News Briefs: Microsoft has released a report called IoT Signals that takes a pulse of the global IoT landscape. The report indicates that IoT adoption is growing rapidly, and respondents believe 30% of their company’s revenue two years from now will be due to IoT. Yet, the industry faces a significant IoT skills gap, as well as complexity and security challenges that may compromise business benefits to IoT if not addressed.

“According to IDC’s Worldwide Global DataSphere IoT Devices and Data Forecast, IDC expects there to be 41.6 billion connected IoT devices by 2025 — growing at a rate of 8.9% over the forecast period,” said Carrie MacGillivray, group vice president, IoT, 5G and Mobility at IDC.

Key findings of the report include:

• 85% of respondents are in IoT adoption, and three-fourths of these have IoT projects in planning.
• Among IoT adopters, 88% believe IoT is critical to business success.
• IoT adopters believe they will see a 30% ROI, inclusive of cost savings and efficiencies, two years from now.
• Nearly all IoT adopters — 97% — have security concerns when implementing IoT, but this is not hindering adoption.
• 38% of IoT adopters cite complexity and technical challenges to using IoT as a barrier to furthering their IoT adoption.
• Lack of talent and training present challenges for half of IoT adopters, and 47% say there are not enough available skilled workers.
• Respondents believe critical technology drivers for IoT success in the next two years are AI, edge computing and 5G.
• Nearly one-third of projects (30%) fail in the proof-of-concept stage, often because implementation is expensive or bottom-line benefits are unclear.

Microsoft is investing $5 billion in IoT and intelligent edge technologies and ecosystem by 2022.