4 New Roles That I&O Plays in IoT

Sanjit Ganguli, research vice president at Gartner
Sanjit Ganguli, research vice president at Gartner

Organizations are rapidly increasing the number of their Internet of Things (IoT) initiatives, yet many infrastructure and operations (I&O) teams have little to no knowledge of or involvement with them.

Our research shows that 59% of IoT initiatives are being planned without IT’s direct involvement, or that IT is only involved after crucial I&O decisions have already been made .

The most successful IoT projects require a holistic organizational approach from three distinctive groups:

  • I&O — Provides integration, communications, analytics and the underlying infrastructure
  • Lines of business (LOBs) — Focus on goal setting and resource allocation
  • Operations teams — Focus on product design and functionality

Tasks such as project management and security often fall within all three groups.

Many IoT initiatives will require I&O involvement at some level. The first steps for I&O are to identify and track all IoT initiatives by surveying business/leadership, cataloging current and planned IoT activities, and creating processes.

I&O leaders must take a more active leadership role

Each IoT initiative represents a different potential role for I&O. Each one also has a different level of influence, responsibility and ownership. Once current or planned IoT initiatives are discovered, or are found to be lacking and I&O support requirements determined, I&O leaders must identify opportunities to take a more active role. Their goal should be to: (1) assess what programs and initiatives exist and what their role is; (2) identify areas where they can assert increased strategic ownership.

Gartner estimates that by 2020, 40% of I&O teams will have driver, implementer or operator responsibility over their organizations’ IoT initiatives, up from 5% in 2018. I&O leaders should take heed and move from a bystander role, wherever practicable, to a more driver-oriented role.

Nearly 60% of IoT projects may never involve I&O, nor should they. However, I&O must be aware of such activities because, in the future, it may be asked to play a nonbystander role.

Here are four roles I&O leaders may find themselves in.

Gartner clients can also read more about the role of I&O leaders in IoT projects in the report “I&O Leaders Must Get Involved With Current or Planned IoT Initiatives,” by Sanjit Ganguli et al.