As the "things" in IoT is getting more and more diverse and widespread; according to Gartner, Inc. forecast, there would be around 20.4 billion connected things in use by 2020, businesses are on pace to leverage IoT technologies to enhance their performance and reduce costs. And if you are one of those among the manufacturing and retail sectors with high expectations from IoT technology, delve a little deeper to understand its business impact before getting swayed by the hype.

The global IoT market was $157 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach $267 billion by 2020, according to Boston Consulting Group. Also, it is not just that the market is spreading, the best part is it is diversifying, which means the "things" in IoT is not limited to any specific domain and application like Smartphones and Personal Computers but covers a variety of dedicated functional objects such as home appliances, vehicles, engines, ATMs, machines, robots, and so many others. So, if the IoT market is expected to grow at the predicted pace, it is good news for many industries.

But with all the hype and market predictions, there are threats as well. And it is here when you need to ponder whether the IoT is the best choice for your business and if so, how prepared you are to tackle the threats. Below are the 4 challenges of IoT faced by enterprises which could slow down its pace and prevent people from adopting the technology.

In a survey by Gartner, it has been found that around 20% of IoT initiatives-based organizations have experienced minimum one IoT attack in the last three years. These attacks have been of various types, such as cross-border attacks, attacks on the IoT data stored in the cloud, and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.

Are you prepared to protect your company against these attacks?

The preparation involves understanding the causes and making right moves to tackle the security threats before they outweigh the benefits. Businesses need to understand the software and hardware being used in the smart connected devices and their implications for network connectivity and analytics. Many large organizations and IT security standard bodies have addressed the issue, but still have not been able to come up with the standard "Security by Design" and specific regulations that can help every business to tackle the security attacks confidently.

Unreliable communication networks are a major roadblock to IoT. It requires ubiquitous global connectivity to monitor the object and effectively and consistently extract information from the sensors.

In the past few decades, wireless connectivity standards have improved with the emergence of varied connectivity solutions such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN in unlicensed spectrum and cellular networks like CDMA and GSM in licensed spectrum.

Low transmit power and coverage range are the major challenges, however it can be resolved with repeaters or high-density nodes.

According to a report by global research organisation Software.org, there will be more than 50 billion connected devices by 2020. Considering the number of devices, different models and user generated content, and vendors, it is extremely difficult for the organizations to establish a standard for mobility, reliability, latency, and capacity. Besides, most of the devices have not been initially designed to communicate with computers. The major causes of interoperability are:

• A wide number of devices made by different OEMs that cannot be integrated
• Incompatible operating systems
• Different version of the same device
• Lack of programming to connect the devices
• Various types of connectors and connectivity frameworks that make M2M communication difficult

However, this challenge can be overcome by developing open-source frameworks. Many big giants are now engaged in creating open, secure, and dynamic frameworks that enables interoperability.

IoT has a long past; the term was first coined in 1999 by Kevin Ashton, co-founder of MIT's Auto-ID Center, as per the sources. But if you take a survey on the consumer awareness of the term, you will find that many are still unaware of it. Most even could not even define the acronym, let alone understand the concept.

In this scenario, there is a high chance that this lack of awareness may turn into a lack of interest and creates unnecessary fear. The misconception and fear to adopt IOT caused by privacy and security concerns to act as a roadblock.

Advanced IoT systems lead to reduced cost of production, increased efficiency, and better quality. But can it guarantee enough ROI? The interesting factor here is that the average costs of implementing IoT have fallen, however, it is not the implementation cost, but other factors such as Hardware and Software, Infrastructure, Consultation Services, and Security Measures that are influenced by the IoT implementation raise the cost, no matter which model data model you opt, centralized or distributed.

Although, if we compare the cost between centralized or distributed model, the latter can save money for the business but not without the risk of reduced efficiency. It is recommended to discuss the objective of your IoT implementation with your IoT application development company, before pursuing development. This will help you to prevent failures caused by budget overruns and will provide you an estimated ROI out of your investments.

Large scale adoption of IoT based devices and applications can help overcome many of these challenges like interoperability and connectivity. Besides, it will also compel the industry leaders and visitors to develop a consortium for IoT and contribute in prevailing standards. In the fifth annual IoT Barometer Report published by Vodafone, it has been revealed that 82% of the companies have already adopted IoT, which is indeed great news for the IoT sector.

The report clearly highlights that IoT is the next big thing, but before the enterprises take up their IoT projects, they must set the objective of the project, which can help in extracting right data for information and analysis. As highlighted in the study conducted by Cisco, there are several "human factors” involved in an IoT project and enterprises should not hesitate to take external support to timely complete the project, gain expertise, and enhance quality of data.

Siya Carla is the Solution Consultant at Finoit Technologies, a leading IoT development company which provides unique web design and app development services. By creating interactive mobile apps & software for 450+ customers across the globe, Finoit enjoys a great reputation as a custom software development company.

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