Time to Jugaad for IoT

In a recent Gartner Symposium in Barcelona, device management ranked among five most crucial competencies for the success of Internet of Things (IoT). It is predicted that the number of devices connecting to the internet will be in the range of 50-75 billion by the end of this decade. These could be mobile devices, beacons in Starbucks, networks, utilities, cardiac monitors, cars, supermarket shelves, roads, etc. How are these devices going to be monitored? Or managed? Is the Remote IT device Management (RIM) industry ready to cater to the IoT landscape?

India as a destination for RIM was predominantly focused on cost effectiveness while raking up good margins. The industry has matured to enhanced service levels with focus on better security albeit with pressures on margins. The IoT landscape could give a much needed shot in the arm to the RIM industry in India. Let us look at some advantages and challenges for RIM companies in the next-gen device management for IoT.

Advantages

1. Based on historical client data and CIO-speak (“we are saving all the data we create and manage”) the Indian RIMs have created backup plans or parallel systems to move towards zero unplanned downtime. This predictive analytics that has proven such a strength to RIM is a big plus.
2. Managing the exponential growth rate of Mcommerce and mobile devices is creating an industry for tower management and monitoring their diesel backups for power.
3. India has 1.5 million students graduating from engineering colleges every year. Add to it, an equal number from various other technical schools. Even at a 10% success rate in terms of employability, there is potential to build a strong resource pool.
4. The high level of process standardization in RIM can be a huge bonus for the device management in IoT.

Challenges

1. To add those new terabytes from the IoT to the existing data warehousing from the available physical data centers is a major issue. These physical data centers are in dire need for cheaper solutions already. India has the talent, but where are the architects who can re-think the data warehouse equation? Response time after accessing the huge data? If Hadoop is perceived to be expensive, why not AWS?
2. Data collection – is the Indian legal system geared to monitor and protect the copious amounts of data? The recent draft on Indian IPR missed the opportunity to address the question of data collection in India.
3. The juxtaposition of personal and operational information in the IoT makes it imperative to apply the learnings of last 20+ years in IT security. IT security should start at the earliest possible stage, right from the time when a device is switched on. The maturity of the RIM provider will come into play here in how they distinguish their position from being a cost effective service provider as compared to a value add partner.
4. With the ongoing gold rush in digital commerce, there will be stiff competition to vie for those investment cash flows.

Other than the above, governance of contracts and adaptive technology skills will continue to influence the Indian industry in making inroads for a significant share of the trillion dollar IOT market.