APAC governments ramping up IoT investments

Asia-Pacific governments are investing more in IoT technologies. A poll conducted by IDC indicates that 40% of government organizations in the region will be implementing IoT solutions in the next 12 months. Another 50% will be rolling out solutions in the next 12-24 months.

“Improving productivity, improving time to market for products/services and improving energy efficiency reducing costs are the top benefits of an IoT solution,” said Shreyashi Pal, Market Analyst, IDC Asia-Pacific Government and Education Insights.

“IoT enables access to new and granular data sources, empowered by swift connectivity and quick data gathering capability giving access to a wider range of information that enhances the quality of government services at a scale, which previously has been thought to be unattainable.”

IDC’s 2016 Global IoT Decision Maker Survey, which was conducted in July and August 2016 and includes over 4,500 respondents from more than 25 countries, also reveals that Asia is expected to have 21 out of 37 safe megacities of the world. As a result 50% of government organizations plan to deploy security systems in the region while 48% plan to deploy people tracking devices.

About 62% of the APAC companies are also considering IoT to create a strategic impact to their organizations while 25% considers IoT to create a transformational impact in their organizations. About 28% of the organizations consider security concern as the major hindrance to deploying IoT solution.

Gerald Wang, Head, IDC Asia-Pacific Government and Education Insights, said that 2016 has seen a significant change in terms of vendors leading the IoT market.

“The prominent IT vendors prevalent in hardware, software and network solutions equipped with an integrated cloud and analytics solution are most likely to lead the Internet of Things market. IT hardware vendors as the top players,” he said.

“We also note that for many enterprises in the region, networking equipment vendors and systems integrators feature prominently as potential leaders while traditional IT hardware vendors are becoming the leading network equipment vendors in the IoT market.”