Now those companies are starting to feel the consequences of this approach. The issues hitting them are numerous—going from a prototype to an enterprise grade product is no small feat. To name a few of the pitfalls, number one is scaling; anyone can get one device connected and maintained, but can you handle 1,000 at scale or 10,000 for that matter? Can you maintain a 24/7 lifecycle? Can you integrate various devices with different generations of technology inside?
Device management is the very heart of IoT, but often, even if people know on an academic level that it is important, they only start to understand what real device management is once the shit is hitting the fan. (Pardon my language, but it is really the most apt description.)
On top of all that, even bigger challenges are piling up: Are you able to handle the data privacy requirements of your customers around the globe? Running all your customers in one database does not cut it anymore. The architecture you pick must ensure a path to multi-tenancy across different clouds. Often enterprise customers want one look and feel, meaning their corporate feel. Does the technology provide for white labeling options without hassle?
And these are just the technology issues, but what about the performance? How big is the technical team? How productive are they? They most likely started as developers, but can they also run the operations? Even if you are now able to sell your solutions as a subscription, is the whole setup future-proof?
These challenges are the huffing and puffing of the Big Bad Wolf in the face of success. Unfortunately, if your preparations left you with an IoT strategy based on straws and sticks, it will be blown away. I see proof of this currently happening in the market. On one side, I see the big cloud providers changing their strategy on IoT. They are scaling down on the generic toolbox and, instead, promoting tailored offerings from partners dedicated to IoT—as they too start to understand what scaling IoT projects successfully means. On the other side, I see a big replacement effort going on, where enterprises that noticed the fact that they are getting stuck replacing their homegrown first, or even second-generation, platform with a third-generation one because patchwork solutions don’t it cut anymore. To conclude, if you are planning to go on an IoT journey, please prepare properly with bricks in mind so you don’t let the Big Bad Wolf spoil the fun. If you want to know more on how to prepare properly for a successful IoT project, please visit my previous articles on IoT @BigDataQuarterly: https://www.dbta.com/BigDataQuarterly/Articles/The-Seven-Habits-of-Highly-Successful-IoT-Projects-125016.aspx and https://www.dbta.com/BigDataQuarterly/Articles/Good-Habits-Light-the-Wayto-IoT-Innovation-127416.aspx. Safe travels on your IoT journey.