Technology
Despite the hype over the internet of things, a huge sector of potential adoptees has yet to jump on the bandwagon – business. Companies have been taking their sweet time studying the phenomenon’s progress, considering how it can play a role in their respective industries, and examining the risks and benefits. Gartner research published on Thursday shows that the enterprise world is slowly but surely using the internet of things, and is marginally planning to adopt it in the year to come.
The online survey was conducted in November 2015 among Gartner Research Circle Members and included responses from 465 IT and business professionals spanning 18 business sectors in North America, EMEA, Asia/Pacific and Latin America, according to the group. And it found that just 29% of respondents said they are currently using the internet of things, 14% are planning to implement it over the next year, and 21% are planning to implement after 2016.
While Gartner’s figures say that the percentage of organizations overall adopting IoT will reach 43% in 2016, there is still a sizable chunk of laggards. 38% have no plans to implement IoT, including 9% that see no relevance whatsoever in the technologies, said the company.
Gartner analyst Chet Geschickter commented on the research, noting that until this point, the “leading adopters” of IoT have been more on the heavy industrial side of business, meaning mining and manufacturing. Indeed, Gartner estimates that 56% of businesses in “asset-intensive ‘heavy’ industries will have implemented IoT by the end of 2016,” whereas 36% of "light" or "weightless" will do so.
These adoption rates speak to the traditional trend the enterprise world exhibits with newer technologies: as technology becomes available and the buzz around it heightens, businesses take their time being skeptical of the latest fad and are often the last to adopt it (if they do at all). Smaller businesses are sometimes even further behind large ones in terms of adoption simply because SMBs are often run by families, headed by members of older generations who are less likely to embrace new systems.
But while the enterprise world may take its time adjusting to the internet of things and its role in certain industries, those who don’t integrate usually soon see the latest technology foisted upon them. Cloud computing, BYOD, and other “new” tech from the past decade have all caught up with businesses both large and small. Whether or not enterprises wanted employee mobile tech mixed with their own, or to migrate their infrastructures to the cloud, or to implement heavy-duty cyber security programs, they happened anyway. It’s not a matter of “if,” it’s a matter of “when.”
