Internet of Things: More buzz than bite? Study finds slow uptake

By NIV ELIS

Published: SEPTEMBER 8, 2016 22:38

Cyber hackers [illustrative] (photo credit: REUTERS) — Cyber hackers [illustrative]

(photo credit: REUTERS)

The slow uptake, Ben-Bassat said, was a sign that there is still room for growth, not that there is a lack of interest in utilizing the technology.

The Internet of Things – the name for connecting and gathering data from all sorts of devices – is one of the big buzzwords in business these days.

But even companies that think it’s important aren’t using it, according to a new survey.

The survey, carried out by Plataine Technologies, found that only 26 percent of companies are putting IoT technologies to use. That figure is about half of the number that said IoT technology was important to their business; about 28% said they planned on incorporating the technology in the coming two years.

The rest, however, saw no use for IoT.

The survey, taken among about 100 executives in the private and public sector, also found that the main obstacles people faced to incorporating IOT technology were concerns over implementing the technology and fears about cybersecurity.

The research department of People & Computers group conducted the survey for Plataine.

The addition of connectivity to anything from machines to printers to refrigerators has created a web of potential vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit, hence the additional security challenges around IoT technology.

“IoT is a broad field, and many organizations still do not know how to prepare for it on the practical level,” Plataine CEO Avner Ben-Bassat said.

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Beyond the basic layer of sensors and chips, he said, a second layer of technology was necessary to collect and store the data, while a third was necessary to analyze it.

The slow uptake, Ben-Bassat said, was a sign that there is still room for growth, not that there is a lack of interest in utilizing the technology.