Eclipse: IoT and edge computing adoption is accelerating

The latest IoT and edge computing survey from the Eclipse Foundation highlights that enterprises are putting their foot on the accelerator in terms of adoption.

47 percent of respondents have already deployed IoT solutions while an additional 39 percent plan to do so within the next 12-24 months.

Edge computing adoption is also subsequently increasing as organisations look for increased performance from their devices including reduced latency, improved security and privacy, and increased reliability for deployments in areas with limited or no connectivity.

Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of the Eclipse Foundation, said:

“IoT and edge computing technologies go hand-in-hand and these survey results tell a clear and compelling story.

Real-world adoption is accelerating in both domains and open source is firmly established in production deployments across a range of industrial use cases.”

Spending decisions on IoT and edge are increasingly being made at the executive level due to a growing perception of the technologies as being strategically vital. Decisions are now being made at the executive level 35 percent of the time, almost double the 18 percent in the 2019 survey.

Investments in both technologies continue upwards at a significant trajectory. 30 percent of the respondents expect to spend $100K-$1M (a 2x increase over 2019) while 16 percent anticipate a spend upwards of $1M (a 25% increase over 2019).

Open-source IoT and edge computing platforms look set to benefit the most from this increasing enterprise investment. 74 percent of organisations now factor open-source into their deployment plans, an increase of 14 percent over 2019.

The respondents note the main attraction to open-source is the ability to customise or influence code in projects (29%), followed by cost advantages (18%) and flexibility (14%).

Deb Bryant, Senior Director of the Open Source Program Office at Red Hat, commented:

“The IoT and Edge Commercial Adoption Survey not only provides valuable insights into how organisations are adopting IoT and edge technologies but also how open-source is a vital part of their digital transformation journeys.

The survey results showcase that the number of organisations incorporating open source technologies into their deployment plans has increased each year. Those looking to grow and evolve their organisation should seriously consider integrating open-source or open source-based IoT and edge platforms into their deployment plans.”

IoT and edge platforms would do well to focus their efforts on tackling the leading operational challenges faced by organisations deploying and using commercial solutions. The top five challenges are end-to-end IoT solution monitoring and management (44%), device management (40%), security the network/devices/data (35%), processing and managing IoT data (32%), and extracting useful data from sensors and devices (30%). 

Organisations are indicating a shift towards using a hybrid cloud with 44 percent of respondents planning to use two or more distinct cloud infrastructures. This has increased from 22 percent in 2019.

AI is the top edge computing workload (40%) followed by control logic (37%), data analytics (30%), data exchange between multiple nodes on (30%), video processing and analytics (28%), and sensor fusion (27%) to round-out the top five.

A full copy of the 2021 IoT & Edge Commercial Adoption Survey Report is available here (registration required).

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