Enterprise IoT Deployments require a bottoms up approach to be successful
James Carville, famed campaign strategist for Bill Clinton
in 1992, facing an incumbent President with a post-Gulf War approval rating of
90%, a year and a half before the election, coined the phrase, “the economy,
stupid”, to remind all staffers to concentrate on the importance of economic
issues. It was short, pointed and
effective. Similarly, when I look at
enterprises trying to deploy IoT networks, too many are focusing on a specific
use case or some payoff from big data, when they must remember, all successful
IoT deployments starts with the network.
Enterprise IoT deployments need a bottoms up approach
First, some definitions:
- Bottoms up = build wireless network (Wi-Fi +
IoT). Stable, scalable, secure – then
build solutions on top of it - Top down = find a solution to focused
problem. Create an overlay network to
connect app to a “thing”.
Every house needs a solid foundation. You would not want your electrician pouring
concrete, nor would you want your brick layer to work on your plumbing. So why do we feel comfortable with sensor,
device or manufacturers of “things” providing the components for an enterprise network? We shouldn’t.
Thing vendors make things, and network vendors make networks. In
addition, each device vendor only cares about their own device, which means
their own network. Deploying a network for one device type adds complexity,
adds cost, is highly redundant and has the potential to create security
holes.
Benefits of a bottoms up network
Just as James Carville beseeched his staffers to focus on the economy as a primary driver for success, so to do I beseech Enterprise IT and OT managers to think about the network first. It will serve you well and provide significant benefits. And here are things to consider in making make a stable, scalable, secure, cost-effective IoT access network that can meet the needs of an enterprise IoT ecosystem.
- World-class backbone – enterprise-grade wired and wireless infrastructure.
- Integrated front end – AP supporting best of