Prashant Gupta, Head of solutions South East Asia & INDIA - Verizon Enterprise Solutions shares with VARINDIA of how IoT is slowly evolving in the country and what does Verizon has in its booty to offer to its Indian customers. An excerpt -
 What are the applications of IoT in today's enterprise environment? How is this impacting India as a potential market?Â
Internet of Things (IoT) is a world of its own with all the living and non-living objects having sensors and monitors that transmit data through wireless. IoT can be used to automate and monitor almost everything imaginable. When we talk about IoT in context with enterprises, there is a new layer of complexity all together. This complexity is involved especially in reference to data centers' daily monitoring and management of devices. In an enterprise environment, IoT can be used for numerous purposes such as fleet management, remote asset management, healthcare-related monitoring devices, oil pipeline monitoring sensors, and smart metering amongst others.
With India being one of the fastest growing technology market, IoT is growing at an equally fast pace. The Indian government is undertaking initiatives including policies and regulatory framework development (India’s first IoT policy framework was released in October, 2014), driving solutions development (and deployment) in partnership with private industry players (Smart City and Smart Grid projects) and creating the IoT market in India.
 What are the security concerns associated with IoT?
While IoT is still in its nascent stage in India, issues such as security and performance still need to be addressed. The major security concerns that IoT users or consumers face is the security of their personal data provided by them. IoT devices collect, store, transmit, aggregate and analyze massive amounts of data. If properly protected, the data and the devices can make life easier. If not, it can become a nightmare. Thus, when developing any IoT strategy, it is important to look critically at what information the IoT device is collecting, and how it will be used. It is important to look at how the information can be abused or misused as well. Additionally, the lack of an updated infrastructure also adds to the failure of security in these devices. For instance, recently a worm called Darlloz also impacted small IoT devices such as smart TVs, web cameras, home routers, wireless speaker systems and smart refrigerators.
With the increase in wearable devices such as fitness bands, insulin devices, pacemakers, it is imperative to take an end to end approach and ensure that they are not comprised which can be fatal. . Smart cities if not protected adequately can be a big threat to national security.
 In spite of security attacks happening as a result of IoT, why do security budgets still account to only 10%?
With the proliferation of IoT, it is expected that vendors will be preferring usability over security. Though there is awareness on the malware attacks targeting these new connected gadgets, IT security practitioners remain unsure of the correct amount of acceptable risk. Companies should assign business ownership of IoT security, focus on vulnerable IoT devices, and increase IoT-focused budget. We are seeing that IOT security is now also being addressed at multiple levels, from device to network to cloud to analytics. It’s an integral component.
 What does Verizon offer in terms of IoT services? Do you have any used cases of any of your clients?
Verizon’s machine-to-machine (M2M) technology automates processes and streamlines workflow by enabling machines to communicate with each other. Now you can stay focused on managing growth and gain greater visibility into your business—so you know what's happening and where. We at Verizon Enterprise Solutions continue to drive the adoption of IoT by offering to wirelessly monitor, track, and maintain high-value assets and support employees remotely. Solutions that we offer are - Smart cities, Asset Tracking, Digital Signage, Energy Management, Fleet Management, Healthcare Monitoring, Mobile point of sale, Self-Service Kiosks, Smart vending  and Mobile Surveillance.
Verizon data shows 204% year-over-year growth in the number of IoT connections in the manufacturing sector and by 2025, many manufacturers will get more revenue from services than from product sales. We have consistently focused on offering superior connected machines solutions, helping manufacturers improve their services, streamline logistics, and ensure time-sensitive inventory is delivered to consistently meet customer expectations and resource management procedures.
We also help manufacturers manage the performance and security of critical assets, vehicles, and equipment wherever they’re located using smart, M2M technology. Wirelessly connected machines, devices, sensors, and systems enable the exchange of important data and information, allowing them to improve decision making, use resources efficiently, and equipment management, while helping mitigate maintenance issues and control costs.
Verizon is launching a new easy-to-use enterprise portal for its Managed Certificate Services platform that offers digital certificate creation and management capabilities for large-scale IoT deployments in the tens of millions. Verizon’s MCS platform also can help enterprises address regulatory guidelines aimed at protecting device-to-machine and machine-to-machine connections now found in automobiles, smart meters and home-monitoring systems. We have recently acquired Fleetmatics to Bolster our fast growing business of connecting smart devices and sensors to cloud software over wireless networks.
Verizon also offers IoT Security consulting services along with solutions, when employees are on the go, so are their devices. When machines connect with machines, we get to the “Internet of things.†While mobile connections allow for increased productivity, they also create security concerns. Verizon offers security-based solutions that help protect mobile assets and connections from potential breaches, while providing secure access to data as needed.
ICSA Labs (an independent division of Verizon ) offers IOT testing services ICSA Labs IoT security testing is recommended for three primary constituents: organizations that brand and resell IoT devices and sensors to their customers; organizations that implement IoT devices and sensors in their businesses; and device and sensor makers interested in delivering secure products to their customers.
What are some of the challenges that IoT can address in some of the IT organizations and beyond?
Recent growth in M2M connections and a global spotlight on IoT-enabled solutions notwithstanding, Verizon's experts believe that widespread enterprise adoption is currently low. The experts estimate that just 10 percent of enterprises have deployed IoT technologies extensively -- suggesting that many organizations are in a pilot phase or are waiting for more insights from early adopters. This also applies to widely covered categories such as the connected car. According to Verizon's telematics experts, more than 600 million vehicles worldwide are currently not connected to a network.
While the core technologies powering the IoT-- sensors, cloud computing, intelligent networking -- are familiar to most businesses and public sector organizations, formulating a viable strategy and developing IoT solutions can be highly complex. Additionally, there's still a lot more work to be done in regard to the creation and ratification of industry standards. Many organizations will need outside help to realize a return on their IoT investments — one of the top challenges that respondents cited was “acquiring the skills needed to turn the wealth of data generated by IoT-based projects into actionable intelligence (cited by 39 percent) and managing the growing volumes of data (35 percent).â€
Fragmentation and a lack of standards are the two biggest challenges currently hindering the adoption of IoT. Businesses struggle with having to buy a smart technology from one company and a network from another and perform their own backend integration. One barrier to widespread IoT deployment is the cost to connect to a wide-area network compared to other networks such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and ZigBee. Non-cellular-enabled IoT devices typically connect to a network through a hub or router, which complicates the set-up for customers and increases the potential for failure. As IoT becomes more widely adopted, network connectivity needs to be simple, reliable and economically viable.
What are the opportunities for partners in the field of IoT?
Developing a strong partner ecosystem is especially important in the M2M environment because, typically, one company cannot provide all the required elements of a M2M solution. We have a variety of partners ranging from regional players to global majors, closely working with us in specific areas. These partnerships range from enhancing coverage of our global platforms, expanding delivery capability across the globe, joint GTM with select global system integrators to niche players in specific industry verticals. These channel partners play a very important role in helping us expand our presence across India and enables both organizations to bring complimentary solutions together to the benefit of our clients. We truly believe that creating Win-Win and long-term models with our partners is the only way to serve holistic needs and requirements of our customers across the globe.
The Verizon Partner Program (VPP) aims to forge relationships that help our program members enhance existing capabilities, target customers more effectively, expand into new markets and boost the bottom line. The program:
- Drives growth and profitability to our business
- Creates new profitable opportunities for program members
- Helps strengthen relationships with our customers
- Advances brand recognition and market leadership
- enhances our solution portfolio through innovative program members and their Verizon-powered offerings
Also, the program helps the sales teams:
- Maximize sales by providing total solutions to customers with more program member solutions from which to choose
- Increase opportunities by receiving qualified leads more efficiently through a larger program member ecosystem
- Provide program transparency with a consistent program structure with clearly defined rules of engagement to drive loyalty when working with program members
The Verizon Innovation Program inspires, enables, and showcases new innovations that tap the power of Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE and 3G networks. We're helping companies, large and small; develop breakthrough non-traditional devices, services, and applications. Our Innovation Centers feature state-of-the-art labs, on-site expertise from Verizon engineers, and all the capabilities you need to make your idea a reality.
The LTE Innovation Center focuses on bringing wireless capabilities to non-traditional devices in areas such as consumer electronics, gaming, telematics, security, healthcare, utilities, and others. The Application Innovation Center focuses on helping developers create, optimize and deliver game-changing mobile and web applications for consumers and businesses.
