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 managing the entire network to helping them tackle specific projects, such as moving to 3G extinction.

IoT is no longer just the domain of the first users. It also means that multiple companies can undertake IoT implementations without fully understanding what lies ahead. Many are faced with decisions about how to integrate IoT architectures into their existing network environments, how to continue managing those architectures, the devices that connect to them and the applications that run them.

IT staff in companies have faced many similar decisions in the past when implementing new technologies, deciding whether they want to be involved in creating or managing solutions or seeking help from managed service providers who can do everything there. MSP can help you with everything related to planning, purchasing hardware and software, building architectures and long-term management of their networks and services.

MSPs have been important business partners for decades, helping them through the evolution of connectivity, security and cloud computing technologies. The latest evolution that companies are looking for MSP support is the evolution of IoT.

"There has been a change in philosophy from the belief that IoT is as simple 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 officially launched an IOT Management Services offering at the recent IoT 2019 global conference and exhibition in Santa Clara, California. “If you think about how large the IoT is for businesses and everything they need to start, it can be complex for many companies to bring together different parts of the entire IoT solution. "

The IoT managed services the market is growing rapidly, according to Persistence Market Research. The market, which includes services such as infrastructure management, network management, device management, security management, and data management, by the way, will be worth over $ 94 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of over 20% between 2018 and 2026, an estimated PMR 2018 study.

Different needs

Ultimately, there are many reasons why a company can choose a managed IoT service provider. The most obvious is that they lack the knowledge and experience to do the job effectively and profitably on their own.

Steve Garrett, OptConnect product manager said that with a growing interest in IoT, many companies are just starting to explore it "they are not fully educated and have no idea how to connect their equipment." These are the companies that are likely to need a fully managed service solution that includes everything from sensor hardware to connectivity, security, network monitoring and potentially more.

Other companies, said Garrett, "know the IoT and are trying to rebuild it. They could try to make the decision to create or buy and realize that there is simply too much choice. An MSP can help a company at this point. , managing parts of the IoT construction or managing aspects of the IoT architecture that the company decides not to manage alone.

Garrett said companies that are very knowledgeable about IoT and advanced enough in their IoT travel, however, may find themselves forced to migrate a self-managed architecture to a third-party managed service. "We have customers who have implemented 4,000 to 5,000 sites on mobile phones, who are overwhelmed and have learned that they can no longer grow their business. We have passed 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 business management problems, such as a lack of budgets to distribute IoT equipment. These companies may find it more advantageous to pay the IoT as an ongoing operating expense than to allocate a much larger budget for both the initial investment expenses associated with the implementation of the IoT.

But not all companies may need a "nut soup" managed service solution, as Garrett described. Some companies may not have enough team members with specific skills to manage an aspect of IoT management, such as connectivity, security, data analysis or device management. In these cases, an MSP can manage this sore spot instead of everything. For example, OptConnect, which is largely focused on cellular technology for IoT connectivity, can focus on managing a company's connections with several cellular providers without being more involved in the company's internal IoT architecture if that's all serves, he said.

"Sunset" management

Sometimes the need for managed services becomes clear from the first day that a company starts developing its IoT strategy, but 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 specific type of problem is the so-called "3G sunset", which refers to the plans of several major cell phone operators to ultimately eliminate 3G connectivity as 4G becomes more dominant and 5G begins. to distribute. Many mobile service providers will turn 3G off by the end of the year and 2020, but different operators are likely to do so at different times, making the transition potentially confusing.

Add to that the idea that preparing corporate IoT networks for this transition is not as simple as simply replacing a 3G module with a 4G module. 4G has features, including increased bandwidth, that improve 3G and could provide companies with a reason to rethink their applications and the way they use their IoT connections. 3G modules on industrial equipment may also require more time and planning for disconnection and the regulatory rules governing the certification of these devices may differ from generation to generation. These problems are proving to be a determining factor for companies seeking help from MSP and have inspired some IoT device vendors to start offering device management as a managed service.

"Overall, this is a long-term strategy," said Dennis Kelley, executive vice president of sales for Telit, via email. “With the disappearance of 3G networks, companies that implement IoT must ensure that whatever decision they make, it will last for the duration of their implementation cycle. For example, in the utility sector, they expect the meter to remain off in a customer or industrial site for 10-15 years. "

He added: "When moving from 3G to 4G, this is a technological change, so there are different features and different ways of operating the network. Companies have to take this into account. So there are regulatory considerations." It's not just about removing a form and inserting a new one will suddenly be automatically certified, "said Kelley." In general, regulatory rules have changed since the last time a customer certified. Customers need to be aware of these changes and therefore be prepared to comply with these regulatory rules to implement this next-generation device. "

As IoT becomes more essential to a company's success, more of them can maintain responsibility for certain IoT processes and functions internally, particularly those with the most commercial sensitivity or value. competitive. In these cases, companies are simply trying to protect their "secret sauce" and MSPs need to work with them to supply the parts they need, Kelley said.

"Their concern is security: whether or not someone has access to their request," he said. "So they run it on a CPU and on the motherboard memory, and it works the same way, whether it's a service or a platform. We have customers who want us to manage everything, as far as And we have other customers who just want us to we are a data channel or simply want to add a courier service or be the data platform, so it just depends on the customer and how to run his application.