According to Gartner the global number of "things" making the Internet of Things (IoT) will total 4.9 billion in 2015 before growing to 25bn by 2020, marking the IoT as a "powerful force" disrupting "all industries and all areas of society."
Gartner continues the IoT will support total services spending worth $69.5bn in 2015, a number set to reach $263bn in 2020.
“The digital shift instigated by the Nexus of Forces (cloud, mobile, social and information), and boosted by IoT, threatens many existing businesses. They have no choice but to pursue IoT, like they’ve done with the consumerisation of IT,” the analyst says.
Consumer applications will drive the number of connected things, as 2.9bn things should find use in the 2015 consumer market (over 13bn in 2020). Gartner predicts the IoT will transform familiar connected devices, such as ATMs and airline check-ins, with the addition new digital sensing, computing and communications capabilities, as well as create new ones. It gives such objects a "digital voice," a information stream reflecting their status and that of the surrounding environment.
As for digital security architecture IT leaders will have to face dozens of new platform options, hundreds of variations on hybrid IT/IoT integration, new standards, and new views of an application, as well as the enormous amounts of data produced by connected devices.
“The number of connected intelligent devices will continue to grow exponentially, giving "smart things" the ability to sense, interpret, communicate and negotiate, and effectively have a digital "voice"," Gartner concludes. “CIOs must look for opportunities to create new services, usage scenarios and business models based on this growth.”
Go Gartner Says 4.9bn Connected "Things" Will Be in Use in 2015
