As someone who has worked in the Internet of Things (IoT) industry for more than five years, I have an unpopular opinion. The IoT industry has not grown at the pace at which it was expected to grow. I’ll focus this article completely on Industrial IoT. I feel this because of the number of challenges that businesses are concerned with this type of digital transformation, which are technical as well as financial. Let’s see what challenges businesses face while implementing an Industrial IoT system.
1. Hardware installation and working with legacy systems
Factories generally have a wide variety of machines with different makes and models. Every machine has its own way of working and connecting with 3rd party devices. Industrial IoT implementation starts with connecting with the existing assets. With such a range of legacy devices, it is a tough task to connect IoT devices and sensors to them. There are multiple cases that arise from this.
Does the machine support sharing data at all? If it does, what are the ways? If not, can the data be taken from raw circuitry? Different machines supporting data sharing by specified protocols might be locked and need to be paid to share the data.
The Cherry on the cake, different machines will take different amounts of time and many times unpredictable amounts of time to install sensors and share the data.
2. Data security
IoT devices are distributed across different parts of a factory. In many cases, they are distributed across geographies. Different devices generate different types of data. The data has to be processed in real-time to provide quick insights to the clients. This is necessary because if there are any anomalies, actions have to be taken quickly. This data then has to be stored in different locations depending on the architecture. It is distributed across local edge devices and cloud storage.
Such complicated architecture means a lot of points of failure. With new threats and vulnerabilities rising every day, there is always a threat of cyber attacks on IoT systems. Especially given the fact that we are working on physical and costly machines, and the confidentiality of the data generated.
3. Connectivity losses
Let’s say the IoT system has been implemented in a successful way. All the installation and security aspects are taken care of. But what if the connectivity itself of the place is gone? This is something that is not under the control of either the solution provider or the customer. Such external issues do mean a loss to the client in the end. What is the point of implementing an IoT system if one cannot get the analysis and reports they need, right?
4. High implementation cost
Let’s get straight to the point. Industrial IoT projects are very costly. Right from the initial surveys for feasibility to installation of the system to the configuration to the handoff, it takes a huge time investment as well. This huge investment will typically take months to years to get returns. The returns may not solely come from the system that is installed. Additional equipment may need to be purchased and installed to do so.
Hence it is very difficult to predict from where the returns would come for organizations.
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