Those in the manufacturing and engineering industry have heard the phrase thousands of times by now; the Internet of Things (IoT).

By connecting previously incommunicable devices, organisations can gain a vast wealth of information that can be used to deploy predictive maintenance strategies, cost-effective optimisation and a number of other improvements. But before going all in on the new trend, companies first have to ask themselves whether their current enterprise architecture can even handle the influx of data.

Reward requires due diligence

Nearly 26 billion devices will be connected through IoT in 2020, according to Gartner research. Compared to just under a decade ago, a study from the Scientific World Journal found that the resulting data production and streaming will be 44 times greater than it was in 2009 – a very large jump in a tight time frame.

This poses a challenge for many organisations still relying on manual methods because their technological infrastructure fails to allow them to revolutionise daily operations. Failing to adopt IoT would put the company at a severe disadvantage to competitors, yet they likely don't have a great understanding of what it takes to integrate IoT to the point where it's beneficial.

"IoT deployments will generate large quantities of data that need to be processed and analysed in real time," Fabrizio Biscotti, research director at Gartner, said. "Processing large quantities of IoT data in real time will increase as a proportion of workloads of data centres, leaving providers facing new security, capacity and analytics challenges."

Businesses, especially in the manufacturing and engineering industry, need to account for a number of obstacles besides integrating server architecture that can support increased data streaming. Warehouses, for example, may want to deploy sensors on the floor and trucks to get a better understanding of how to optimise daily tasks. This requires a mixture of local and wide area networks in use, and the quality and quantity of data means not all servers are able to handle that varying influx.

Capitalise on the opportunity

Simply adding greater capacity doesn't necessarily mean a business is in the clear. Server architecture should be tailored to an organisation's needs, as endpoints will vary widely based on industry. While some companies may need just one-to-one connections, others could require many-to-many, such as cloud-to-cloud.

The benefits of IoT are clear:

• Refined allocation of resources.
• Improved business processes.
• Reduced maintenance costs.
• Remote monitoring of assets.

But without a seamless integration between the front- and backend, deployment of IoT becomes a moot point. The expenses attributed to constantly monitoring your architecture take away from the money saved with predictive maintenance. Unreliable data streaming could result in a strategic business decision that may not be the best course of action.

With all of this in mind, companies would be wise to allow experienced professionals assess the needs of the business in terms of IoT data streaming, and allocate resources correctly to provide a smooth transition from older, outdated processes. This enables management to focus more on analysing the data and creating decisions for the organisation from it, rather than spending time ensuring their physical and digital infrastructure can handle the influx of information.

The needs for businesses integrating IoT will surely change over the next decade, so having a flexible setup will be key. Enterprise infrastructure must be adaptable to new applications and technologies that have yet to be invented in order to truly succeed in a world driven by analytical insights. Don't leave the future of your company to chance; contact an ANATAS representative today to find out how to improve your organisation's IoT data streaming.