The promise of IoT is enormous, from reducing operational costs to improving workplace safety; yet many organizations face hurdles when it comes to delivering on this potential. New findings from a recent survey IoT World conducted of IoT business decision makers, “What’s Keeping IoT Executives Up At Night in 2019”, found that the top two concerns for IoT leaders in 2019 are implementation and cybersecurity. The good news is that addressing these challenges is often about doing the little things right.

IoT World is the leading IoT conference and expo with over 12,500 attendees including top names such as: Amazon, Boeing, Bank of America, Dell, Chevron, CVS Health, Exxon Mobile, Ford, Google, NASA, Procter & Gamble, Siemens, and more. From working with and hearing from this wide range of organizations, we have learned that IoT implementation and security go hand in hand.

Employee Training

Before any organization can implement new IoT technology, they must do their due diligence on potential security risks, their staff’s readiness to support the new technology and how to properly deploy it. At the front end of this challenge, our research shows that 45% of companies are deploying IoT devices on a dedicated network to mitigate security risk. Additionally, 46% say they are introducing internal training systems for their entire workforce. As new technology transforms day-to-day tasks, regular training is becoming a central aspect of IoT deployment and implementation. When employees are comfortable with the technology, businesses effectively improve both device efficacy and limit ecosystem vulnerability due to an oversite.

Maintaining Cyber Hygiene

Cyber threats come from so many different directions in today’s modern enterprise. Often times, the difference between being compromised and being secure is having the discipline to go through the checklist of best practices. Thankfully, our research shows that IoT executives are very aware of this and are taking precautionary steps to mitigate risks. Over two-thirds (68%) of companies say they are regularly updating firmware and software, 43% are checking devices to see if physical access makes them vulnerable to hacking, 35% are making data decryption a default and 26% are shutting down IoT devices when they are not in use – all small, yet often critical steps to protecting an organization.

Tech Expertise is Needed

Of course, it’s not enough to have a secure environment. The other aspect of implementation is ensuring an organization is in a position to leverage all the data gathered by its devices. An IoT ecosystem is only as valuable as an organization’s ability to translate all the data gathered and inform the business. Although there are tools and platforms that can help manage the data, the first and most important step to addressing this challenge is having the right employees on staff. Our research shows that companies are addressing this in two different ways, 64% of companies say they are planning to train current staff to fill more technical roles and 62% say they are planning to hire additional employees like data analysts or a different tech-focused position.

Enterprise IoT shouldn’t need to keep anyone up at night. If enterprises really key in on ensuring they have the right expertise on staff, are regularly training their workforce when new technology is deployed and are disciplined with completing their security checklist – they will be well on their way to realizing the incredible potential IoT ecosystem has to offer.

These topics and more will be discussed at IoT World 2019 in Santa Clara, California, May 13-16. For more info, please visit: www.iotworldevent.com

Zach Butler

Zach is an experienced Event Portfolio Director, with eight years’ experience in validating B2B technology markets to design, develop and produce commercial conferences and exhibitions. For the past four years, Zach has specialized in the evolving markets surround the Internet of Things by leading the Internet of Things World Series flagship event in Santa Clara, CA, as well as a series of regional events in Europe, Asia and South Africa.