Businesses struggle with IoT device connectivity
A new report finds that IoT success is being jeopardized with just one percent of respondents achieving better than 98 percent connectivity levels on average across their devices.
The study, by connectivity solutions specialist Eseye, shows that only 16 percent of respondents are achieving more than 95 percent connectivity. Mission-critical IoT devices -- medical equipment for example -- require near-100 percent connectivity and the fact that companies are prepared to accept poor performance is concerning.
The study, commissioned by Eseye, and undertaken by independent research organization, Opinion Matters, is the third annual State of IoT Adoption survey and the largest connectivity survey undertaken in the market, involving over 1,000 senior decision makers in the UK and US across five different vertical sectors -- EV charging and smart grid, healthcare and medical devices, manufacturing, supply chain and logistics and smart vending. It examines the challenges and opportunities that are hindering and helping IoT adoption, compares IoT growth by market and vertical, and reveals budget forecasts for the next two years.
Almost all respondents (95 percent) say that cost is an important aspect when choosing their connectivity provider. However, 71 percent admi that cheap commodity SIM and data connectivity providers aren't a good long-term investment, which suggests they may have been impacted in the past. This highlights the importance that value plays in IoT connectivity decisions. Nearly all respondents (89 percent) agree that an end-to-end services program that gives them access to IoT services under one roof would be beneficial to their business.
Paul Marshall, Co-Founder and CCO at Eseye, says, "It is shocking that businesses are prepared to compromise their goals and risk customer dissatisfaction or product failure because of sub-standard connectivity. Our customers experience average connectivity rates in excess of 99 percent across all their global IoT devices. In our eyes anything less than 100 percent is simply not good enough, which has been our mantra since day one and remains at the core of Eseye's offering. As the survey suggests, IoT connectivity success is about more than just buying SIMs and data. Breadth and depth of global coverage matters -- how many cellular networks do you truly have access to? Is that coverage resilient and reliable enough for your business case? In order to achieve near 100 percent ubiquitous global IoT connectivity, a unique blend of network capabilities, hardware, device optimization and professional service expertise is required."
On a positive note 81 percent of respondents expect the number of IoT devices in the field will increase over the next 18 months and 72 percent are planning to increase their IoT budgets in the next two years.
A further 81 percent say that getting the IoT device design right is key to an effective project. Despite this, operational failures are often down to the device, with 67 percent of respondents saying that most of their IoT project failures are down to an issue at the device level. 72 percent also say that embedded firmware developers are hard to find making it difficult to get support when it's needed.
The full report is available from the Eseye site.
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