Intelligent CIO Europe Issue13 | Page 39

////////////////////////// S oftware intelligence company, Dynatrace, has announced the findings of an independent global survey of 800 CIOs, which reveals that 74% of IT leaders are concerned that IoT performance problems could directly impact business operations and significantly damage revenues. This is mostly because 78% of CIOs said there is a risk that their organisation will rollout IoT strategies without having a plan or solution in place to manage the performance of the complex cloud ecosystems that underpin IoT rollouts. In fact, 69% of CIOs predicted that IoT will become a major performance management burden as they struggle to overcome the escalating complexity of their modern enterprise cloud environments. “Businesses across every industry are eagerly exploring IoT’s potential to engage new markets, drive new revenue and create stronger competitive advantage,” said Dave Anderson, Digital Performance Expert at Dynatrace. “However, IoT ecosystems and delivery chains are intricate and boundless, which creates unprecedented frequency of change, size and complexity in the cloud environments on which they are built. Enterprises are already struggling to master cloud complexity and now IoT substantially magnifies this challenge.” “Platform-specific tools and do-it-yourself solutions aren’t built for web-scale, highly dynamic, complex cloud environments – they leave you cobbling together a mix of solutions which will never add up to a sophisticated platform that gives you a complete view of your environment and automated way of making sense of everything in real-time,” added Anderson. “Organisations need a new approach that works at scale and simplifies IoT cloud complexity; a software intelligence platform that uses AI and automation to provide full operational insights into vast ecosystems of IoT sensors, devices, gateways, applications and underlying infrastructure. With answers at their fingertips, rather than just more data on glass, organisations will be poised to enjoy the benefit from all that IoT technologies have to offer.” Chad Mercer, VP of Information Assurance for Rajant Corporation, elaborated on the issue of operating IoT within the workplace: www.intelligentcio.com Chad Mercer, VP of Information Assurance, Rajant Corporation “IoT is no longer just a concept – it is taking us through the biggest Digital Transformation any generation has ever seen. Companies are battling it out to offer devices with the most impact and researchers at HP predict that there will be 1 trillion connected devices by 2025. As IoT’s progress shows no signs of slowing down, there are rising privacy and security concerns. The inherent nature of IoT devices – every single bit of data that’s captured through the connected devices is stored and utilised for future purposes – means protocols and IoT security standards must be in place. “IoT visibility – or lack of – can create a blind spot for organisations which could be exploited for exfiltration of data which often holds critical business information. Enterprise IT managers need to be made aware as and when new devices are added to a network and where they are located to avoid potential breaches in the future. Often, devices are connected via Wi-Fi. While this may be efficient for a short-term connection, operators often experience a three to five second disconnect as devices move between access points. Long term, this slight break in transmission can lead to essential data being lost or interrupted – exposing it to possible security incidents. Security needs to be both usable and secure for enterprises. IT managers will have to move towards utilising strong high-speed data links which can be both scaled up and flexible to deliver secure data transmissions in the bandwidth and the latency enterprises required to carry out day- to-day operations. “Security shouldn’t be a barrier to IoT deployment. Companies need to familiarise INTELLIGENTCIO 39