Internet of Things moves into mainstream: new study

LOS ANGELES - The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to ramp up in everyday business, with more than three quarters (76 percent) of businesses saying IoT will drive future success, according to a new global study released on July 14.

The mobile operator Vodafone annual IoT Barometer Report, based on 1,096 global interviews with business decision-makers, found that 28 percent of organizations already use IoT and 89 percent of them have increased their use of IoT in the past year because they are seeing the future success and "significant" return on investment of IoT.

Moreover, 63 percent of businesses plan to launch IoT technologies over the next year.

The portion of spending allocated to IoT has now surpassed that of mobile with IoT spending accumulating nearly a quarter (24 percent) of IT budgets.

According to the report, the small IoT projects can perform well, citing as an example one China-based distributor has an IoT project that gathers retail sales data. "This application is small, but the impact has been great," it said.

IoT is a concept in which all tangible objects are connected to the Internet and can identify themselves to other devices in order to exchange necessary data for improved efficiency and convenience.

As IoT moves into the mainstream of business processes, more than half of businesses said they're more concerned about IoT security risks than they were in the past.