Report: Corporate World is Unprepared for Internet of Things

Spiceworks released a new report this week that found more than half of surveyed IT professionals are ill-equipped to handle the inevitable wave of new Internet-ready devices connected to corporate networks. While a majority of IT professionals are well-aware of the coming Internet of Things (IoT) onslaught on their environments, only a surprisingly small amount of them are doing anything to stem the tide.

In its new report, “The Devices are Coming!” Spiceworks found that while 71 percent of IT professionals believe IoT will affect both consumers and the workplace, 59 percent are not actively preparing for the impact it could have on their business. The survey, which was conducted in April, included responses from more than 440 IT professionals in North America and EMEA.

“The data technology trends we’ve seen emerge over the past few years, like BYOD, coupled with the IoT will have a dramatic impact on how IT professionals do their jobs,” said Kathryn Pribish, Voice of IT program manager at Spiceworks, in a prepared statement. “IT professionals understand the inevitability of the IoT but the reality is, though the impact will be gradual, resource-strained IT departments and others who haven’t jumped on the IoT bandwagon will be playing catch-up if they don’t adequately prepare.”

Among the 30 percent of respondents who are working to increase their network efficiency in light of the IoT boom, about 68 percent said they are investing in new hardware infrastructures to prepare for the possibility of more connected devices. 63 percent said they are purchasing additional security solutions for their networks, while 55 percent are expanding their bandwidth to accommodate more devices. Currently, almost 70 percent of IT professionals said their existing networks support at least two or more devices per employee, meaning there is at least some hope that multiple devices will be able to smoothly run on enterprise networks in their current iterations.

When looking ahead to the future, about 43 percent of respondents said they planned to assign a separate network for new devices to stem the flow of information on their infrastructures, with another 23 percent planning to allow new devices to remain on the corporate networks. However, more than a quarter of respondents have no plan at all for managing more devices.

It seems that even if IT professionals are cognizant of the strain of multiple connected devices on their networks, either they don’t have the resources to shore up the infrastructure or they are simply too lazy to care. Either way, the lack of preparedness could be a dangerous decision as more devices are expected to enter the workplace each year.