Your company has business processes that you KNOW can benefit from IoT by saving both time and money — not to mention the consistency that automation can bring to certain tasks.
ROI and security are the two most important factors driving IoT adoption, but they also present the two biggest risks, as explained in the excerpt below from our free whitepaper, Learn more with our free download, IoT Best Practices in 2018: The State of Internet of Things, including what applications and industries are at the forefront of IoT adoption.
First, the survey of 400 IT professionals concludes that it’s crucial for leaders driving IoT adoption to convene all stakeholders, including IT staff, for an expectation-setting discussion.
Next, the following questions outline the essentials you need to consider before undertaking any IoT project.
ROI Questions to Consider
- What is the business case for implementing this IoT initiative?
- Exactly what metrics and benchmarks must the system deliver in order to be considered a success?
- Can the network support the increased level of traffic and computing that will occur at the Network’s Edge when this IoT system is implemented?
- Is the network structured in a way to allow for efficient, low-latency traffic flow from IoT devices to other applications, data centers, and devices that make up the IoT system?
- Will this IoT deployment be on the corporate network? If so, what are the network security strategies that need to be documented and implemented? If not, will a Parallel Network or a Software-defined Perimeter application be implemented?
- How important is network uptime to this system’s proper functioning and usefulness?
- What is an acceptable level of downtime?
- Can the network guarantee the needed uptime with the current infrastructure? If not, how will the company go about augmenting the network?
- How will the IT team manage and control these IoT devices? Does the company have the resources to send IT staff on-site to do so?
- How much time and resources will be required to provision network access for these devices?
- Will the system ever scale, and if so, can the network scale as quickly as needed?
- Are necessary partnerships and processes in place between the IT team and other stakeholder groups, like operations?
- Will the team in charge of implementing IoT be crossfunctional?
- Who will lead the project? Do they have IoT expertise? What outside expertise could benefit this project?
Security Questions to Consider
- To what degree will IoT increase the network’s potential attack surface? How will the organization scale security efforts to match this growth?
- Which users, devices, applications, and data centers need a connection to the IoT system? How will that access be granted and managed?
- Does the IT team, with its projected resources, really have the ability to own tasks like micro-segmentation and policy orchestration in-house?
- Does the organization currently employ a prevention-focused security strategy? Should prevention efforts fail, how will the organization detect a security incident or breach?
- How might investment in a multi-layered security strategy impact this project?
- Should this project utilize a Software-defined Perimeter for greater network security and management?
- Of all the potential security risks associated with this IoT system, which pose the greatest threat to the business?
- What is the worst-case security scenario associated with this project? How likely is that scenario? How would the company eliminate the possibility of such an outcome, and what investment would be required to do so?
This is certainly not an exhaustive list of IoT Best Practices for planning, but it does provide a starting place for organizational leaders who may be overwhelmed at the prospect of incorporating IoT into their workplace.
Learn more with our free download, IoT Best Practices in 2018: The State of Internet of Things, including what applications and industries are at the forefront of IoT adoption.
