Lies, Damn Lies and IoT

IoT has been around for quite some time and is now become part of the mainstream technology landscape. Like lots of new technology there was much hype during the early days. False promises and unrealistic promises being banded around aa if they were facts. 

Now that the hype-phase is starting to subside we are starting to see a rise in real deployments of IoT solutions and the truth is becoming clearer. However, from what I can see, things are far from settled, especially from a commercial and industrial roll-out perspective. Projects are still taking longer than usual and there is no standard definition of what is normal.

One of the main promises I hear is that IoT solutions are easy to implement/deploy and use, however, the fact is, IoT solutions are anything but easy.

Why is it hard?

?Before an organisation can start any project, IoT or not, it usually goes through a series of strategic discussions. These discussions are mainly around long term corporate strategy, the merits of the project, return on investment, break-even, and several other criteria. Typically, an organisation would also prepare a business case for large projects.

Once the strategy and business case are in place, an organisation needs to take care of a number of things. These include hardware strategy, communications strategy, middleware-cloud platform strategy, product and service strategy, industrial designs, certifications, data privacy & security, various compliances, device security, integration of multiple platforms & enterprise systems, project change management, on the ground procedures, customer education, and technician education.

The reality is, the vast majorly of  IoT solutions are made up from several modular solutions from a number of vendors with a variety of interfaces requiring complex integrations. Effectively a vendor implementing an IoT solution will have to work with numerous vendors, various ecosystem partners, and people from different departments to create a coherent and meaningful system.

This hidden complexity of the IoT solution makes it harder to navigate through. If you do not have enough resources, and are not well informed, or don’t have the wide range of skills and expertise this can be a significant challenge.

Many vendors promise the contrary

It might be an over generalisation but I would like to bet most people working within IoT have experienced vendors making one or more of the promises below:

Sensor vendor: "We are platform-agnostic! Our sensors can work with any gateway/cloud/middleware platform. It is plug-and-play."

Gateway vendor: “ Our gateways can work with any sensor or platform – anywhere in the world – we are plug and play

Cloud or IoT platform vendor: "We are hardware-agnostic! Our platform can work with any hardware or software. Our platform is plug-and-play."

Application/mobile app vendor:  "We are cloud-agnostic! We make progressive apps that are compatible with everything!" + the plug-and-play promise.

Network providers: "We provide the media and backend systems, which are cloud and hardware-agnostic!" + the same plug-and-play promise.

Other: "If you know how to use a mobile phone, you can use our product!" + the plug-and-play promise.

The truth

Buying off-the-shelf IoT platforms and hardware does not necessarily solve problems. IoT hardware is almost always not (and cannot be) plug-and-play.

Hardware-software integration challenges are often difficult at a technical level. Commercial challenges such as ownership of intellectual property, ownership of customer relationships, hardware ownership, warranties, and other factors such as vendors trying to push their own platforms adds to the problem.

To deliver a successful project this is where you should be looking for someone who understands and is able to deliver the complete system. A system integrator would be a key contributor in making sense of this mixed bag of pieces. The SI would be responsible for joining them together and creating a coherent solution for you. What ever you are told, a vendors solution will never be a one size fits all deal.

Whether you establish this function in-house as a part of a project team, or bring in external support, or do both (hybrid), the end results would depend upon your team’s capability, timeframe, budget, and other relevant factors. Be aware however that your traditional IT team would not be able to help much here. IoT systems are different beasts altogether and don’t just assume that IT people are IoT people. 

The crux of the matter

Plug-and-play promises are not helping. They are instead becoming hampering the IoT success story. These promises are becoming perfect examples of the over-promise & under-deliver. Relying on the promises of plug-and-play solutions will take us nowhere. We have to fix the critical chain IoT solution ourselves by working on weak links of integration. Get external help if necessary. Make sure that internal capability is building in the process. Add IoT capability in IT or in the product vertical. In the long run, it will work in your favour.

Do not relinquish control of the overall solution, even for free. Eventually, the IoT solution will have to be part of the integrated fabric of your whole operation. Only you can make it work in the best way that suits your organisation. And most importantly, be cautious of promises of plug-and-play, drag-and-drop or device agnostic  IoT solutions – they don’t exist.