Enterprises are willing to embrace the Internet of Things, but deployment is being held back by network capacity worries and security concerns, according to a new survey from Infoblox.

While most IT professionals believe there’s a potentially lucrative market in IoT, the big worry is that organizations lack the network capacity to deal with demand if, as expected, the number of connected devices in the workplace explodes.

Infoblox conducted its survey back in May, questioning more than 400 US and UK-based network managers and executives involved in enterprise IT. The vast majority of respondents – over 90 percent – said they weren’t planning to implement a solution to handle the increased demand on networks that IoT is expected to cause. What makes this even more curious is that most enterprises have the resources to do so. Almost 80 percent of respondents said their budget is large enough, while another 75 percent said they have sufficient staff numbers to prepare for the IoT. In addition, 89 percent said they believe they’ll get extra budget next year to cope with IoT demands.

And that demand is sure to come – at least if you believe Gartner, which says the number of IoT devices in the world (not counting PCs, smartphones and tablets) will rise to 26 billion units by 2020.

Networks neglected?

Despite having the budget and staff to take care of things, and 46 percent of IT pros believing IoT will become a big part of their organization’s networks, less than half of all enterprises say they’re ready. The survey found that 57 percent of enterprises report their networks are already at full capacity, and therefore unlikely to accommodate new IoT additions. Unless enterprises build out their networks, they could fail to see the full benefits IoT offers.

“Network automation will become crucial as IT departments confront this massive growth in network complexity,” said Cricket Liu, chief infrastructure officer at Infoblox.

The other main concern with IoT in the enterprise is network vulnerability. With so many objects and IP addresses set to be added to company networks, the security threat will increase exponentially, warns Infoblox.

“It’s important for network teams to keep track of what’s on their network at any given point, and also to bear in mind all these objects and IP addresses are potential weak links in an organization’s IT infrastructure,” said Liu.

Infoblox recommends that IT staff should be particularly involved in early IoT deployment planning if they’re to exploit its full potential. Moreover, there’s an urgent need for network access policies regarding “things” to be put in place, in order to prevent inefficient use of resources and safeguard security.

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