Our 2021 IoT and Edge Commercial Adoption survey results are out now.
In this second edition of the survey, we wanted to gain a better understanding of the overall IoT & edge ecosystem challenges and concerns of today’s organizations. This year’s survey not only focuses on how today’s organizations are perceiving IoT and edge adoption on a macro level, but also to gain valuable insights on the overall IoT & Edge ecosystem’s challenges and concerns. We found — as organizations adapt to market changes and a world impacted by COVID-19 — that IoT and edge adoption has risen.
Here are some of the key findings from the survey:
- IoT technologies are being adopted at an accelerated rate. 47% of respondents currently deploy IoT solutions and an additional 39% plan to deploy within the next 12 to 24 months.
- Edge computing adoption is also picking up. 54% of organizations are either utilizing or planning to utilize edge computing technologies within 12 months. Another 30% have plans to evaluate edge deployments over the next 12 to 24 months.
- 74% of organizations factor open source into their deployment plans, a 14% increase over the 2019 survey. This clearly demonstrates that the dominant IoT & Edge platforms will either be open source or based on open source.
- The top 3 IoT and edge operational challenges are: 1) End-to-end IoT solution monitoring and management; 2) Device management; and 3) Securing the network / devices / data.
- There is a trend towards a Hybrid Cloud strategy. 44% of respondents suggest that their IoT deployments are using, or will use, a Hybrid Cloud (i.e. composed of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures such as private and public), an increase from 22% in 2019.
Reading Between The Commercial Lines
The survey asked respondents to identify the requirements, priorities, and challenges they’re facing as they are planning, implementing, and managing commercial IoT and edge solutions, including those based on open source technologies. The survey ran for two months in early 2021 and received responses from more than 300 individuals from a wide range of industries and organizations. You can download the 2021 IoT & Edge Commercial Adoption Survey Report now.
As our survey results revealed, each player in the IoT and edge ecosystem has an important role in driving commercial adoption. Here are some key recommendations broken down by stakeholder group.
- Enterprises:
- Should select vendors and service providers that embrace open standards and the use of customizable, production-ready open source building blocks. Open source enables scalability and flexibility in IoT and Edge solutions, while avoiding the lock-in and cost issues associated with proprietary solutions.
- Should start planning deployments of IoT and edge technologies at scale. The ecosystem has matured significantly, allowing enterprises to be more ambitious in their IoT and Edge initiatives. With a robust ecosystem, industry leaders can confidently deploy and start realizing the full benefits of the technology.
- Solution Providers:
- Should incorporate open source platforms that are capable of running seamlessly across all environments (i.e. at the edge, on-premises, and in the cloud), with a focus around hybrid, multi-cloud and private cloud offerings that enable customers to avoid using a public cloud for their mission-critical data.
- IoT-focused solution providers should add edge computing into their offerings. Enterprises are increasingly becoming aware of the benefits of edge computing, including reduced latency and bandwidth savings. To stay competitive, solution providers need an edge computing strategy if they do not have one already.
- Platform & Software Vendors:
- Should implement data security and sovereignty solutions across devices and applications. Organizations must pay particular attention to their ability to retain control over data flow and storage, e.g. for data gathered from IoT sensors and devices.
- Should create offerings that optimize certain workflows and/or mitigate specific challenges. While Enterprises and Solution Providers are adept at integrating and deploying the various components, broadscale adoption will be accelerated through targeted platform innovations that simplify critical processes and resolve deployment challenges out of the box.
Be Part Of Something Big
It will take a diverse community co-developing a uniform set of building blocks based on open source and open standards to drive the broad industry adoption of IoT and edge technologies. If you’re interested in participating in the industry-scale collaboration in open source IoT and edge technologies, please visit Eclipse IoT and the Edge Native Working Group to get involved. As an added benefit of membership, Eclipse IoT and Edge Native members receive early and exclusive access to detailed industry research findings and expert guidance.
