The Internet of Things may still be on the launchpad at many organizations, but that isn’t stopping them from preparing for blastoff.

New data from 451 Research LLC reveals that 71 percent of nearly 1,000 enterprises surveyed are gathering data for IoT initiatives today. That’s up 3 percent from the previous quarter.

The dollars are flowing as well. Enterprise IT respondents that have IoT initiatives underway expect their mean IoT-related spending to grow by 33 percent over the next 12 months. IoT deployments are particularly strong for data- and transaction-intensive workloads such as data analytics and security. Specific projects include things like data collection and analysis of financial, healthcare and industrial information, along with server and application monitoring. Healthcare is a particularly robust vertical market. Data analytics is a major factor, with 69 percent of respondents saying they use data from IoT endpoints to reduce risk.

Security is the biggest choke point, with half of respondents citing it as the top impediment to IoT deployment. This was followed closely by the 41 percent who said return on investment is unclear.

In some cases the transition is not driven by strategy so much as the fact that intelligent sensors and predictive analytics capabilities are becoming embedded in IT equipment, such as cameras, servers, smart phones, switches and routers. Organizations are learning how to take advantage of this windfall to apply these data streams in new ways.

Other highlights of the survey:

• 90 percent of enterprises will increase IoT spending over the next 12 months and 40 percent of respondents will raise IoT-related investment by 25 percent to 50 percent compared to 2016.
• More than two-thirds of corporations use IoT data to optimize operations, such as performing preventative maintenance, reducing downtime in factory equipment and managing fleets more efficiently.
• Forty-two percent of enterprises use IoT data to develop new products or enhance existing products and services.

Photo by Steve Jurvetson via Flickr CC