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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS

Be well on the way to bringing consumers

closer to IoT technology

In our December issue last year, we already provided assessment of the connected devices, which could
hints where IoT is heading this year in Asia Pacific when then be transferred with little effort to any networked
we presented Hitachi Vantara’s insightful predictions. device. The more the number of devices grows, the
Summarily, both Hubert Yoshida and Russell Skingsley turnover of the providers increases.
believe the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) platforms
will dominate enterprise IT strategies in 2018. At the More weak spots due to increasing
same time, both CTOs of Hitachi Vantara made clear networking
that they seek to collaborate with customers and
ecosystem players to innovate and create new value for The Internet of Things is expected to bring great
business stakeholders, customers and society at large.
comforts for consumers, create more market
opportunities, more business models, and is seen as
Their approach is definitely right but raises the question the Industrial Revolution 4.0, but the road of
if IoT users should always know which devices are progression is paved by concerns about security and
transmitting data and who the recipients are? After all, privacy. Currently, around six billion appliances are
consumers are generally quite critical when it comes to already connected to the Internet and this number is
the use of their personal information, which is why I think expected to rise to 26 billion by 2020, Gartner predicts.
consumers should be aware of the data that each device On the one hand, the Internet of Things holds great
passes on to which recipients. In the end, from a potential for innovation, on the other hand it increases
strategical point of view, the IoT industry as a whole - the scope for cyberattacks enormously. Every single
and marketing respectively- will profit from the networked device - even if it is just a tiny embedded
transparency initiative.
system - ultimately represents another potential point of
attack. Not to mention that cybercriminals are active on
According to a Gartner forecast, there will be 20.4 billion
Internet-connected things and devices in households by the IoT simply because of bad protection mechanisms,
2020, just to highlight the relevance of my question. its security gaps and dangerous vulnerabilities. And
that’s not even surprising, with manufacturers still more
Since it is in the interest of everyone to build an concerned about new features than security measures
appreciation for the technology, I think the digital when developing IoT devices. This needs to change as
industry must prepare to give insight into data processes fast as possible, even if implementing uniform security
and thus contribute to transparency. One option could standards and adequate safeguards on millions of
be, for instance, providing consumers with a kind of self- different devices is without doubt a major challenge.

16 March 2018 - Internet of Things (IoT) and Integrated Marketing