Will you need an IoT Officer? 

There is no doubt, the Internet of Things (while I am not a fan of the term) is here to stay.   What exactly is the Internet of Things?  In short, it is a term that was coined by a large electronics manufacturer indicating that IP is becoming ubiquitous and pretty much any device you can dream of will be connected and communicating via IP over the Internet.  In a recent article in Inside Networks (found here), one study funded by Webroot and IO stated that 50% of companies plan to create an IoT officer position over the next year and 71% of companies plan to upgrade their networks to support the additional traffic. 

The amount of devices that can communicate over IP and the resulting data sets provide actionable data for a variety of applications and decisions.  Connected ceilings are a great example.  The sensors in the ceilings can be linked to air temperature controls, personnel systems, lighting controls, network access controls, etc.  The sensors can tell these systems which rooms have occupancy, how long that occupancy lasts, the identity of the occupants, and can provide the appropriate services for those individuals or resources during that occupancy period.  After hours, reports can be run to determine which rooms were occupied and need to be cleaned saving on after hours fees and power.  In a data center, security readers can be added to the sensor systems and cabinet doors can be locked based on access information and unlocked based on a combination of sensor and biometric information.   During a fire event, a list of all those still in the building can be fed to an interface pinpointing where in the building each person remains that has not badged out. 

IoT Officer Duties

The duties of the IoT Officer will likely vary from one company to the next and certainly be dependent on other departments and responsibilities, but I think that most can agree that in order for all of the systems to function together and the best actionable data be gathered, that the silo approach to responsibilities and budget dollars will not work.  There will also be special needs around security and network bandwidth.   With the expectation that every person will have 5 internet connected devices by 2017, we certainly can’t operate as we have been operating for the past 10 years. 

The IoT Officer will be a combination of security guru, database administrator, facilities manager with a sprinkling of HR thrown in for good measure.  The position will not work without the authority to make decisions regarding the data and its use.  Companies will find it necessary to update their HR policies to make sure that consequences exist for circumventing company security policies and assure that data leaks do not happen. 

The IoT Officer will also need to be a master communicator to both the technical and non-technical alike.  I once had a boss that called me the queen of analogies because I could make him understand technical things through non-technical examples.  IoT Officers will face similar challenges when it comes to communicating what needs to be done to protect company assets while still accommodating the customer/end user experience and requirements.

The IoT Officer will also need to be a bit of a detective working closely with the Chief Security Officer and the security teams to assure that all points of network ingress and egress are safe and secure.  Very much like the problems with WiFi when it was in its early days, companies had to implement WiFi to find out where WiFi existed in the environment.  As end users gain technical knowledge, it becomes increasingly difficult to circumvent shadow IT and those that chose to work around company policies. 

Lastly, and probably most importantly, the IoT Officer will have to be flexible in their thinking and a visionary in their roll.   We have barely tipped the surface of what we can do with technology and information.