12
F. Firouzi et al.
1.1.4 IoT Challenges
Certainly, any changes bring not only benefits but also challenges that must be
overcome. For any organization it is essential to determine which departments
are responsible for which changes that must be made. Who will purchase and
configure the needed IoT hardware (devices, gateways, etc.)? Who will install
and run the needed software and troubleshoot the hardware and software? Who
is responsible for networking? Which department will perform the analytics and
deliver the reports and findings? There are also issues of what to do with legacy
devices and other specialized solutions that will need to be found and addressed.
Any potential solution must also be able to scale, to handle current needs but also
those of the immediate future as the organization continues to adapt and grow.
Through it all, ownership is necessary to maintain an adequate level of production
quality, especially as several teams are usually called upon to work together. These
are major issues that demand sound leadership in order to meet the challenges of
implementing IoT for any organization.
Other challenges are more technical in nature. First of all, scalability and
heterogeneity are intrinsic parts of IoT, which should be addressed via appropriate
technologies. In this context, the necessary technology standards must be developed
or updated including the network protocols and data aggregation standards. As mentioned before, a new connection paradigm will be needed and possibly described
by these new protocols. At every stage from gathering data, to transmitting it, to
storing and analyzing it, interoperability must be considered. Cloud Services are
nonstandardized and non-unified, meaning that changing providers could incur the
undue expense. There is currently no consensus on machine to machine protocols,
and existing equipment uses a variety of operating systems and firmware technology.
The surest way to mitigate these differences is to move computing tasks to the edge
of the cloud and take advantage of fog computing models and IoT hubs. This will
leave the cloud servers and services to handle the analytical and processing tasks for
which they are best suited. Business must be prepared to handle these challenges
with adequate planning and a solid business model. The revenue and profits will
provide the motivation to invest in IoT and expand into vertical markets, horizontal
markets, and consumer markets. If done properly, a market bubble will be avoided
as well as regulatory and legal battles.
The final, and perhaps the most important, hurdle will be solving the issues
associated with security. There have already been successful hacks, or unauthorized
access to several devices on the Internet of Things. Since IoT will become a
larger part of our daily lives, it should be obvious that the security of our
sensitive information is becoming vital. Losing control of the radio in a car, or the
transmissions of a baby monitor, or the home security cameras in a dwelling make
for a frightening and compromising future. Controlling access to these and many
other devices is a growing concern and is already being addressed.
F. Firouzi et al.
1.1.4 IoT Challenges
Certainly, any changes bring not only benefits but also challenges that must be
overcome. For any organization it is essential to determine which departments
are responsible for which changes that must be made. Who will purchase and
configure the needed IoT hardware (devices, gateways, etc.)? Who will install
and run the needed software and troubleshoot the hardware and software? Who
is responsible for networking? Which department will perform the analytics and
deliver the reports and findings? There are also issues of what to do with legacy
devices and other specialized solutions that will need to be found and addressed.
Any potential solution must also be able to scale, to handle current needs but also
those of the immediate future as the organization continues to adapt and grow.
Through it all, ownership is necessary to maintain an adequate level of production
quality, especially as several teams are usually called upon to work together. These
are major issues that demand sound leadership in order to meet the challenges of
implementing IoT for any organization.
Other challenges are more technical in nature. First of all, scalability and
heterogeneity are intrinsic parts of IoT, which should be addressed via appropriate
technologies. In this context, the necessary technology standards must be developed
or updated including the network protocols and data aggregation standards. As mentioned before, a new connection paradigm will be needed and possibly described
by these new protocols. At every stage from gathering data, to transmitting it, to
storing and analyzing it, interoperability must be considered. Cloud Services are
nonstandardized and non-unified, meaning that changing providers could incur the
undue expense. There is currently no consensus on machine to machine protocols,
and existing equipment uses a variety of operating systems and firmware technology.
The surest way to mitigate these differences is to move computing tasks to the edge
of the cloud and take advantage of fog computing models and IoT hubs. This will
leave the cloud servers and services to handle the analytical and processing tasks for
which they are best suited. Business must be prepared to handle these challenges
with adequate planning and a solid business model. The revenue and profits will
provide the motivation to invest in IoT and expand into vertical markets, horizontal
markets, and consumer markets. If done properly, a market bubble will be avoided
as well as regulatory and legal battles.
The final, and perhaps the most important, hurdle will be solving the issues
associated with security. There have already been successful hacks, or unauthorized
access to several devices on the Internet of Things. Since IoT will become a
larger part of our daily lives, it should be obvious that the security of our
sensitive information is becoming vital. Losing control of the radio in a car, or the
transmissions of a baby monitor, or the home security cameras in a dwelling make
for a frightening and compromising future. Controlling access to these and many
other devices is a growing concern and is already being addressed.