IoT Connections to Hit 50 Billion By 2022 As Edge Computing Accelerates ROI

New data from Juniper Research has revealed that the total number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and devices is set to exceed 50 billion by 2022, up from an estimated 21 billion in 2018.

Juniper’s new research, The Internet of Things: Consumer, Industrial & Public Services 2018-2023, found that this growth, equivalent to 140 percent over the next 4 years, will be driven by edge computing services, which is the processing of data away from the cloud and closer to the source. This will increase both deployment scalability and security.

The research found that the rise of edge computing would be critical in scaling deployments up, owing to reduced bandwidth requirements, faster application response times and improvements in data security.

Juniper predicts that a substantial proportion of the estimated 46 billion industrial and enterprise devices connected in 2023 will rely on edge computing. Therefore, addressing key challenges surrounding standardization and deployment models will be crucial.

“IoT at the edge dramatically increases project scope and value,” Research Author Steffen Sorrell said. “However, it must be noted that work around standardization, interoperability and how to manage the decentralization of data processing remain in development.”

IoT Transaction Management Requires Blockchain Innovation

Juniper foresees that consortium-run blockchains or similar distributed ledger technologies, such as IOTA, will play an important role in delivering future IoT events or payment transaction management.

However, both approaches presently lack true decentralization offered by public blockchains, a key requirement for end-to-end trust. Juniper notes that opportunities for blockchain technologies in the IoT would remain limited until such issues were resolved.

As part of this new research, Juniper has ranked the industry’s leading vendors:

1.       IBM

2.       Microsoft

3.       Intel

4.       Bosch

5.       Nokia

Juniper Research noted that IBM’s breadth of services and investment in its Watson platform has paid off. However, Microsoft’s tremendous growth in the enterprise cloud space, its IoT Edge services and AI prowess highlight an increasingly compelling offer in the market.

(For more information visit https://www.juniperresearch.com).