97% adopters have security concerns when implementing IoT: Microsoft report

Microsoft announced IoT Signals, a new research report designed to provide a global overview of the IoT landscape. Microsoft surveyed over 3,000 IoT decision-makers in enterprise organizations in order to give the industry a holistic, market-level view of the IoT ecosystem, including adoption rates, related technology trends, challenges, and benefits of IoT. The report indicates that IoT adoption is growing rapidly, and respondents believe 30 percent of their company’s revenue two years from now will be due to IoT. Yet, the industry faces a significant IoT skills gap, as well as complexity and security challenges that may compromise business benefits to IoT if not addressed.

“IoT is transforming businesses in every industry and is powering breakthrough innovations,” said Sam George, head of Azure IoT. “Our research shows that unlocking IoT’s full potential requires the industry to address key challenges like the skills shortage, security concerns and solution complexity. Microsoft is leading the way on simplifying and securing IoT so that every business on the planet can benefit.”

IoT Signals key findings:

• 85 percent of respondents are in IoT adoption, and three-fourths of these have IoT projects in planning.


• Among IoT adopters, 88 percent believe IoT is critical to business success.


• IoT adopters believe they will see a 30 percent ROI, inclusive of cost savings and efficiencies, two years from now.


• Nearly all IoT adopters — 97 percent — have security concerns when implementing IoT, but this is not hindering adoption.


• 38 percent of IoT adopters cite complexity and technical challenges to using IoT as a barrier to furthering their IoT adoption.


• Lack of talent and training present challenges for half of IoT adopters, and 47 percent say there are not enough available skilled workers.


• Respondents believe critical technology drivers for IoT success in the next two years are AI, edge computing and 5G.


• Nearly one-third of projects (30 percent ) fail in the proof-of-concept stage, often because implementation is expensive or bottom-line benefits are unclear.