IoT workloads will increase by nearly 750% by 2019
Businesses must invest in datacentre infrastructure to help support new devices, IDC warns


Data volumes created by the Internet of Things (IoT) means businesses must invest in datacentres as a priority, analyst firm IDC has warned.
The research firm thinks workloads will increase by 750 per cent in the next four years and this will put immense strain on existing infrastructure.
Rick Villars, vice president, datacentre and cloud at IDC, said: "Equal, or even greater, investments in the IoT platform services residing in the datacenter will be instrumental in delivering the IoT promise of anytime, anywhere, anyhow connectivity and context.
"Given the number of devices connected and the amount of data generated, businesses must focus on their IoT service platform requirements at the level of the datacenter itself, not just the individual servers or storage devices."
Additionally, IDC said in its Impact of Internet of Things on Datacentre Demand and Operations study that all this extra data will need to be analysed, placing analytics at the heart of hyperscale datacentres.
As the IoT emerges as the leading driver of new compute/storage deployments, enterprises and service providers are most are likely to feel the burden of establishing new ways of managing devices and the data the IoT will generate.
However, IDC thinks service providers will adopt IoT technologies and services to better monitor and manage their own datacentre assets, providing a great opportunity for the sector.
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In January, Ofcom and the government announced they would develop guidelines to regulate the IoT. The two think the number of devices classed as IoT will carry out more than a billion transactions every day by 2022.
Working together, they are attempting to address other concerns caused by this influx of new devices, including freeing up spectrum on which they can operate.

Clare is the founder of Blue Cactus Digital, a digital marketing company that helps ethical and sustainability-focused businesses grow their customer base.
Prior to becoming a marketer, Clare was a journalist, working at a range of mobile device-focused outlets including Know Your Mobile before moving into freelance life.
As a freelance writer, she drew on her expertise in mobility to write features and guides for ITPro, as well as regularly writing news stories on a wide range of topics.
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