Enterprises are excited at the advent of Internet of Things (IoT) as a big business opportunity. This is amid concerns about devices proliferating and network capacity and security becoming unwieldy in matching the growing number of end points from connectedness.

Defining IoT

The Internet of things refers to rapid growth in smart devices. It can range from machines, automobiles; appliances; mobile devices etc that will be connected to the Internet and communication for generating massive data. Many Network administrators are baffled at the 'bring your own device' (BYOD) trend as an exponential increase can inflate the number of end points.

Profitable Biz

The rosy picture is presented by Cisco CEO John Chambers. He says that by 2020, IoT will generate $14.4 trillion worth of profits for companies worldwide. IoT is already in the radar of many tech vendors including IBM and Chip designer ARM. The latter mentioned found in a study that 75 percent of businesses are looking for opportunities created by the IoT, and 96 per cent of companies will be using IoT technologies by 2016. That is why ARM, Intel and AMD are creating processors aimed at IoT systems.

Market Growth

The market for Internet of things will only grow as connected systems and devices become more intelligent and do more sharing of massive data.

Projections

Cisco Systems is an early bird in the IoT space with a special unit for it. Cisco predicts 50 billion connected devices to be active by 2020. This is higher than what Gartner predicts. They say the number will be some 26 billion devices if tablets, smartphones and PCs are not counted.

Cisco forecasts that by 2017, there will be 3.6 billion Internet users and 19 billion network connections. By 2020, there will be 50 billion devices connected to the Internet. In terms of revenue IDC analysts forecast $7.1 trillion by 2020.

Players like Cisco are trying to be the connecting platform for IoT infrastructure ranging from networking gear to security and embedded technology.