3 Ways to Maximize Your ROI on Internet of Things

Davis Johnson is vice president of public sector at Riverbed Technology

For consumers, the Internet of Things is arguably the hottest trend in technology right now. For federal agencies, it soon will be.

A recent report by the McKinsey Global Institute predicted the total economic impact of IoT to reach $11 trillion by 2025, with the public sector’s IoT value estimated to reach $4.6 trillion. That staggering number will be caused by a complete transformation across the federal government, as we enter the “everything is a sensor” era.

But as exciting and valuable as these new information sources are, the sheer volume of IoT data will place incredible pressure on agency IT infrastructures.

Take the example of your FitBit, which resides on your wrist and gathers small amounts of personal health information. Now, imagine thousands of more powerful and complex FitBits, attached to an aircraft that sends terabytes of telemetry data back to a DOD base for analysis.

Or consider the U.S. Postal Service’s plans to implement sensor-equipped mailboxes and mailboxes that adjust temperature to keep food and medicine deliveries fresh -- for every U.S. citizen. That’s a lot of data.

The challenge for federal IoT is less about the devices themselves, and more about the IT resources needed to manage, share, analyze and ultimately derive real mission value from the IoT data explosion.

1. Map Your IoT Environment

The first step to maximizing IoT investment is simple: know what you have.

This may sound basic, but many IoT initiatives begin as small pilot programs in siloed pockets of federal organizations. Some of these purchasing decisions are even made outside of the purview of IT staff, who are surprised when new devices suddenly pop up and begin eating up agency IT resources.

The McKinsey Global Institute report found that interoperability is required for 40 percent of IoT devices. If you have two IoT devices that must work together but cannot because of network issues, your ROI immediately reduces to zero.

If it seems like everything is connected to a network, that’s because it’s increasingly true. It is now imperative agency leaders have full visibility into networks to know where every IoT device is located, how much data it’s producing, and the strain it’s putting on networks. Without this foundation of IoT intelligence, it’s impossible to measure performance, effectiveness, and ultimately ROI.

2. Get Your Network up to Speed

Once you quantify the additional pressure IoT is placing on network resources, the next step is to optimize. Federal networks are stretched by increased data, traffic and the distances they have to travel – and IoT delivers this trifecta on steroids.

In fact, a Riverbed survey this year revealed nearly half – 45 percent – of federal IT decision makers cited increasing network complexity as their greatest IT challenge.

To make sure IoT data is reaching its destination in time to make an impact, the answer isn’t simply buying more bandwidth. Often the best, and most cost-effective, option is optimizing applications and protocols to mitigate the effects of congestion, latency and loss.

Optimized networks can delivery IoT data up to 20 times faster than nonoptimized networks – which is essentially the difference between flying from New York to Los Angeles instead of driving. Which begs the question, if infrastructures aren’t equipped to efficiently collect, share and analyze IoT data to inform decision-making, what’s the point of even having them?

3. Maximize Visibility for Security and Performance  

Back in April, a hacker breached the entertainment box underneath the seats on commercial flights and tinkered with flight settings. According to the FBI, the hacker was able to cause one of the plane’s engines to climb, resulting in a lateral movement of the plane, in addition to monitoring cockpit system traffic.

Imagine if the controls of an F-38 were taken over by a hacker – it is a frightening and sobering reminder about how IoT security breaches can lead to consequences that threaten national security and our nation’s critical infrastructure. Network visibility is critical to security because you can’t stop what you can’t see.

Like any IT security challenge, IoT protection starts with knowing what’s normal. Network visibility provides an essential foundation for understanding how IoT devices typically behave across your agency infrastructure, and also when something doesn’t look quite right. This ability to quickly spot network anomalies can be the difference between a security threat, and a security attack.

(Image via Bakhtiar Zein/Shutterstock.com)