Businesses have security concerns when implementing IoT

IoT is seen as profitable and critical to business success and is creating opportunities to leverage more advanced cloud and networking technologies, according to Microsoft's new report– IoT Signals. The report provides an insight on the state of IoT adoptionand also inform companies on how they can better serve its customers, as well as help business leaders in the development of their own IoT strategies.

According to the report, Nearly 85% surveyed are adopting IoT and 88% see IoT as critical to business success. Businesses adopting IoT believe that they will see a 30% ROI on their IoT projects going forward. Respondents also believe that critical technology drivers for IoT success in the next two years are AI, edge computing and 5G, followed by digital twins and blockchain.

Nearly all respondents have security concerns when implementing IoT, but this is not hindering adoption. Internet connectivity is a two-way street. With these devices becoming a gateway to our homes, workplaces, and industries, they also become targets for attacks. The cost of a data breach averages between $4M and $8M dollars and the costs only compound as you think about additional damage to your brand and to the operational technology driving your business's revenue.

The top three security concerns we found among IoT adopters are: creating strong user authentications (43%), tracking and managing each IoT device (38%) and securing endpoints for each IoT device (38%).

There is a skills gap for IoT solutions which is compounded by solution complexity. Almost half say there are not enough available skilled workers and one in four IoT adopters cite complexity/technical challenges to using IoT as a barrier to further their IoT adoption. Existing IoT complexities and lack of resources prevent IoT decision-makers from more IoT adoption, and 20% cite complexity/technical challenges as a top challenge.

Microsoft surveyed more than 3,000 IoT decision-makers in enterprise organizations to give the industry a market-level view of the IoT ecosystem, including adoption rates, related technology trends, challenges and benefits of IoT.

This news was previously published on: https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/businesses-have-security-concerns-when-implementing-iot-microsoft-report/70570560