IoT IS A KEY ENABLER OF ESG

A global study claims that the use of IoT has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by over 60 gigatons by the year 2030, if all the industries choose to participate.

IoT is one of the fastest growing emerging technology domains. It enables hundreds of vertical and horizontal uses cases, starting from as basic as asset tracking to Smart City or Industry 4.0 solutions. However, IoT represents one of the most complex value chain systems given the multitude of technologies and technology players that are involved in delivering the solutions.

IoT is one of the highly fragmented markets and the value chain is tightly knitted with the involvement of several hardware, software, services, and connectivity players. Each of these four technology areas are further broken down into finer sub-categories to understand the evolving technology landscape and to effectively track the opportunity.

It greatly reflects the interdependencies and complex nature of partnerships between the IoT value chain players in bringing together compelling IoT solutions. Consequently, close collaboration among

KRISHNA CHINTA Senior Programme Manager, Telecom and IoT, META,

Key Takeaways

l IoT is a key enabler and will help various sectors including industrial sectors and smart cities in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions.

l IoT is one of the fastest growing emerging technology domains.

l IoT enables hundreds of vertical and horizontal uses cases, starting from as basic as asset tracking to Smart City or Industry 4.0 solutions.

l IoT represents one of the most complex value chain systems given the multitude of technologies and technology players that are involved in delivering the solutions.

l IoT is a highly fragmented market and is tightly knitted with involvement of hardware, software, services, connectivity players.

l This reflects interdependencies and complex nature of partnerships between IoT value chain players in bringing together IoT solutions.

l Close collaboration among ecosystem partners is key to development of the IoT value chain.

l In case of largescale IoT implementation, it is necessary to bring in a master systems integrator to orchestrate multiple vendors.

l Data privacy and security is a key challenge holding back several IoT projects.

ecosystem partners is key to the development of the IoT value chain.

In case of largescale IoT implementation, it is necessary to bring in a master systems integrator with the required skills to orchestrate multiple vendors with the sole objective of successfully delivering the project.

Data privacy and security is a key challenge holding back several IoT projects. Technology providers that are serious about venturing into the IoT market should incorporate fool proof data privacy and security in their solutions. Some businesses are facing lack of technological, operational, or analytics skills to support the IoT implementations and facing intense talent management challenges.

On the other hand, capital intensive industries including manufacturing companies often find it difficult to integrate IT and OT technologies which is another key challenge for IoT implementation plans. IoT vendors including hardware, software, connectivity, and IT service providers should be cognizant of these challenges and aim for proactively addressing these concerns. There are several industrial and smart city solutions that are enabled by IoT technologies these days. Regardless of the use case, IoT brings about distinctive advantages in terms of its ability detect, measure, and automate processes. IoT use cases are known to deliver process efficiencies, productivity enhancements, and bring about safety and security with the help of related technologies such as advanced connectivity, AI, cloud, and edge computing.

Given these capabilities, businesses in transportation, logistics and shipping, oil and gas, and smart city verticals have already started realising returns on their IoT investments.

Businesses from different industries are increasingly considering IoT solutions as a means to lower their impact on the environment. Some of these companies with Environmental, Social, and Governance, ESG obligations have put carbon footprint reduction targets at the heart of their operations and business processes. A global study claims that the use of IoT has the potential to reduce carbon emissions by over 60 gigatons by the year 2030, if all the industries choose to participate. Therefore, IoT is a key enabler and will help various sectors including industrial sectors and smart cities in reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and in increasing their energy efficiencies.

IDC has long years of experience in approaching the technology market research in a structured fashion. Given the complexity of the IoT value chain, IDC globally approached the market research with welldefined taxonomy, datasets, and subscription services. IDC’s IoT taxonomy has identified several named use cases across multiple industries.

Given the fragmented nature of the value chain comprising connectivity, hardware, and software vendors and IT services providers, IDC’s IoT taxonomy has further split the four technology categories into finer sub-technology categories. This approach enables IDC to refine its research in to diversified IoT ecosystem. n