IoT industry faces “significant” skill gap: Microsoft survey

microsoft iot
Microsoft IoT

Redmond, Washington, July 31, 2019:  A new survey report by Microsoft on the Internet of Things (IoT) says while IoT adoption is growing rapidly, 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 fast.

The Microsoft IoT report, “IoT Signals”, provides a global overview of the IoT landscape. For it, Microsoft surveyed over 3,000 IoT decision-makers in Enterprise organisations 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.

“IoT is transforming businesses in every industry and is powering breakthrough innovations,” said Sam George, Head of Azure IoT, in a Microsoft press release. “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. “

Here are some of the key findings:

  • 85 percent of respondents are in IoT adoption, and three-fourths of these have 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 adopters — 97 percent — have security concerns when implementing IoT, but this is not hindering adoption.
  • 38 percent of 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 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.

Across industries, leading global and enterprise customers including StarbucksChevronBühler AGSteelcasethyssenkrupp and more are transforming their business with IoT and intelligent edge solutions. In partnership with BCG Group, Microsoft itself has identified seven key ingredients for success in IoT: business strategy, leadership and organization, a technology roadmap, talent, operations and core business processes, partnerships, and security.


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