT business models and commercialization 

Less than 6 years ago, in November 2014, Michael Porter (one of the world’s most influential management thinkers and professor at Harvard Business School) and Jim Heppelman (CEO at PTC) published a widely recognized article in Harvard Business Review titled: “How Smart, Connected Products Are Transforming Competition”. In it, they argued that IoT connected products would alter traditional industry structures, business models, and the nature of competition in many industries.  

Indeed, the world has seen a number of disruptive IoT business model innovations since the article was published. Examples include: 

• irobot, which, with its autonomous IoT connected vacuum robots, has gone from zero to 9 million IoT connected devices sold, thereby changing the dynamics of the entire vacuum cleaner industry. 
• Thyssenkrupp elevators, which has gone from zero to 130,000 IoT connected elevators. All 3 major competitors (Otis, Schindler, and Kone) have introduced a similar IoT-based business model. 
• The entire shared scooter industry, which has gone from zero to 39 million trips in the US, and was essentially created through the advent of IoT technology. 

There are thousands of other examples of new smart product / IoT business models and many more which are still in the making that we will hear of in the coming months and years. 

Those who are currently bringing (or are planning to bring) smart connected products to market should ask themselves: What can we learn from these early innovators in order to create a truly successful IoT business model? 

Components of a successful IoT implementation 

IoT Analytics’ 189-page report, titled “IoT Commercialization & Business Model Adoption 2020” provides an in-depth look at how some of the leading equipment and product manufacturers (OEMs) around the world have successfully introduced smart connected IoT products in the last 5 years and which learnings they had on the way.  

There are many tradeoffs when bringing a smart connected product to market, for example:

• Do I approach existing customers first or target new ones? 
• Do I monetize the hardware, the software, a service, or the data? Or perhaps a combination of those? 
• Do I charge once, on a monthly basis, or perhaps even per usage (pay per use)? 
• Do I offer some features for free or not? 
• Do I price the solution at cost, with a margin, or perhaps deliberately at a loss to gain early market share? 
• Do I sell direct to the customer or via a third-party (marketplace)? 

The report provides answers and viewpoints on each of these tradeoffs and highlights which IoT business models are considered to be more successful. This article does not go into the same depth as the report, but it highlights a few of the other insights that were uncovered during the analysis.

The IoT business model is tightly intertwined with the two adjacencies of product development and product commercialization. We, therefore, split our analysis into 3 parts: 

1. Developing the IoT product (e.g.,time-to-market and developing the features) 
2. Developing the IoT business model (The analysis is largely based on the Zollenkop framework , which looks at three elements: Market positioning, value chain, and revenue model) 
3. Commercializing the IoT product (e.g., determining the right price level, measures to drive adoption, and KPIs to measure success) 

1. Developing the IoT product

Insight 1

It takes 23 months for the average smart connected IoT product to go from internal project kick-off to first paying customer. However, there is a wide variance in average of total time needed time needed from kick-off to first paying customers. The fastest implementations happen in 8 months while the longest may take up to 76 months (according to our analysis). 

Insight 2

There are a number of factors driving complexity in bringing the smart connected IoT products to market. Larger companies in particular must spend more time aligning the activities of several departments and processes. The typical IoT product introduction “majorly affects” 6 departments according to the analysis (with IT and R&D being the top affected).  

Driving the efforts within the IT and R&D departments are the many software features and services companies build into their IoT connected product. The average IoT product comes with 12 new features. Nearly all companies (91%) offer monitoring dashboards for their customers. Features such as inventory management or workflow optimization are rarer. 

2. Developing the IoT business model 

Insight 3

Nearly three quarters of respondents in this analysis developed a completely new or majorly redesigned product that did not exist in similar fashion before. 

The majority of respondents also indicated that the IoT product is sold to a number of new decision-makers (as well as some of the existing ones). The result is that 52% of IoT business models can be classified as “Diversifications”, and only 11% are classified as “Market penetration” where an existing product with small additions is sold to the exact same decision-makers as before.   

Insight 4

IoT hardware is monetized in more than 95% of all cases today. However, in the vast majority of cases, hardware is just one part of multiple monetization elements. Most study participants expect services (both traditional and digital) and data to significantly gain more importance in the next two years. Along with the decreasing importance of hardware monetization, it is expected that time-, usage- and success-based monetization models are going to increase in importance.

“Our future focus will be a lot more on digital services. Currently the user only has one touchpoint: When the hardware is installed. Going forward, as our data matures and we have better remote software update capabilities, we will be able to provide more user centric SaaS products/features that customers can purchase online.“ 

Senior IT Manager, Automotive industry, Europe

3. Commercializing the IoT product 

Insight 5

Successful commercialization of an IoT solution starts a long time before the product is launched.  

“It is critical to clearly understand the needs of the customer before building and selling a solution.“ 

Senior Product Manager, Machinery and equipment manufacturer, USA

The analysis shows that there are vast differences in adoption rates among customers from different regions and that some features area clearly more popular with customers than others. Two of the features that are ranking in the top quartile in terms of customer adoption are “Condition Monitoring” and “Predictive Maintenance” – an observation which is in line with IoT Analytics previous coverage on the topic of Predictive Maintenance. 

Insight 6

The three biggest concerns / roadblocks that customers report when adopting new IoT-based digital services & software are: IT/data security concerns, unclear benefits of the solution, and issues with integrating the product into legacy systems.

It is therefore not surprising that many study participants singled out the importance of educating the own team, particularly the customer-facing staff: 

” The employee training process was a huge undertaking because the technology was new to the company overall and all field experts required training.” 

Senior Product Manager, Machinery and equipment manufacturer, USA

More information and further reading

Interested in learning more about IoT business models and commercialization?

Developing an IoT business model and commercializing the solution is not simple but it can be a game-changer for companies.  61% of study participants claim that it allowed their company to achieve a competitive advantage compared to their competition. 

The 189-page IoT Commercialization & Business Model adoption Report 2020 is part of IoT Analytics’ ongoing coverage of industrial IoT and includes many additional insights not discussed in this article, including an analysis of the 7 most striking characteristics of successful IoT commercializations (vs. the unsuccessful ones), more details on how to price the solution and 10 recent case studies with key learnings from the last years. 

This report provides answers to the following questions (among others):

• Which features are companies offering alongside their smart connected products and what is the time-to-market? 
• How do companies position their products in the market (customer segment, target geography, novelty of product)? 
• How to align the value chain with the new product offering (specific actions and organizational processes on department-level)? 
• Which revenue model to select (what to monetize, how to design the revenue stream, which sales channel to use)? 
• How well-perceived is the Equipment-as-a Service (pay per use) model and what are its drivers or barriers? 
• How to price the smart connected IoT product (pricing strategy, billing frequency, finding the right pricing level)? 
• How to drive adoption once the product is launched (adoption success factors, which customers to target first)? 
• How to measure success of the IoT connected product (time to amortization of investments, which KPIs to use)? 
• What are successful companies doing differently compared to their competitors? 
• What are some examples (case studies) of recent introductions of Smart Connected IoT products? 

A sample of the report can be downloaded here:

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? 

Report Methodology

The IoT Commercialization and Business Model Adoption report 2020 is part of IoT Analytics’ ongoing coverage of Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0 (Industrial IoT Research Workstream). The information presented in the report is based on an extensive survey with OEMs who have successfully introduced smart connected IoT products in the last 5 years. The survey was conducted between November 2019 and January 2020. In order to ensure complete objectivity, IoT Analytics did not alter or supplement any survey results and also did NOT accept any participation from participants that were suggested by third parties (e.g., customers from specific vendors). 

• Type of research. Primary research via prequalified online survey 
• Audience type. C-level / Senior manager/ VP/Director 
• Study time frame. November 2019 – January 2020 
• Number of individual participants. 64 
• Region mix. ~38% North America, ~37% Europe, ~25% APAC 

The post How to create a successful IoT business model – insights from early innovators appeared first on IoT Analytics.

Which are the hottest application areas for the Internet of Things right now?

IoT Analytics continues to track in which verticals most IoT projects are happening. The latest 2020 analysis shows that most IoT projects still happen in Manufacturing/Industrial settings, with verticals such as Transportation/Mobility, Energy, Retail and Healthcare having also increased their relative share in comparison to past analyses.

The 2020 analysis is based on 1,414 actual IoT projects that were explored as part of IoT Analytics’ research tracking IoT platforms and the underlying data is included in the 2020 list of 620 IoT platforms. The fact that more than 1,000 publicly announced IoT projects now make use of an IoT platform highlights the importance and pervasiveness of IoT platforms in bringing IoT solutions to market.

This article discusses selected IoT projects in each of the 10 application areas, including 20 examples of recent projects – stay tuned for more in-depth coverage of the top IoT use cases and more structured industry-specific deep-dives in the coming months.

(Note: The research presented in this article is confined to IoT projects that make use of an IoT Platform and does not include any consumer-focused IoT projects such as smart home, wearable devices or hobby projects).  

Top 10 IoT application areas

(Note: The analysis methodology has changed slightly compared to past IoT Application analyses – in the past IoT Analytics looked at all known IoT projects, this time, due to the fast growth in number of IoT projects, IoT Analytics confined the analysis to the projects performed in conjunction with one of the 620 known providers of IoT platforms.)

The 2020 analysis of the top IoT application areas shows that of the 1,414 public enterprise IoT projects identified, Manufacturing / Industrial settings are most common (22%), followed by Transportation / Mobility (15%) and Energy IoT projects (14%).

For reference, see the IoT Analytics IoT applications analysis 2015 here and the 2018 analysis here.

1.    IoT applications area #1: Manufacturing / Industrial

1a. Overview

Manufacturing / Industrial has taken over the top spot from “Cities” – the number one IoT application area in the 2018 analysis. Technology giants such as Microsoft and AWS as well as large industrial automation players such as Siemens or Rockwell Automation are among the driving forces of the digital transformation in the manufacturing / industrial industry.

“Industrial IoT is transforming the rules of manufacturing, fueling cloud and edge innovation, accelerating the evolution of digital factories, and enhancing operational performance.”

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, Nov 2019

“Manufacturers and industrial operators are discovering practical ways to apply IoT across their operations, and they’re deriving measurable business value as a result. Combining IoT technology and expertise in specific industrial applications enables better collaboration, faster problem-solving and increased productivity.”

Blake Moret, CEO of Rockwell Automation, May 2019

1b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

The industrial IoT application area covers a wide range of connected “things” projects both inside and outside the factory. For example inside, many IoT-based factory automation and control projects include holistic smart factory solutions with numerous elements such as production floor monitoring, wearables and Augmented Reality on the shop-floor, remote PLC control, or automated quality control systems. Typical outside the factory projects include remote control of connected machinery, equipment monitoring, or management and control of entire remote industrial operations such as oil rigs. Many of the case studies mention “reducing operational downtime and cost saving” as the key drivers for OEMs to introduce industrial IoT solutions.

1c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled projects

Example 1: Howden Mixed Reality solutions. Howden, a Scottish manufacturer of air and gas handling solutions, turned to Microsoft and PTC to develop scalable mixed reality solutions that overlay real-time IoT data from connected products with 3D Augmented Reality experiences to provide step-by-step instructions on how to solve problems with the equipment. The solutions enable Howden’s customers to reduce the challenges and costs associated with unplanned downtime and better-align overall maintenance strategies—which were previously based only on conjecture and after-the-fact analysis. These innovations ultimately save customers a significant amount of time and associated cost.

Example 2: Severstal Asset Performance. Severstal, a Russian steel manufacturer, turned to GE to reduce unscheduled maintenance delays with Predix Asset Performance Management. The solution enhanced equipment reliability by 20% by means of constantly improving strategies of maintenance, reducing the costs of repair and maintenance scheduling, effectively reallocating resources, and decreasing production risks.

2.    IoT applications area #2: Transportation / Mobility

2a. Overview

Transportation / Mobility is the second largest IoT application area in 2020. Tesla set the industry benchmark for connected cars when it launched the Model S in 2012, introducing the first over-the-air software update capabilities. Since then pretty much every car manufacturer has followed suit integrating similar IoT technologies.

“Connected solutions bring increased vehicle and construction equipment uptime for our customers, better safety for drivers, operators and other road users – and of course – less emissions of carbon dioxide. The first million connected assets at Volvo is only the start, we are committed to remain a leader in this field.”

Martin Lundstedt, CEO of the Volvo Group, Oct 2019

“At Honda Innovations, we’re witnessing a convergence of technologies that will transform mobility, create new business opportunities, and change the way we manufacture products. Our Honda Xcelerator program is designed for tech innovators who seek to transform the mobility experience and our Honda Developer Studio offers the best resources for developers and partners interested in connected car development.”

Nick Sugimoto, CEO of Honda Innovations, Apr 2019

2b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

Typical applications within Transportation/Mobility include telematics and fleet management solutions that connect with the local operating system within the car for vehicle diagnostic/monitoring such as battery monitoring, tire pressure monitoring, driver monitoring or simply vehicle tracking.

2c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled projects

• Example 3: KWRL real-time fleet monitoring. KWRL Transportation Co-op runs a large-scale school bus fleet in Washington state, USA and uses Samsara’s wireless fleet tracking platform to coordinate routes and keep buses running on schedule. Real-time fleet monitoring supplies visibility into where buses are at any given moment, sensors track stop paddle and emergency light activation, engine fault code alerts are automatically decoded so team instantly determines criticality of faults, and complete route history is used to build smarter routes and plan fleet expansion.
• Example 4: OmniBus fleet operations optimization. OnniBus.com is a leading long-distance bus service in Finland, building a more streamlined and sustainable transport operation with Telia’s connected vehicle solution designed to optimize the operations of heavy equipment and reduce fuel consumption using real-time operating data.
• Example 5: Caledonian driver behavior tracking. Caledonian Logistics, based in Aberdeen, Scotland, specializes in the movement of palletized goods and uses MyGeotab for fleet monitoring and tracking driver behavior. A fleet dashboard shows a lead table of drivers diagnostics making them fully accountable for their actions and raises alerts if any abnormal activity occurs.

3.    IoT applications area #3: Energy

3a. Overview

As worldwide energy consumption is expected to grow by 40% over the next 25 years, the need for smarter energy solutions has reached an all-time high. IoT is revolutionizing nearly every part of the energy industry from generation to transmission to distribution and changing how energy companies and customers interact. Both solution providers and energy companies themselves understand the need for and value of connected IoT solutions in the sector.

“Through IoT we’re looking to significantly enhance the productivity and scope of our advanced analytics capabilities to create greater economic value across Shell’s operations. IoT allows us to optimize our existing investments in data and cloud infrastructure while accelerating time to value of AI-based applications, so we can better serve our customers with even more agility and efficiency.”

Jay Crotts, CIO Shell Group, Sept 2019

“IoT exists, there’s nothing futuristic about it. Already today advanced sensors make it possible to monitor and communicate grid data. The information gathered by the sensors is transmitted to gateways and elaborated by data centers using machine learning algorithms with increasingly sophisticated models of data reading. This process brings enormous benefits in terms of grid efficiency.”

Fabio Veronese, Head of Infrastructure & Networks Digital Hub at Enel, Nov 2018

3b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

Energy accounts for 11% of the identified projects, up from 10% in 2018. The majority of projects focus on energy distribution, grid optimization, remote asset monitoring and management, predictive maintenance and creating more transparency for better informed customers.

3c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled projects

• Example 6: Exelon’s wind power forecast model. American utility company, Exelon, optimizes wind forecasting accuracy with GE’s Predix Platform to achieve a 70% performance increase for their wind farms. GE’s data science team created a physical and statistical wind power forecast model based on historical data provided by Exelon. They incorporated diverse data sources and took into account seasonal or time-of-day effects, ran the analytics in Predix Cloud, and wrote back the results in seconds.
• Example 7: Enel’s enhanced grid reliability solutions. To improve grid reliability and reduce the occurrence of faults, Enel, an Italian multinational energy company, deployed the C3.ai Predictive Maintenance application for 5 control centers. The application uses AI to analyze real-time network sensor data, smart meter data, asset maintenance records, and weather data to predict feeder failure.

4.    IoT applications area #4: Retail

4a. Overview

More and more retailers recognize that they can improve their cost-efficiency and in-store customer-experience through innovative IoT use cases. There is a rising interest for retailers to digitize stores and create smarter processes – retail now accounts for 9% of the identified projects, up from 5% in the 2018 analysis.

“The potential to gather data and put it to use more effectively is exciting. We’re learning how IoT can help us to work differently. We’re improving many of our processes, and we’re empowering our associates with better tools and technology.”

Doug McMillon, CEO Walmart, Oct 2018

“We are seeing the integration of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in the shape of voice-activated digital assistants with a high degree of automation, taking care of purchases through interfaces with retailers’ ordering systems.”

Tesco Bengaluru, CEO Sumit Mitra, Dec 2017

4b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

Typical IoT in retail solutions include in-store digital signage, customer tracking and engagement, goods monitoring and inventory management and smart vending machines among others.

4c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled projects

• Example 8: nuMedia’s mixed reality solution. US-basednuMedia Innovations digital host solution, PRSONAS powered by Digi, is using mixed-reality technology that mimics human experiences to enhance customer experiences e.g., smart digital kiosks have interactive self-service holograms that act as virtual sales reps and product specialists on the store’s front lines. These holograms together with digital signage project a company’s brand personality to attract, automate, and analyze customer engagements.
• Example 9: Art of Shaving enhanced shopper insights. The Art of Shaving, a US retail business of high-end men’s shaving and skin care accessories, turned to RetailNext to compare store performance across its retail locations based on an accurate entrance traffic solution. The solution deployed reliable systems to review detailed metrics, KPIs and analyze conversion rates by store, readily identifying norms, trends, and outliers, and creating plans to capture opportunities.

5.    IoT applications area #5: Cities

5a. Overview

Smart cities are growing and blossoming in all parts of the world. The IMD Smart City Index 2019, which focuses on how citizens perceive the scope and impact of efforts to make their cities smart – balancing “economic and technological aspects” with “humane dimensions”, put Singapore, Zurich and Oslo as the top 3 smartest cities in 2019, followed by Geneva, Copenhagen, Auckland, Taipei, Helsinki, Bilbao and Dusseldorf completing the top 10. More and more cities continue to embrace the smart city concept from a citizen’s perspective:

“My brief is to rethink the smart city from the ground up, meaning to rethink technology, IoT, data, and focusing on what it can do to serve the people”

Francesca Bria, CTO of Barcelona Smart City, Oct 2019

“Open IoT data is a central point for any city that is smart in its character. We are trying to make data available to the public — not only to ensure transparency — but also to make our citizens better informed.”

Winn Nielsen, Head of City Data, City of Copenhagen, Denmark, Nov 2019

The percentage of smart city projects is down from the 2018 analysis for a number of reasons such as long tender timelines, long lead time to get smart city projects started, and the need to navigate city politics. The CEO of an IoT Platform start-up, for example, recently shared with IoT Analytics that “Sometimes, smart city tender timelines are so long that start-ups can’t survive long enough to wait for the process to finish, so the process tends to be biased towards the largest vendors”.

5b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

Typical IoT projects in Smart Cities include connected traffic (smart parking, traffic management), utilities (smart waste, lighting), public safety (video surveillance) and environmental monitoring (air pollution).

5c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled projects

• Example 10: Amsterdam smart LED lighting project. Amsterdam’s Smart Lighting scheme includes a deployment of 144 LED smart streetlights along with cameras and public WIFI network in Hoekenrodeplein square. The LED Lights can be controlled remotely and automatically adapt to different lighting conditions.
• Example 11: Singapore’s sensor data sharing platform. Singapore uses an integrated sensor platform, Smart Nation Sensor Platform, to collect, analyze, and share data from connected sensors and devices to improve urban planning, transportation and public safety in the island. Examples of data sources include residential meters, traffic counters, cameras and lampposts. 

6.    IoT applications area #6: Healthcare

6a. Overview

IoT has only slowly proliferated itself in healthcare. However, things look to be changing in light of the center of COVID-19 pandemic. Early data suggests that digital health solutions that relate to COVID-19 are surging. Demand for specific IoT health applications such as telehealth consultations, digital diagnostics, remote monitoring, and robot assistance is increasing. The pandemic has thrust the healthcare industry into the limelight and many C-suites are taking note:

“There is a huge applicability of technology, data, and communication methodologies to tackle the current pandemic and help improve healthcare solutions through telehealth and telemedicine. Demand is emerging across the globe, there is a growing number of patients being remotely treated globally, for example the number of online consults globally has gone up 50 to hundred times in many health systems already. These solutions are here to stay even after the current crisis”

Amit Phadnis, Chief Digital Officer GE Healthcare, May 2020

“The pandemic has told us how much patients benefit from technology and apps. It is a kind of turbo-boost to advance our efforts around digitization. My main learnings from the coronavirus crisis so far have been of a technical nature: we need more open and transparent communication to address structures and processes that are no longer working.”

Dr. Peter Gocke, Chief Digital Officer Charite Universitätsmedizin Berlin

6b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

Typical healthcare IoT projects within hospitals/clinics include medical device monitoring, health team coordination, optimizing workflow operations while out-patient focused solutions include patient monitoring, assisted living, elderly care, and pain medication management among others.

6c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled projects

• Example 12: Medisanté remote patient monitoring. Medisanté are simplifying remote patient monitoring with continuous monitoring of assets connected to healthcare applications, including battery life and general health of devices, which allows personalized patient care anytime, anywhere and equips care teams with a near real-time view of the patient’s health and activities.
• Example 13: Medtronic connected pacemakers. Medtronic offers connected pacemakers which are small devices implanted in the chest or abdomen to treat patients whose hearts are beating too slowly or irregularly. The device gathers data such as transmission history, battery information, updates on physical activity and vitals tracking, and can stimulate the heart muscle with electricity pulses that restore the heart’s rhythm to a normal rate.

7.    IoT applications area #7: Supply chain

7a. Overview

As supply chains extend more and more to the end customers, resulting in more intricate flows of goods that are more complex to deliver, logistics providers are increasingly integrating connected digital solutions to tackle the complexity. A recent survey by Kenco, a US logistics provider, found that 56% of supply chain professionals are currently or planning to invest in sensors/IoT; up from 42% in 2017, to look for more operational efficiencies in how their supply chains operate.

“The transformation of A.P. Moller – Maersk from a diversified conglomerate to becoming a focused, integrated and digitized global logistics company continues. In particular, usage of our digital services has increased significantly over the last year, with more and more customers beginning to explore options for remote management of their supply chains.”

Søren Skou, CEO of A.P. Moller – Maersk, May 2020

“DHL are integrating IoT innovations to build the digital supply chain of tomorrow today. This is changing the way we collect, analyze and use data and, ultimately, our ways of working at these sites. By monitoring operational activities in real time rather than retrospectively, we can interpret data more meaningfully, and immediately re-engineer processes or warehouse layouts to boost operational efficiency and address potential safety blind spots in a warehouse.”

Markus Voss, Chief Operating Officer of DHL Supply Chain. May 2019

7b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

Typical supply chain IoT projects include asset tracking, condition monitoring (e.g., cold chain, medical goods), inventory and storage management, automated guided vehicles, connected workers, among others. The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the value of IoT tracking across the supply chain. Recent months have unfortunately shown the stark reality that even vital medical equipment and PPE can go out of stock as global supply chains are disrupted. This realization is expected to be a big driver for IoT tracking solutions in the supply chain to help companies stay in control, keep an overview, and react quickly.

7c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled projects

• Example 14: Rotterdam’s connected port. Rotterdam Port is using sensors throughout their expansive dock facility to continuously gather real-time data about air temperature, wind speed, relative humidity, turbidity and salinity of the water plus water flow and levels, tides and currents. The port even has “Digital Dolphins,” smart quay walls and sensor-equipped buoys, and is exploring connected container solutions to gather data and use artificial intelligence to predict more accurately what the best time is to moor and depart cargo ships at ports – to reduce waiting times and costs.
• Example 15: DHL smart pallet solutions. DHL is trialing smart pallets for real time shipment monitoring (e.g., embedded sensors to detect geo location, movement, delay, shock, temperature, etc).

8.    IoT applications area #8: Agriculture

8a. Overview

In 2050, it is estimated that a population of almost 10 billion people will need up to 70 percent more food than we do today. One way to address this challenge is through smart agriculture. IoT sensors can help farmers make more informed decisions to achieve higher crop yield, better quality produce, and save costs by reducing the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Some CEOs see IoT as the main source of disruption for the agriculture industry:  

“Agriculture needs something to drive growth in productivity and sustainable intensification of food production. We believe the internet of things is the basis of the future of agriculture.”

Ros Harvey, Managing Director of The Yield, Australian start-up working with Bosch to develop smart agricultural solutions. June 2019

“John Deere sees the adoption of information technologies and IoT services in agriculture as no less transformative than the introduction of self-propelled machines to farming a century ago. We believe that precision agricultural practices in use today are laying the foundation for the future of farming: a continually smart, evolving and more efficient farm.”

John May, CEO of John Deere, Mar 2017

8b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

Typical smart agriculture projects include precision farming, livestock monitoring, irrigation management, and automated drones for surveying farms, mapping fields, spraying crops, etc. Analysis of the case studies suggests that innovative technologies such as LPWAN are paving the way for Smart Agriculture’s growth in the Internet of Things landscape. LPWAN supplies a range of features in terms of energy consumption and long-range transmission i.e., the main network requirements for key applications in the sector. LPWANs are ideal for gathering data about local agricultural conditions including weather, soil moisture, chemical compositions of the soil and other environmental conditions at a much lower total cost of ownership. Furthermore, LPWANs make it possible to expand per-acre coverage and monitor more assets due to the simplicity of deployment and cost of ownership reductions.

8c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled projects

• Example 16: Kwekerij connected greenhouses.“We get so much insight into the temperature of our peppers during the growth phase, and can adjust the greenhouse climate accordingly. Based on this information, we can continually improve the quality of our produce, while cutting energy costs”- Sander Berkers, Supervisor at Kwekerij Moors Pepper Farm, Netherlands, Jan 2019
• Example 17: Hake connected dairy farm solutions. “When I get up in the morning and put on my boots, I don’t go to the stables first, I check my PC for alerts and I’m in the know right away. That’s what makes IoT technology so helpful. When a cow is in heat or eats less than anticipated because she starts coming down sick, there is a warning indicator for me. And that’s a great thing.” Steffen Hake, Dairy farmer in Wagenfeld-Ströhen, Germany, Aug 2015

9.    IoT applications area #9: Buildings

9a. Overview

As part of the 2019 Energy Efficiency Indicator study Johnson Controls surveyed 400 energy and facility management executives in the United States and found that 71 percent of organizations invested in smart building control system improvements and over half have implemented an enterprise-wide smart building management system. Most new innovative connected solutions aim to increase productivity and efficiency while reducing operational costs through complete building life cycle management.

“Buildings have been there for thousands of years, but unaware if someone were to enter or leave them. With digitalization and IoT, a building can now get to know about its occupants. It can provide feedback, not only to the residents, but also to the facility managers and the owners. So to me, a smart building is one that doesn’t just stand there, but one that understands its environment, interacts, learns and adapts.”

Cedrik Neike, CEO of Siemens Smart Infrastructure, Oct 2019

“Real estate owners and managers are always seeking ways to reduce costs and increase tenant satisfaction. We believe that putting intelligence into the building that improves facilities management and analyzes how occupants and visitors use the building is the best way to fulfill their needs. We’re employing digitalization, AI, and Internet of Things technologies to optimize usage at every level and make the building a pleasant place to work, visit, and live.”

Michael Cesarz, CEO for MULTI at thyssenkrupp Elevator, Sept 2018.

9b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

Typical connected building projects involve facility-automation and monitoring for building systems (HVAC, lighting, elevators, smoke alarms, fire extinguishers), building utilization and security (room use, access, surveillance).

9c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled projects

• Example 18: thyssenkrupp connected elevator solutions. At its Innovation Test Tower in Rottweil, Germany, thyssenkrupp Elevator is using Willow Twin, a digitalized virtual model of the physical building, to revolutionize the way buildings are maintained and to enhance the experience of tenants and visitors.
• Example 19: Connected shopping centre in Finland. A shopping centre in the Leppävaara district of Espoo, Finland is using Navigator software, from Siemens and eggsunimedia, to monitor and analyze the ventilation systems, room sensors and lighting systems in the multitude of premises and shops. The shopping centre was able to save 680 MWh of electricity and 800 MWh in centre heating, which is about half of the previous year’s consumption and cut energy costs by around €110,000.

10.    IoT applications area #10: Other

10a. Overview

There are only a few (3%) projects that have been identified that are not part of the other 9 categories.

10b. Typical IoT Platform-enabled applications

Example IoT Platform-enabled projects in the Other area include those in hospitality, enterprise, finance, and sports.

10c. Selected IoT Platform-enabled project

Example 20:  Cybex connected exercise equipment. “Our customers invest in our catalog of products for our reputation for developing innovative and reliable equipment that enhances human performance. We are furthering that reputation, and our customer’s success, by offering an Internet-based monitoring system that helps owners maximize the benefit of our products.” Lisa Juris, Chief Marketing Officer Cybex International. Cybex International offers premium exercise equipment used in fitness facilities worldwide. Gym owners regularly service their treadmills to ensure they stay up and running so Cybex developed a web-based asset management system to provide gym owners with real-time data on the status of each treadmill.

Methodology

The data presented in this article is partially based on IoT Analytics research on IoT platforms, performed in Q4/2019. As part of a wider research project on IoT platforms, IoT Analytics mined the websites of 620 IoT platform vendors in regards to documented IoT case studies and aggregated the data for each segment to come up with the top 10 applications areas based on real IoT projects.

Scope: The research focused on enterprise IoT solutions that are either directly employed by enterprises or sold to enterprises, thus excluding consumer-only cases such as wearables, smart home or hobbyist projects.

More information and further reading

The findings discussed in this article are derived from analysis of the List Of 620 IoT Platform Companies.

A sample of the report can be downloaded here:

Existing research on IoT Platforms

• IoT Platforms Market Report 2018-2023
• IIoT Platforms for Manufacturing 2019-2024
• IoT Platforms Vendor Comparison 2018
• IoT Platforms End-user Satisfaction Report 2019

Existing research on Industrial IoT

• IoT Commercialization & Business Model Report
• Equipment as a Service Market Report 2020-2025
• Industry 4.0 & Smart Manufacturing Adoption
• Industrial AI Market Report 2020-2025

Upcoming research on Smart Cities

• Smart City Adoption Report 2020 (Q3/2020) – and in-depth look at 50 cities and how they are implementing IoT
• Smart City Market Report (Q3/2020) – a comprehensive look at the entire Smart City market incl. competitive landscape, and market sizing

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? 

The post Top 10 IoT applications in 2020 appeared first on IoT Analytics.

The first round of virtual conferences among the Covid-19 pandemic is behind us. The IoT Analytics team attended 12 virtual conferences during the second quarter of 2020, each with a focus on the enterprise technology stack and each with some relevance for the Internet of Things.

The 12 virtual conferences attended include:

• Alibaba Cloud Summit
• AVEVA World Digital
• AWS Summit
• Microsoft Build
• Cisco Live
• Huawei Analyst Summit
• IIOT World Days
• PTC LiveWorx
• Siemens Realize Live
• Rockwell Automation ROK Live
• SAP Sapphire Reimagined
• Wirepas Go

IoT Analytics corporate research subscribers have access to the complete 50-page summary document of all conferences, titled: Technology Vendor News – Q2/2020

These are 5 of the top themes that emerged when comparing the insights gained at each of the conferences:

1.   “Digital” has been accelerating during the pandemic

Tech vendors unanimously echo that adoption of many digital technologies has been accelerating. A survey presented by Oden Technologies at IIoT World showed that 71% of organizations give greater importance to digital transformation now. PTC, at their Liveworx conference, highlighted that factory collaboration tools and data security are two hot themes for them and that the migration to the cloud is accelerating. Schneider Electric and AVEVA highlighted “remote everything” as well as “digital for sustainability” as two of the themes accelerated by Covid-19.

2.   Customer needs are changing.

“Covid-19 has shown companies what it means to have IT capacity as a fixed cost in P&L. A clear trend towards modernization is emerging”

Klaus Buerg, Managing Director, AWS, Germany

Siemens, at their Realize Live conferences, reported an increasing demand for rapid application development (with bookings for Siemens Mendix rising 145% yoy) as well as fast production of new products in need enabled by 3D-printing. For Schneider Electric CEO Jean-Pascal Tricoire, the new theme for customers is “resiliency”, either in terms of cost reductions (e.g., the transportation industry) or more capacity and robustness (e.g., food&beverage industry).

3.   Tech vendors were quick to create tools that help during the pandemic

Many tech vendors quickly reacted to the pandemic and created tools to help customers and the public. SAP for example teamed up with Deutsche Telekom to co-develop a Corona warning app in Germany which was in use by ~20% of the German population just 3 weeks after release. Both AWS and Microsoft created a centralized database for relevant Covid data (AWS Covid data lake, Microsoft open machine readable research database). Amazon also provided support for testing and made disaster response credits available to communities who were looking for business continuity in the cloud. PTC teamed up with Ansys and Microsoft to help build Covid-19 isolation units based on their Windchill PLM software. The company also provided free access to Vuforia Chalk, a tool that leverages AR to enable remote operations, maintenance, and repair. Siemens helped some of their customers operate differently. A notable example is that of Vietnamese automobile firm Vinfast which managed to produce 55,000 ventilators in a month thanks to Siemens’ Digital Twin tools.

4.   Innovation continues on core tech topics such as edge, cloud, digital twins, and next generation communication networks

Both AWS and Alibaba announced their next generation elastic compute services during Q2/2020, which are based on faster processors that promise the customer a much better price to performance ratio. Microsoft highlighted its new Azure-powered supercomputer that is particularly geared towards leveraging Artificial Intelligence at scale. Schneider Electric/AVEVA are making a push at the edge by announcing new partnerships with Lenovo and Stratus. The standout topic for Siemens is the company’s focus on no-code/low-code through its Mendix acquisition. Siemens plans to use Mendix as its platform for building new SaaS solutions (e.g., Teamcenter X). Rockwell Automation announced new edge hardware (i.e., new gateways, PLCs that run HMI software). The company also announced several deep product integrations with PTC ThingWorx (e.g., connecting Rockwell’s historian to ThingWorx). PTC, which historically had a very strong on-premise business, announced plans to eventually make all software solutions available as Software-as-a-Service in the cloud (enabled by its Atlas platform). Huawei and partners jointly launched the Fifth Generation Fixed Network (F5G) industry initiative which aims to bring the fragmented ecosystem of the fixed network industry together and promote topics such as “fiber to everywhere” (as opposed to “fiber to the home”). Cisco put a big focus on the security of its software-defined wide area network architecture (SD-WAN) which promises cheaper connectivity, faster data throughput, and more commercial flexibility.

5.   Sustainability is moving into the spotlight

One of the emerging themes is a stronger focus on sustainability. SAP announced its new “Climate 21” initiative which aims to embed a number of sustainability metrics into SAP’s products with the first such module being a “Carbon Footprint Analytics” application. Both Siemens and Schneider Electric/AVEVA spent a significant amount of time at their respective conferences highlighting how their customers use their tools to build products that reduce environmental impact.

More information and further reading

The findings discussed in this article are derived from the 50-page Technology Vendor News – Q2/2020 report which includes a lot more examples and insights related to the Internet of Things.

A sample of the report can be downloaded here:

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? 

The post 5 themes that dominated tech and IoT conferences in Q2 2020 appeared first on IoT Analytics.

The second quarter of 2020 was like no other. A record rise in unemployment, widespread layoffs, empty offices, and entire industries like travel or sports & entertainment losing the majority of their business within weeks. At the same time governments around the world provided a record $10 trillion in economic stimulus, while the value of Gold as well as the Nasdaq climbed to new all-time highs.

Nasdaq’s record levels, which are a surprise to many, are driven by the fact that technology has taken center stage during the pandemic. -> see also the related analysis: 5 themes that dominated tech and IoT conferences in Q2 2020).

IoT Analytics’ latest publication (available to download for corporate subscription clients), titled “IT & IoT Trends – Mid 2020 update”  looks one layer deeper and analyzes the importance of different digital and tech topics during and after the pandemic.

One of the analyses is a “keyword-based” visualization of the earnings transcripts of 3,000 US-listed companies (Q2 2020 vs. Q4 2019). It provides an indication of which technology topics CEOs prioritized during the pandemic.

The chart visualizes the keyword importance and growth during the pandemic:

• X-axis: Keyword importance (i.e. how often have keywords been mentioned in Q2). The further out on the x-axis, the more often the topic has been mentioned all together.
• Y-axis: Keyword growth (i.e. what is the increase or decrease Q2/2020 vs. Q4/2019, indexed to 100). A number >100 on the Y-axis indicates the topic has grown importance, a number <100 indicates the topic has lost in importance.

These were some of the hottest topics discussed by CEOs:

Priority #1: Remote work

Mention of remote work topics (e.g., videoconferencing, remote monitoring as well as remote healthcare / telehealth) jumped by more than 10x compared to pre COVID-19 levels. 

Sample CEO quote from Q2:

“Remote monitoring and service delivery, including condition-based maintenance, will significantly increase. These types of solutions are being deployed in some of our marquee projects today, and the list of ideas and offerings continues to expand.”

George Oliver – CEO, Johnson Controls Inc, May 1, 2020

Priority #2: Supply Chain

Managing the supply chain to maintain customer satisfaction was key during the pandemic. This included having supply chain visibility, ensuring there were no supply disruptions, and focusing on creating overall resiliency. The topic “supply chain” was mentioned 2.8 times more than prior to the pandemic.

Sample CEO quote from Q2:

“Having agile supply chain processes is more important than ever to manage our expenses and cash investments. Therefore, we condensed our sales, inventory and operations planning process from a traditional monthly cycle to a weekly cycle.”

Darius Adamczyk – CEO, Honeywell International Inc May 1, 2020

Priority #3: Security

As the pandemic forced organizations to quickly change IT setups, hackers tried to benefit. Q2 saw a spike in phishing attacks, malspams and ransomware attacks as attackers were using COVID-19 as bait to impersonate brands thereby misleading employees and customers. Security topics were mentioned 30% more in Q2 than prior to the pandemic.

Sample CEO quote from Q2:

“Data breaches in cloud-delivered services will accelerate as many info sec and dev ops organizations, in their rush to the cloud, have not yet brought their cloud security posture to the level of their traditional data centers.”

Nikesh Arora – CEO, Palo Alto Networks Inc , May 21, 2020

Priority #4 Digital Twin & Simulation

In a world where nothing seems certain and a wide range of future scenarios are possible, simulation becomes more important. The inability for people to travel was another driver for digital twin and simulation technologies. One such use case is “Virtual commissioning”, i.e. setting up equipment remotely without being physically present. Relying on a digital replica of the asset and simulating the asset’s behavior proved to be very valuable for those companies that could not allow its employees to travel during the lockdown.

Sample CEO quote from Q2:

“In these tough economic times, people are looking to reduce costs. And that again is a good guide to tailwind for simulation.”

Ajei Gopal CEO, ANSYS, May 7, 2020

Priority #5: Additive Manufacturing

Additive manufacturing moved into the spotlight during the pandemic. The benefits of being able to produce with maximum flexibility proved valuable in a number of cases and was partially driven by a shortage in critical equipment to treat COVID-19 patients (e.g., companies used 3D printers to quickly produce ventilators).

Sample CEO quote from Q2:

“This pandemic has shown the benefits of 3D printing specifically speed, agility, and localized production. This has led to deeper, more strategic engagement with customers as they evaluate the supply chain and consider more distributed manufacturing models.”

Enrique Lores – CEO, HP Inc, May 27, 2020

Other notable observations (and opinions)

• Cloud not (yet) top of mind. There is a widespread belief that COVID-19 is accelerating legacy software applications and other enterprise workloads moving to the cloud. Our keyword analysis, however, does not show a meaningful increase in CEOs that discussed the topic throughout Q2. Nonetheless, our team believes that cloud adoption will accelerate in the coming quarters and that we will see a trend reversal in future such keyword analyses.
• Limited focus on IoT, 5G, and AI during the pandemic. Digital acceleration did not include IoT, 5G and AI during Q2 (at least not on a broad scale so it would have a measurable affect in CEO discussions). In fact, some longer-lasting AI initiatives and IoT projects which require an on-site setup were postponed during the crisis and thus less in focus. Based on recent discussions with various experts in the field, IoT Analytics expects all 3 topics to bounce back.
• Private networks on the rise. While discussions about public wireless networks (such as public 5G), did not accelerate during Q2, private telecommunications networks (i.e. wireless networks owned by organizations) did. The topic of private networks is on the rise (although the topic is small compared to other topics analyzed). Of particular importance are private LTE, private 5G, and private LPWAN (e.g., Lora) that allow companies to perform wireless tracking of goods and assets on a company’s site without relying on a third-party network.
• Sustainability deprioritized. While tech vendors at their own conferences during Q2 emphasized sustainability as a theme they are prioritizing going forward (see theme #5 here), there was little mention throughout Q2 as CEOs had more immediate needs to discuss with the analyst community.

More information and further reading

The findings discussed in this article are part of a wider analysis which is derived from the 29-page IT & IoT Trends – Mid 2020 update report. The report includes a number of further insights related to the effect of COVID-19 on different IT as well as Internet of Things topics and includes many recent quotes and data points.

A sample of the report can be downloaded here:

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? 

The post What CEOs talked about during the pandemic appeared first on IoT Analytics.

In short

• Cities are increasingly relying on IoT technology to become “smart”.
• IoT Analytics published a comprehensive 134-page report studying the initiatives of some of the world’s smartest cities such as London, Beijing, Berlin, Barcelona, and Dubai.
• “Connected public transport” is the #1 IoT use case for Smart Cities, followed by traffic monitoring, and water level monitoring. This article highlights the top 10 use cases that Smart Cities are implementing.

Why it matters

• IoT technology helps cities curb inefficiencies, fight rising pollution levels, and lift the quality of life of their citizens
• The report provides quantitative data to support cities as well as their technology vendors in decision-making on their IoT initiatives, provides technology/implementation trends, and a view on leading vendors.

The journey to becoming a Smart City  

Do you remember what it was like to wait and not know when the bus or train would arrive as it was seemingly running late?

Millions of people had these worries every day on their way to/from work or elsewhere – this was before the arrival of IoT, less than 20 years ago.

Things are different today and, in many places, these worries are a thing of the past. In fact, “Connected Public Transport” is the #1 leading Smart City Use Case in 2020, as the majority of Smart Cities around the world have adopted smart systems that provide their citizens with technology so they can commute easier, faster, and more reliably with public transport.

This is according to the recently published Smart City Use Cases & Technology Adoption Report 2020 in which IoT Analytics surveyed key decision-makers from 50 cities around the globe on the details of their Smart City initiatives. (for a list of the cities surveyed see here).

The study shows that cities around the world are looking to Smart City technology to help address problems that are and will continue to impede the quality of life of its citizens. These include increasing operational efficiency and improving decision making in the short term while addressing long term challenges of sustainability and pollution in ever-growing cities.

Among other aspects, the report examines 31 Smart City use cases in depth. Here are the top 10 Smart City use cases (by share of adoption in the 50 cities analyzed):

Smart City use case #1: Connected Public Transport

Connected public transport tops the list at a 74% implementation rate. Today’s state-of-the-art public transportation systems combine real-time monitoring of public transportation vehicles’ locations and routes with notifications and personalized travel news to passengers. Smooth and fast public transport is of growing importance in cities that suffer from traffic congestion.

Example: Skånetrafiken, the public transport provider in the city of Malmö, Sweden partnered with Telia and Swarco to install a connected public bus system. The system gathers real-time information about the whereabouts of individual buses. Not only does the system inform passengers about the best routes to their destination but it also connects the buses with traffic lights and each other. This allows for smart management and control of the public transport system.

Smart City use case #2: Traffic Monitoring and Management

72% of cities have deployed a traffic monitoring and management solution. Traffic monitoring and management helps monitor and manage traffic flows efficiently. This is of increasing importance as the growing urban population will lead to more and more cars on already congested roads at the same time. According to the United Nations, the share of people living in urban areas will grow from 55% in 2018 to 68% in 2050.

Example: The city of Copenhagen, Denmark rolled out 380 intelligent traffic lights that not only prioritize bikes and buses but also help clear congested streets after selected events such as soccer games have taken place. The green light phase of a traffic light can be extended by up to 30 seconds according to the situation. After the city first tested 10 of these new smart traffic lights in one part of the city it realized how impactful this new system is and decided to roll it out extensively throughout the city.

Smart City use case #3: Water level / Flood Monitoring

72% of smart cities have deployed smart water level or flood monitoring. The solutions monitor the level of water in public water basins such as rivers, channels, or even lakes and seas. In densely built-up areas such as cities, this can be crucial. But even in rural areas deploying this Smart City Use Case can be vital.

Example: In 2017, 75% of the population of La Emilia (Buenos Aires, Argentina) was forced to evacuate after the local river destroyed the dam and the dikes. As a result, the government implemented a system (based on the Libelium wireless sensor platform) that offers real-time information about the condition of the river. The collection of long-term statistics also help to mitigate future risks.

Smart City use case #4: Video Surveillance & Analytics

72% of smart cities have deployed some form of video surveillance & analytics solution. They use CCT cameras and analytics to detect specific situations, e.g. accidents, crimes, potential threats, or recognize specific features (face recognition, demographics, etc.). This Smart City use case is particularly beneficial in highly crowded urban areas where humans cannot observe all the information at once and in time.

Example: The city of Cape Town in South Africa introduced a License Plate Recognition solution that helped to make the main street leading to one of the wealthiest suburbs of the city much safer. 42 day/night cameras were installed so that the identity of up to 300,000 cars an hour can be monitored. City officials reported a 65% drop in crime following the introduction of the system.

Smart City use case #5: Connected Streetlights

68% of smart cities use connected streetlights in everyday operations. The monitoring and management of streetlights’ health status and energy consumption can help cities decrease costs and become more sustainable.

Example: The city of Chicago initiated the Chicago Smart Lighting Project in 2017. It is expected that streetlights will consume up to 75% less electricity when all estimated 270,000 light fixtures are replaced in 2021.

More information and further reading

Are you interested in learning more about the adoption of Smart City uses cases and technologies?

The Smart City Use Cases & Technology Adoption Report 2020 analyses not only the adoption of Smart City use cases and (connectivity) technologies but shows barriers, challenges, and success factors from a survey of 50 city decision-makers from some of the world’s leading Smart City initiatives (e.g., London, Barcelona, Dubai, Beijing, Berlin, and many others).

The 134-page report part of IoT Analytics’ ongoing coverage of Smart City and Connectivity and includes many additional insights not discussed in this article, including an analysis of the 7 patterns of successful Smart City initiatives (vs. less successful ones), more details on how cities manage the process and how the initiatives are financed.

In Q4 2020, IoT Analytics will publish a comprehensive Smart City Market Report 2020-2025 which, among other things, will take a deep-dive at the market as well as the competitive landscape for many of these use cases and Smart City as a whole.

If you are interested in the Smart City use case of Smart Parking, you may be interested in the Smart Parking Market Report 2019-2023, if you are interested in Connected Streetlights, please take a look at the Connected Streetlights Report 2018 – 2023

This report provides answers to the following questions (among others):

• What use cases are smart cities adopting and to which degree?
• Which use cases have the highest number of connected devices?
• Which are some of the common technology vendors and how well perceived are they?
• What connectivity technologies are used by smart cities and for what reason?
• Which regions are ahead when adopting these technologies?
• Who is deciding on and implementing the Smart City initiative?
• Where is the funding coming from and what is it spent on?
• What are the motivational factors to start the initiative? What are roadblocks?
• How do cities measure the outcome?
• What distinguishes successful Smart City initiatives from less successful ones?

Report Methodology

The Smart City Use Cases & Technology Report 2020 is part of IoT Analytics’ ongoing coverage of Smart City and Connectivity (see Smart City Research Workstream). The information presented in this report is based on an extensive survey with leading city managers and experts conducted in February and March 2020. The purpose is to inform other market participants about the current state of technology adoption with cities across the world, their needs, challenges, and many other aspects of Smart City initiatives. Survey participants were randomly selected, and their knowledge was independently verified. In order to ensure complete objectivity, IoT Analytics did not alter or supplement any survey results and also did NOT accept any participation from participants that were suggested from third parties (e.g., customers from specific vendors).

• Type of research. Primary research via prequalified online survey 
• Audience type. C-level / Senior manager/ VP/Director 
• Study time frame. February – March 2020
• Number of individual participants. 50 
• Region mix. 30% APAC, 30% Europe, 28% North America, 12% Rest of World 

Are you interested in continued IoT coverage and updates? 

Subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter to stay up-to-date on the latest trends shaping the IoT markets. For complete enterprise IoT coverage with access to all of IoT Analytics’ paid content & reports including dedicated analyst time check out Enterprise subscription.

The post The top 10 Smart City use cases that are being prioritized now appeared first on IoT Analytics.

In short

• IoT edge computing resources are becoming increasingly intelligent
• There are 7 key characteristics that make modern edge computing more intelligent (including open architectures, data pre-processing, distributed applications)
• The intelligent industrial edge computing market is estimated to reach $30.8B by 2025, up from $11.6B in 2020 (see new 248-page report)

Why it matters

• IT/OT architectures are evolving quickly
• Organizations that manage physical assets can reap tremendous cost savings and unlock new opportunities by switching to modern, intelligent edge computing architectures

Why has the interest in “edge computing” become so widespread in recent years?  

The primary reason why the edge has become so popular in recent years is because the “edge” as we know it is becoming increasingly intelligent. This “intelligent edge” opens up a whole new set of opportunities for software applications and disrupts some of today’s edge to cloud architectures on all 6 layers of the edge. This according to IoT Analytics’ latest research on Industrial IoT edge computing.

According to the report, intelligent edge compute resources are replacing “dumb” legacy edge compute resources at an increasing pace. The former makes up a small portion of the market today but is expected to grow much faster than the overall market and thus gain share on the latter. The hype about edge computing is warranted because the replacement of “dumb” edge computing with intelligent edge computing has major implications for companies in all sectors, from consumer electronics and machinery OEMs to manufacturing facilities and oil and gas wells.  

Benefits of switching from “dumb” to “intelligent” edge computing architectures include an increase in system flexibility, functionality, scalability and in many cases a dramatic reduction in costs; one of the companies that was analyzed for the edge computing research realized a 92% reduction in industrial automation costs by switching to intelligent edge hardware.   

Where is the edge?

A lot of great work has been done in recent years to define and explain “the edge”. Cisco was an early thought leader in the space, conceptualizing the term “fog computing” and developing IoT solutions designed to run there. LF Edge (an umbrella organization under the Linux Foundation) publishes an annual “State of the Edge” report which provides a modern, comprehensive and vendor-neutral definition of the edge. While these broad definitions are certainly helpful, the fact is that the edge is often “in the eye of the beholder”.  

For instance, a telecommunications (telco) provider may view the edge as the micro datacenter located at the base of a 5G cell tower (often referred to as “Mobile Edge Computing” or MEC), while a manufacturing end user may view the edge as the vision sensor at the end of the assembly line. The definitions are different because the goal / purpose of hosting workloads at the edge is different: the telco provider is trying to optimize data consumption (i.e. performance issues associated with consumers of the data), while the manufacturing end user is trying to optimize data generation (i.e. performance issues associated with transmitting and analyzing the data). 

IoT Analytics defines edge computing as a term used to describe intelligent computational resources located close to the source of data consumption or generation. “Close” is a relative term and is more of a continuum than a static place. It is measured by the physical distance of a compute resource from its data source. There are 3 types of edges, and each of them is home to 1 or more types of compute resources:  

The three types of edge

A. Thick edge

The thick edge describes compute resources (typically located within a data center) which are equipped with components designed to handle compute intensive tasks / workloads (e.g., high-end CPUs, GPUs, FGPAs, etc.) such as data storage and analysis. There are two types of compute resources located at the “thick” edge, which is typically located 100m to ~40 km from the data source:  

1. Cell tower data centers, which are rack-based compute resources located at the base of cell towers 
2. On prem data centers, which are rack-based compute resources located at the same physical location as the sensors generating the data 

B. Thin edge

Thin edge describes the intelligent controllers, networking equipment and computers that aggregate data from the sensors / devices generating data. “Thin edge” compute resources are typically equipped with middle-tier processors (e.g., Intel i-series, Atom, Arm M7+, etc.) and sometimes include AI components such as GPUs or ASICs. There are 3 types of compute resources located at the “thin” edge, which is typically located at 1m to 1km from the data source.”: 

3. Computers, which are generic compute resources located outside of the data center (e.g., industrial PCs, Panel PCs, etc.) 
4. Networking equipment, which are intelligent routers, switches, gateways and other communications hardware primarily used for connecting other types of compute resources. 
5. Controllers, which are intelligent PLCs, RTUs, DCS and other related hardware primarily used for controlling processes.

C. Micro edge

Micro edge describes the intelligent sensors / devices that generate data. “Micro edge” devices are typically equipped with low-end processors (e.g., Arm Cortex M3) due to constraints related to costs and power consumption. Since compute resources located at the “micro edge” are the data generating devices themselves, the distance from the compute resource is essentially zero. One type of compute resource is found at the micro edge: 

6. Sensors / devices, which are physical pieces of hardware that generate data and / or actuate physical objects. They are located at the very farthest edge in any architecture. 

Modern intelligent edge computing architectures are the driving force behind the move to more edge computing and the value-creating use cases associated with the edge. 7 key characteristics distinguish modern intelligent edge computing from legacy systems:

7 characteristics of intelligent edge computing 

1. Open architectures  

Proprietary protocols and closed architectures have been commonplace in edge environments for decades. However, these have often proven to lead to high integration and switching costs as vendors lock-in their customers. Modern, intelligent edge computing resources deploy open architectures that leverage standardized protocols (e.g., OPC UA, MQTT) and semantic data structures (e.g., Sparkplug) that reduce integration costs and increase vendor interoperability. An example for open protocols is Iconics IoTWorX, an edge application which supports open, vendor-neutral protocols such as OPC UA and MQTT, among others. 

2. Data pre-processing and filtering  

Transmitting and storing data generated by legacy edge computing resources in the cloud can be very expensive and inefficient. Legacy architectures often rely on poll / response setups in which a remote server requests a value from the “dumb” edge computing resource on a time-interval, regardless of whether or not the value has changed. Intelligent edge computing resources can pre-process data at the edge and only send relevant information to the cloud, which reduces data transmission and storage costs. An example of data pre-processing and filtering is an intelligent edge computing device running an edge agent that pre-processes data at the edge before sending it to the cloud, thus reducing bandwidth costs (see AWS project example). 

3. Edge analytics  

Most legacy edge computing resources have limited processing power and can only perform one specific task / function (e.g., sensors ingest data, controllers control processes, etc.). Intelligent edge computing resources typically have more powerful processing capabilities designed to analyze data at the edge. These edge analytics applications enable new use cases that rely on low-latency and high data throughput. Octonion, for example, uses ARM-based intelligent sensors to create collaborative learning networks at the edge. The networks facilitate the sharing of knowledge between intelligent edge sensors and allow end users to build predictive maintenance solutions based on advanced anomaly detection algorithms. 

4. Distributed applications 

The applications that run on legacy edge computing devices are often tightly coupled to the hardware on which they run. Intelligent edge computing resources de-couple applications from the underlying hardware and enable flexible architectures in which applications can move from one intelligent compute resource to another. This de-coupling enables applications to move both vertically (e.g., from the intelligent edge computing resource to the cloud) and horizontally (e.g., from one intelligent edge computing resource to another) as needed. There are 3 types of edge architectures in which edge applications are deployed: 

1. 100% edge architectures. These architectures do not include any off-premises compute resources (i.e. all compute resources are on-premise). 100% edge architectures are often used by organizations that do not send data to the cloud for security / privacy reasons (e.g., defense suppliers, pharmaceutical companies) and / or large organizations that have already invested heavily in on-premise computing infrastructure. 
2. Thick edge + cloud architectures. These architectures always include an on-prem data center + cloud compute resources and optionally include other edge compute resources. Thick edge + cloud architectures are often found in large organizations that have invested in on-prem data centers but leverage the cloud to aggregate and analyze data from multiple facilities. 
3. Thin / micro edge + cloud architectures. These architectures always include cloud compute resources connected to one or more smaller (i.e. not on-prem data centers) edge compute resources. Thin / micro edge architectures are often used to collect data from remote assets that are not part of existing plant network. 

Modern edge applications need to be architected so that they can run on any of the 3 edge architectures. Lightweight edge “agents” and containerized applications in general are two examples of modern edge applications which enable more flexibility when designing edge architectures.

5. Consolidated workloads

Most “dumb” edge computing resources run proprietary applications on top of proprietary RTOSs (real-time operating system) which are installed directly on the compute resource itself. Intelligent edge computing resources are often equipped with hypervisors which abstract the operating system and application from the underlying hardware. This enables an intelligent edge computing resource to run multiple operating systems and applications on a single edge device. This leads to workload consolidation, which reduces the physical footprint of the compute resources required at the edge and can result in lower COGS (cost of goods sold) for device or equipment manufacturers that previously relied on multiple physical compute resources. The example below shows how a hypervisor is used to run multiple operating systems (Linux, Windows, RTOS) and containerized applications (Docker 1, Win Container) all within a single piece of hardware. 

6. Scalable deployment / management 

Legacy compute resources often use serial (often proprietary) communication protocols which are difficult to update and manage at scale. Intelligent edge computing resources are securely connected to local or wide area networks (LAN, WAN) and can thus be easily deployed and managed from a central location. Edge management platforms are increasingly being used to handle the administrative tasks associated with large scale deployments. An example of an edge management platform is Siemens’ Industrial Edge Management System, which is used for deploying and managing workloads on Siemens’ intelligent edge compute resources.

7. Secure connectivity 

“Security by obscurity” is a common practice for securing legacy compute devices. These legacy devices often have proprietary communication protocols and serial networking interfaces, which do add a layer of “security by obscurity”; however, this type of security comes at a cost of much higher management and integration costs. Advancements in cybersecurity technology (e.g., hardware security modules [ HSMs]) are making it easier and safer than ever to securely connect intelligent devices. Different levels of security can be provided throughout the product depending on the specific needs of the application. NXP’s end-to-end security solution, for example, begins at the device manufacturing level and spans all the to the deployment of applications on the connected edge devices.  

The market for intelligent edge computing

The focus of our latest report on industrial edge computing explores the intelligent industrial edge in much greater depth. The report focusses on edge computing at industrial sites such as manufacturing facilities, power plants, etc. According to our findings, intelligent industrial edge computing will make up an increasingly large share of the overall industrial automation market, growing from ~7% of the overall market in 2019 to ~16% by 2025. The total market for intelligent industrial edge computing (hardware, software, services) reached $11.6B in 2019 and is expected to increase to $30.8B by 2025. 

More information and further reading

Are you interested in learning more about industrial edge computing?

The Industrial Edge Computing Market Report 2020-2025 is part of IoT Analytics’ ongoing coverage of Industrial IoT and Industry 4.0 topics (Industrial IoT Research Workstream). The information presented in the report is based on extensive primary and secondary research, including 30+ interviews with industrial edge computing experts and end users conducted between December 2019 and October 2020. The document includes a definition of industrial edge computing, market projections, adoption drivers, case study analysis, key trends & challenges, and insights from relevant surveys.  

This report provides answers to the following questions (among others):

• What is Industrial Edge Computing? 
• What are the different types of industrial edges? 
• What is the difference between traditional industrial hardware and intelligent edge hardware? 
• How big is the industrial edge computing market? Market segments include: 
  • Hardware 
    • Intelligent sensors  
    • Intelligent controllers  
    • Intelligent networking equipment  
    • Industrial PCs 
    • On-prem data centers 
  • Software
    • Edge applications (e.g. analytics, control, data ingestion, storage and visualization)  
    • Edge platforms  
• Which industrial edge computing use cases are gaining the most traction? 
• Who are the leading industrial edge computing vendors and what are their offerings?  
• What are the key trends and challenges associated with industrial edge computing?  

A sample of the report can be downloaded here:

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