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The research questioned 3,100 IT and business decision makers across 20
countries to evaluate the current state of IoT and its impact across different
industries. The study shows that while virtually all business leaders (98%) have
an understanding of IoT, many are unclear of the exact definition of IoT and
what it means for their business.

In his new eBook ’Making Sense of IoT’ , commissioned by Aruba, technology
visionary Kevin Ashton-who coined the term ’Internet of Things’- presents the
following definition:

"The ’Internet of Things’ means sensors connected to the Internet and behaving
in an Internet-like way by making open, ad hoc connections, sharing data freely
and allowing unexpected applications, so computers can understand the world
around them and become humanity’s nervous system."

The Expectations Dividend

When examining the business benefits of IoT, Ashton discovered that the real-world benefits gained from IoT exceeded even the original expectations. This
’expectations dividend’ is evident in two key performance areas: business
efficiency and profitability.

As an example, only 16% of business leaders projected a large profit gain from
their IoT investment, yet post-adoption, 32% of executives realized profit
increases. Similarly, only 29% of executives expected their IoT strategies to
result in business efficiency improvements, whereas actual results show that 46%
experienced efficiency gains.

Mr. Ammar Enaya, Regional Director - Middle East and Turkey, Aruba, a Hewlett
Packard Enterprise company, comments: "With the business benefits of IoT
surpassing expectations, it’s no surprise that the business world will move
towards mass adoption by 2019. But with many executives unsure of how to apply
IoT to their business, those who succeed in implementing IoT are well positioned
to gain a competitive advantage."

How Global Organizations are Using IoT

Aruba’s research reveals varying levels of IoT maturity across different
industry sectors. The following five vertical industries are leaders in their
adoption of IoT and have realized tangible business benefits from a focused, use
case approach to adoption.

Enterprises create a smart workplace for productivity and efficiency:
– Over seven in ten (72%) enterprises have introduced IoT devices into the
workplace. Indoor location-based services ranks as the second most promising use
case to improve employee productivity, after remote monitoring. Twenty percent
report remote operation of building lighting and temperature as a key use case,
but that number more than doubles to 53% when asked about future IoT
implementations.
– Looking at the tangible results being realized today, 78% say the
introduction of IoT in the workplace has improved the effectiveness of their IT
team, and 75% find it has increased profitability.

The industrial sector increases business efficiency and visibility through IoT
– enabled monitoring and maintenance:
– More than six in ten (62%) respondents in the industrial sector have already
implemented IoT. Using IoT to monitor and maintain essential industrial
functions was identified as the most impactful use case in the sector. Today,
the use of IP-based surveillance cameras for physical security within industrial
organizations is still in its infancy, with only 6% having implemented it.
However, when asked about future implementations, surveillance jumped five-fold
to 32%.
– Across the sector, 83% report increased business efficiency and another 80%
have found improved visibility across the organization.

Healthcare introduces IoT to improve patient monitoring, reduce cost and foster
innovation:
– Coming in as the third most advanced in its implementation of IoT, 60% of
healthcare organisations globally have introduced IoT devices into their
facilities.
– Across the sector, 42% of executives rank monitoring and maintenance as the
number one use of IoT-higher than all other sectors. This underscores the
importance of IoT-enabled patient monitoring in the modern healthcare industry.
– Eight in ten report an increase in innovation and another 73% report cost
savings.

Retailers engage with customers and boost sales using indoor location
technology:
– Just 49% of retailers are using IoT technology, but 81% of these report
improved customer experiences. An improved customer experience is likely to have
a significant impact on customer loyalty and ultimately, revenue.
– In-store location services delivering personalized offers and product
information to shoppers was touted as the number one implementation for IoT,
alongside monitoring and maintenance. Four in ten retailers ranked surveillance
in their top three key use cases.

Governments lag in IoT adoption, struggle with legacy technology but still
reduce costs:
– The slowest sector to adopt IoT, only 42% of municipalities have deployed
IoT devices and sensors. A third (35%) of IT decision makers claim their
executives have little to no understanding of IoT, double the global average,
suggesting that lack of education is the biggest barrier to mass adoption in
this sector.
– While nearly half (49%) of government IT departments are struggling with
legacy technology, seven in ten IoT adopters in the public sector report cost
savings and improved organisational visibility as the major benefits.

The Data Context and Security Challenge

Alongside these positive returns, the study also uncovers a number of obstacles
that IT leaders feel are preventing IoT from delivering greater business impact.
In particular, the cost of implementation (50%), maintenance (44%) and
integration of legacy technology (43%) were highlighted as key issues.

Most notably, security flaws were found across many IoT deployments. The study
found that 84% of organisations have experienced an IoT-related security breach.
More than half of respondents declared that external attacks are a key barrier
to embracing and adopting an IoT strategy. This confirms that a holistic IoT
security strategy, built on strong network access control and policy management,
will not only protect enterprises but also simplify the security approach for
IT.

The ability to capture and effectively use data is described by Kevin Ashton as
"what defines the Internet of Things", but this appears to be another clear
challenge for global organizations. While nearly all (98%) of organisations that
have adopted IoT claim that they can analyse data, almost all respondents (97%)
feel there are challenges to creating value from this data. Well over a third
(39%) of businesses are not extracting or analysing data within corporate
networks, and are thereby missing out on insights that could improve business
decisions.

Mr. Enaya comments, "While IoT grows in deployment, scale and complexity, proper
security methodologies to protect the network and devices, and more importantly,
the data and insights they extract, must also keep pace. If businesses do not
take immediate steps to gain visibility and profile the IoT activities within
their offices, they run the risk of exposure to potentially malicious
activities. Aruba is enabling customers to rapidly assess IoT deployments within
their facilities and determine any potential threats that may be present."

Ashton concludes: "Since its inception in 1999, the Internet of Things has been
ridiculed, criticized, and misunderstood. And yet here we are, less than two
decades later, in a world where tens of thousands of organizations are saving
and making hundreds of millions of dollars from the Internet of Things, using
cars that drive themselves, subway stations that sense passengers, algorithms
that diagnose deadly diseases using phones, and many other once apparently - impossible technologies. The future promises far more amazing things. The most
important decision you can make now is how to be a part of it."

Research methodology

A total of 3,100 IT and business decision makers were interviewed in November
and December 2016. The respondents were from organizations of at least 500
employees, and were from both public and private sectors, but with a focus on
the industrial, government, retail, healthcare, education, construction,
finance, and IT/technology/telecommunications sectors. Interviews were conducted
both online and via telephone using a rigorous multi-level screening process to
ensure that only suitable candidates were given the opportunity to participate.
Respondents were interviewed in the UK, Italy, Germany, France, the Netherlands,
Spain, Sweden, Norway, Turkey, UAE, Saudi Arabia, the US, Singapore, Japan,
Australia, India, Brazil, Mexico, China and South Korea.