Role OF IOT Managed Services in the Evolution of Corporate IOT

IOT Managed Services is ready to help companies in many ways, from building and administering the entire network to managing specific projects, such as: B. the move to 3G extinction.

IoT is no longer just the domain of the first users. This also means that multiple companies can implement IoT without fully understanding what's ahead. Many face decisions about how to integrate IoT architectures into their existing network environments, how to continue to manage those architectures, what devices are connected to them, and what applications they run.

In the past, IT employees in companies faced many similar decisions when implementing new technologies. They decided whether they would like to be involved in creating or managing solutions, or sought help from managed service providers who could do everything there. MSP can help you with any questions about long-term planning, purchasing hardware and software, building architectures, and managing your networks and services.

MSPs have been important business partners for decades and support them in developing connectivity, security and cloud computing technologies. The latest development that companies are looking for for MSP support is IoT development.

"The philosophy has changed because IoT is believed to be as easy as getting a data plan and connecting hardware," said Chris Baird, CEO of OptConnect, a communications company. Kaysville, Utah, which provided managed services. for many years and we officially launched an IOT management services offering at the recent IoT 2019 global conference and expo in Santa Clara, California. “When you think about how big the IoT is for companies and what they need to get started, it can be complex for many companies to combine different parts of the complete IoT solution. ""

According to Persistence Market Research, managed market IoT services are growing rapidly. The market, which includes services such as infrastructure management, network management, device management, security management, and data management, will be worth more than $ 94 billion by 2026, with an average annual growth rate of more than 20% between 2018 and 2026, an estimated PMR 2018- Study.

Different needs

Ultimately, there are many reasons why a business can choose a managed IoT service provider. Most obviously, they lack the knowledge and experience to do the job effectively and profitably.

Steve Garrett, Product Manager at OptConnect, said that many companies are beginning to deal with the growing interest in IoT. "They are not fully trained and have no idea how to connect their devices." These are the companies that likely need a fully managed service solution that encompasses everything from sensor hardware to connectivity, security, network monitoring, and possibly more.

Other companies, Garrett said, "know the Internet of Things and are trying to rebuild it. You can try to make the decision to create or buy something and realize that there are simply too many options. An MSP can be one. Help companies manage this moment ". Parts of the IoT construction or management of aspects of the IoT architecture that the company does not manage alone.

Garrett said companies that are very familiar with IoT and that are sufficiently advanced in their IoT travel may be forced to migrate a self-managed architecture to a third-party managed service. "We have clients who have deployed 4,000 to 5,000 mobile phone websites that are overwhelmed and have learned that they can no longer grow their business. We have delivered many of these portfolios and transferred them to our services."

For some companies, the need for managed Internet of Things services may not be due to a lack of knowledge, but to more practical management problems, such as: B. Lack of budgets for the sale of IoT devices. These companies may find it more advantageous to pay the IoT as ongoing operating expenses than to provide a much larger budget for the two initial investment costs associated with implementing the IoT.

But not all companies may need a managed service solution for "nut soup," as Garrett has described. Some companies may not have enough team members with specific skills to manage one aspect of IoT administration, such as: B. Connectivity, security, data analytics, or device management. In these cases, an MSP can manage this pain instead of everything. For example, OptConnect, which focuses primarily on cellular technology for IoT connectivity, can focus on managing a company's connections to multiple operators without being more involved in the company's internal IoT architecture, if all of this works, he said.

Management of "Sunset"

Sometimes the need for managed services becomes apparent from the first day that a company begins to develop its IoT strategy. However, in other cases, the need may be motivated by an event that is not necessarily under the control of that company. An example of this particular type of problem is the so-called "3G sunset," which refers to the plans of several large mobile operators to finally eliminate 3G connectivity when 4G becomes more dominant and 5G begins. for delivery. Many mobile operators will shut down 3G by the end of 2020 and 2020, but different operators are likely to do so at different times, which can make the transition confusing.

Also, preparing IoT networks for businesses for this transition is not as easy as simply replacing a 3G module with a 4G module. 4G has features, including higher bandwidth, that could improve 3G and give businesses a reason to rethink their applications and the way they use their IoT connections. 3G modules in industrial plants may also require more time and planning for separation, and the legal requirements for certification of these devices may vary from generation to generation. These issues have proven to be a critical factor for companies seeking MSP help and have inspired some IoT device vendors to offer device management as a managed service.

"Overall, this is a long-term strategy," Dennis Kelley, executive vice president of sales for Telit, said by email. With the demise of 3G networks, organizations implementing IoT must ensure that every decision they make is valid throughout the implementation cycle. In the utility sector, for example, they expect the meter to remain off at a customer or industrial site for 10 to 15 years. ""

He added: "Switching from 3G to 4G is a technological change. Therefore, there are different functions and different types of network operations. Businesses should take this into account. Therefore, there are regulatory considerations." It's not just about deleting a form and inserting a new one that is suddenly automatically certified, "Kelley said. In general, legal requirements have changed since the last time a client was certified. Clients should be aware of these. changes and therefore be prepared to comply with these legal regulations to implement this next generation device "".

As IoT becomes increasingly important to a company's success, more of them can take responsibility for certain IoT processes and functions internally, especially for those with the highest business sensitivity or business value. competitive. In these cases, companies are simply trying to protect their "secret sauce" and MSPs need to work with them to deliver the parts they need, Kelley said.

"His concern is security: whether someone has access to his application or not," he said. "So you run it on a CPU and motherboard memory and it works the same way, whether it's a service or a platform. We have clients who want us to manage everything and we have other clients, who just want to if we're a data channel or we simply want to add a messaging service or we want to be the data platform, it only depends on the client and the execution of your application.