IoT deployments ramp up in healthcare, retail: IDC

A new IDC survey reveals that almost three-quarters of IoT decision makers have either deployed or plan to deploy internet of things systems within the next 12 months.

The research firm noted that enterprises hold the most IoT opportunity, in terms of both spending and the number of endpoints connected.

"Momentum continues to grow and our survey shows that it is seen as strategic to the enterprise," said IDC IoT senior vice-president and research fellow Vernon Turner.

In terms of the industry breakdown, IDC found that healthcare, transportation and manufacturing were the most likely to see the IoT as strategic to their businesses. Retail IT departments also show signs of strong IoT adoption, no doubt prompted by the necessity to compete with online rivals.

What was somewhat surprising was IDC's conclusion that government and public sectors lag behind in overall awareness and often need more clarification around the basics of IoT. With the growing number of smart city initiatives, that figure could turn around within a couple of years.

IDC also pointed out some trends affecting the IoT market. It seems as though cost, both upfront and recurring, now trumps security as the aspect most worrying to CIOs when it comes to IoT in their organization.

There's also a shift underway in terms of which suppliers own the IoT deployment. An IDC survey from 2014 suggested that hardware suppliers tended to take the lead, however these days its the software suppliers.

Another challenge down the road will be the support of IoT processing at the edge of the network, compared with processing back at the enterprise, which may challenge many IoT architecture designs.