questionsWhere Is The IoT?

We keep hearing two disparate messages when it comes to the Internet of Things (IoT).  The marketing machines spin up these huge projections, typically in the trillions of dollars, about the impact of the IoT.  Then we at Bear try to find ANYBODY in enterprise IT that actually cares…

So far, no luck.

Sure there are one-off projects and exploratory efforts here and there but nothing that consistently points to a robust and flourishing market.  We have looked at retail, manufacturing, healthcare, oil & gas, finance, and housing.  We have talked with enterprise customers, IT groups, system integrators, device integrators, and startups.

We keep hearing one thing but seeing another.  What we see is a very nascent space, completely open and wild west with no real direction and no clear path forward.  We cannot find any appetite to enforce enterprise best practices – secure, policy-based management – on IoT devices.  We have yet to see any level of standardization at any level and many large would-be integrators are staying away for that very reason.

Sure there are IoT platforms and cloud-based analytics – but how much are they really being used at the enterprise level?  Yes, there are massive projects under way – but where is the repeatable business model?  A large number of frameworks have come out in a variety of verticals but does anybody care?  It is one thing to author a framework and another to enforce its implementation.  When we talk with people, enforcement in years away – as is securing these devices and managing them at scale.

It the IoT really here and we are missing the boat or is it all fluff and very little substance?

Should Bear go hibernate for a few years or are there people really looking for a secure IoT management solution as part of a maturing IoT market?