Gartner compiled a list of the top-10 technologies that should be on the radar of any company that wants to benefit from the Internet of Things (IoT), noting that the "immaturity of technologies and services and of the vendors providing them" is a recurring theme in the IoT area.
At the top of the list is, of course, security, which was also highlighted by many participants at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as one of the most pressing concerns for the IoT.
Nick Jones, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner, said experienced IoT security specialists are scarce, and security solutions are currently fragmented and involve multiple vendors.
"New threats will emerge through 2021 as hackers find new ways to attack IoT devices and protocols, so long-lived 'things' may need updatable hardware and software to adapt during their life span," Jones added.
Connectivity is also included, with Gartner highlighting low-power, short-range IoT networks and low-power, wide area (LPWA) networks as particular focus points.
The company expects low-power, short-range networks to dominate wireless IoT connectivity through 2025, "far outnumbering connections using wide-area IoT networks."
However, it noted that commercial and technical trade-offs mean that many solutions will coexist, with no single dominant winner and clusters emerging around certain technologies, applications and vendor ecosystems.
LPWA, meanwhile, will provide what traditional mobile networks are unable to do: a good combination of technical features and operational cost for those IoT applications that need wide-area coverage combined with relatively low bandwidth, good battery life, low hardware and operating cost, and high connection density.
"The first low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) were based on proprietary technologies, but in the long term emerging standards such as narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) will likely dominate this space," Gartner said.
Also on the list are IoT analytics; IoT device (thing) management; IoT processors; IoT operating systems; event stream processing; IoT platforms; and IoT standards and ecosystems
For more:
- see this Gartner release
Related articles:
ETSI CTO cautious on operators' ambitious 5G launch dates
SEAT, Accenture highlight connected car's place in broader IoT market
Deutsche Telekom teams with SK Telecom on 5G, IoT R&D
TIM teams with Huawei to accelerate NB-IoT technology development
Sigfox rolls out IoT network in Germany