Business stakeholders and CIOs in both B2B and B2C environments are planning and deploying IoT solutions to power digital transformation initiatives to revolutionize customer relationships, enhance operations, and differentiate products. IoT deployment momentum brings challenges. Firms must identify strategies and methods to secure, manage, and support the rapidly growing number of smart, connected IoT devices and solutions. Forrester has released its annual predictions for the internet of things in 2019. Below are highlights from three of these 2019 IoT predictions:

  • Bundled service offerings will catalyze a sleepy consumer IoT market. The vision of a “smart” home as one integrated system is failing. The “connected” value built into the devices and associated services is too narrow and siloed: They don’t work together easily or create magical experiences. Furthermore, vendors struggle to lure consumers into paying ongoing subscriptions. In 2019, we’ll see players such as utilities, insurance, and grocery and food companies offer subscription offerings such as Verizon’s Hum, an automobile service that blends roadside assistance, maintenance monitoring, and driver monitoring using two in-car devices for $20 per month — eschewing the upfront IoT device costs.
  • Cybercriminals will lay siege to a smart-city implementation. Cities are becoming “smart” to increase operational efficiency and improve the quality of services, but many are failing to secure connected devices, sensors, and communication infrastructure — and to assure citizen privacy. In March 2018, a ransomware attack crippled the city of Atlanta for days and cost taxpayers close to $17 million, even after city employees received warnings on several occasions that their systems were vulnerable.[i] In 2019, more targeted ransomware attacks against vulnerable components of smart-city implementations will cause disruptions to citizen services and will force cities to invest in cybersecurity defenses to minimize the risk of further attacks.
  • A market for IoT managed services will emerge in 2019. Planning, assessment, implementation, and IoT platform service offerings to help firms deploy IoT solutions across many different vertical markets and use cases are currently dominating the IoT services market. In 2019, we’ll see the emergence of an IoT “run” market to help manage, monitor, and operate the fragmented array of IoT devices, networks, and assets. These offerings will target the ever-expanding array of smart products as well as the networks and platforms that enable IoT solutions. IoT stakeholders, primarily in the manufacturing, healthcare, retail, and utilities markets, will sign several $100 million-plus contracts with outsourcing providers for “run” offerings.

Download Forrester’s Predictions 2019 guide to understand the 14 major dynamics that will impact firms next year. 

Several Forrester analysts contributed to this year’s IoT predictions, including: Frank E. Gillett, Julie A. Ask, Nigel Fenwick, Paul Miller, Dan Bieler, Bill Martorelli, Merritt Maxim, Christopher Voce, Charlie Dai, Andras Cser, Andre Kindness, and Thomas Husson.

[i] Source: Stephen Deere, “CONFIDENTIAL REPORT: Atlanta’s cyber attack could cost taxpayers $17 million,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 1, 2018 (https://www.ajc.com/news/confidential-report-atlanta-cyber-attack-could-hit-million/GAljmndAF3EQdVWlMcXS0K/).