Businesses seeing better-than-expected returns from their initial Internet of Things (IoT) investments will lead to a boom in the technology by 2019, according to a global study of 3,100 IT and business decision makers across 20 countries. In the retail sector specifically, while just under half (49%) of respondents are currently using IoT technology, 81% of them report improved customer experiences.
The study, titled: The Internet of Things: Today and Tomorrow, published by Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, revealed that 85% of businesses plan to implement IoT by 2019. Strong results from early implementations continue to fuel interest: for example, while only 16% of business leaders projected a large profit gain from the IoT investment, 32% realized profit increases after adoption. Only 29% of executives expected business efficiency improvements, but the real-world results showed that 46% experienced efficiency gains.
In retail, in-store location services delivering personalized offers and product information to customers was a leading IoT use case, along with monitoring and maintenance. Additionally, four in 10 retailers ranked surveillance in their top three key use cases.
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Unfortunately, the rapid expansion of IoT could mean an equally rapid expansion of data breaches. The study found that 84% of organizations have experienced an IoT-related security breach, and more than half of respondents said external attacks are a key barrier to embracing and adopting an IoT strategy.
“While IoT grows in deployment, scale and complexity, proper security methodologies to protect the network and devices, and more importantly the data and insights they extract, must also keep pace,” said Chris Kozup, VP of Marketing at Aruba in a statement. “If businesses do not take immediate steps to gain visibility and profile the IoT activities within their offices, they run the risk of exposure to potentially malicious activities.”
Aruba conducted the survey in November and December 2016. Respondents represented organizations with at least 500 employees, with a focus on the industrial, government, retail, health care, education, construction, finance and IT/technology/telecommunications sectors.
