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Increasing M2M Deployments to See More Enterprises Turning to MNOs for IoT Platform Services

Increasing M2M Deployments to See More Enterprises Turning to MNOs for IoT Platform Services Image Credit: Deutsche Telekom

The Internet-of-Things(IoT) has grown to become one of the biggest technology trends today. From mobile 'things' ranging from smartphones to connected cars, to static fixtures ranging from street furniture to smart meters, connectivity between these 'things' and the Internet and among these 'things' themselves gave rise to the fast expanding world of IoT.

For enterprises though, IoT is more than just bringing Internet connectivity to a range of fixed and mobile 'things' which are able to send and receive bytes of information from the Internet. For enterprises, IoT marks the ability to connect their business processes at a very micro level, regardless of time, location and the production factors involved in these processes. Whether its research, manufacturing, operations, marketing, sales, delivery, customer care or accounting, the ability to connect these processes gave rise to specialized use cases or applications leveraging IoT, and hence the development of Machine-to-Machine(M2M) application ideas that are enterprise, market, segment and purpose specific.

While IoT meant that there will be increased demand for fixed, cellular and M2M focused connectivity technologies such as SIGFOX as well as Wi-Fi/Bluetooth connections such as Zigbee and LoRa, the adoption of M2M sees the rise in the need for ready-to-deploy, cloud-based end-to-end solutions which are able to manage the devices, the connection and the IT requirements that span processing capabilities, storage, analytics and sharing. Most enterprises are already leveraging cloud-based IT infrastructure for their enterprise IT needs, but to connect their business processes directly and in real-time, in their bid to increase productivity and retain their competitiveness as other firms work towards increased efficiency and faster response times, means that they now have to remotely connect and manage a large number of assets deployed in production - things such as delivery vehicles, machinery, sensors, cameras, employee devices, tracking devices, inventory etc. 

The adoption of M2M to connect business processes therefore requires not just installation of M2M modules in end devices, but also the set up of IoT platforms that enable the enterprises to control the connectivity, the content accessed via these devices, the information captured and transmitted via these devices, the turning on and off of the devices, the sending of orders/commands to these devices and the tracking and monitoring of these devices. The IoT platforms must also be integrated with a wide range of business and end-user applications, and boast unparalleled processing and analytical capabilities to ensure that the business acquires all the critical insights and information collected by the end devices. Enterprises looking to adopt the M2M technology will require all these capabilities to be in place, but as in any technology solution, most enterprises are unlikely to bother with setting up their own IoT platforms unless it is viable for their business to develop or acquire these capabilities in-house. 

This is what Berg Insights, an analyst firm, reported in its recent research into the market for IoT platforms which the firm predicts will grow at a CAGR of 32.2% from €450(US$504) million in 2014 to €2.4(US$2.7) billion in 2020. Berg said that the global market for third party IoT platforms will post solid growth in coming years as the segment continues to expand. While the increasing complexities in developing and managing IoT platforms is the key factor for the growth in third party IoT platforms, the evolution of these platforms also has a lot to contribute towards this trend. In its early adoption phase, the deployment of M2M technology involved simpler tasks - either providing Internet connection to a number of devices (for example, employee devices used to input records) or connecting and tracking a number of devices/machines (as in the case of fleet management services and vehicle telematics). In this phase, the information as well as the connected devices/machines were tracked centrally via computers linked to the platform which in turn receives data from all these devices/machines. 

In recent years, these processes have grown in terms of complexity, scope and functionalities. Information collection from the end nodes, for example, a building thermostat, is not just recorded and transmitted to the Internet from which a user accesses it from his computer, but is processed, analyzed and fed into a number of other applications, including those involved in other business processes and those residing in other clouds. The information is also available on a number of applications accessible on other connected devices, including smartphones and tablets, and central controllers in a building, and is also programmed to trigger a number of 'actions' which involves 'if this than that'  type of commands being sent to other remote devices/appliances. At the same time, sensors have become more intelligent, and are able to capture a wider range of information from their environments while the connectivity network via 4G LTE and LTE-A enables more data and hence richer content to be transmitted wirelessly - all adding to the load of traffic and information carried by the M2M devices. IoT platforms today are expected to deliver much more than they did in their early days, and it is therefore not surprising that most enterprises adopting M2M technologies for their businesses will turn to third party solution providers.

A €2.4 billion IoT platform market sounds lucrative, and for MNOs, it definitely presents an attractive value proposition. Connection aside, MNOs are beefing up their data center capabilities, incorporating Software Defined Network capabilities to increase capacity, to be able to offer computing and storage capabilities on their enterprise cloud services and at the same time, power their own digital services offerings. Combining these with connectivity and working with application developers who are able to develop applications specific to the needs of each market vertical, MNOs can tap into the growing need for off-the-shelf IoT platform solutions, which essentially leverage strong IT and analytics capabilities as well as reliable connectivity, and profit from the increasing adoption of M2M across many businesses.

Author

Executive Editor and Telecoms Strategist at The Fast Mode | 5G | IoT/M2M | Telecom Strategy | Mobile Service Innovations 

Tara Neal heads the strategy & editorial unit at The Fast Mode, focusing on latest technologies such as gigabit broadband, 5G, cloud-native networking, edge computing, virtualization, software-defined networking and network automation as well as broader telco segments such as IoT/M2M, CX, OTT services and network security. Tara holds a First Class Honours in BSc Accounting and Finance from The London School of Economics, UK and is a CFA charterholder from the CFA Institute, United States. Tara has over 22 years of experience in technology and business strategy, and has earlier served as project director for technology and economic development projects in various management consulting firms.

Follow Tara Neal on Twitter @taraneal11, LinkedIn @taraneal11, Facebook or email her at tara.neal@thefastmode.com.

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