The IoT will require a new architectural approach, Gartner claims
Enterprise IT professionals and architects will need to develop new architectures in order to help mitigate the technological, legal and reputational risks associated with delivering Internet of Things services, Gartner claims.
It has been suggested by some industry specialists that the Internet of Things has the potential to cripple existing datacentre infrastructure from a technical perspective, and could also create new or heightened risks around data security and regulatory compliance.
That said, Gartner believes developing the right architecture to handle the wealth of data generated by IoT sensors will be key to ensuring infrastructure can keep pace with new services being rolled out, and help deal mitigate other non-technical risks.
Mike Walker, research director at Gartner said enterprises need to understand not just the opportunities this wealth of information can generate but the risks as well. He said the anticipated data growth may require organisations to develop new competencies around regulatory compliance, and reassess the impact of security breaches on corporate reputation.
“Enterprise architects need to determine the potential impact, both positive and negative, of IoT technologies and then create actionable deliverables that can define which business opportunities should be pursued as result,” Walker said.
“The first step is bringing together various business unit and IT leaders to explore how the IoT can impact their respective business domains, and agree on actionable business scenarios that will require deep collaboration between them.”
Walker suggested that organisations create internal competency centres to help coordinate activities across internal stakeholders.
“Organisations must understand the profound impact new sources of information will have. Enterprise architects are best positioned to discuss and enable the most lucrative opportunities in partnership with business unit and IT leaders. At the same time, they must work with chief data officers and security officers to structure this data in a way that mitigates the worst risks of pursuing these opportunities,” Walker added.