NEWSBYTE Device management services for the Internet of Things (IoT) will generate revenues of $20.5 billion by 2023, according to new research by analyst firm, ABI Research.
Its latest report, Device Management Services for the Edge-Centric IoT, says that device management (DM) – which includes provisioning, software/firmware updates, and monitoring – will be a core component of any significant IoT solution moving forward, with 70 percent of revenues generated within the industrial, automotive, and telematics sectors.
As a percentage of overall device and application platform revenues, device management will largely remain constant throughout the forecast period. However, there will be increased commoditisation of DM services, driven by competition among existing service providers, the growth of standards in the market, and new device management solutions from major cloud providers, such as Google, AWS, and Microsoft.
“As IoT solutions continue to shift toward performing more processing and computing at the edge, devices need to be constantly updated to maintain solution security and improve overall analytics solution value,” said Ryan Harbison, analyst at ABI Research.
“If a device is not able to be updated, its long-term value ceases. As a result, operations teams need central tools, such as device management solutions, to enable efficient remote maintenance. With potentially hundreds or thousands of devices in a solution, it is simply not feasible to fix and update devices after they are deployed.”
Device management commoditisation
Harbison said that while this commoditisation is already happening to some extent, value can still be extracted by vendors who integrate DM solutions with other components of the IoT to create differentiated offerings that add value for both end-users and providers.
“The real value in device management solutions is when they are used to enhance performance in some other area of the IoT, such as on the device – for example, Telit, Sierra Wireless, Cradlepoint, or Eurotech – or as part of a larger platform offering, such as Bosch, Mentor Graphic, or Wind River,” he said.
“The companies that are succeeding in this space are not pure-play device management providers, but are rather those that integrate their DM offerings with other IoT solution components to drive differentiated value for the IoT market as a whole.”
Internet of Business says
As the IoT spreads, it stands to reason that management systems will be critical to help organisations look after, update, and maintain their growing networks from a central point. In this sense, DM’s forecast success in dollar terms is indicative of the IoT’s growth over the next five years.