K
Kathleen Martin
Guest
For a while now, the IoT category has been touted as a potentially lucrative business area for IT service providers.
Indeed, partners can engage in IoT opportunities in a few ways, one of which is monitoring and managing IoT devices, a task that includes providing updates and security. MSPs, however, may need to invest in a broader set of services to provide such an offering. They should also prepare themselves to deal with a dramatically expanded device population.
IoT opportunities for partners
MSPs already manage and monitor other devices for clients and IoT sensors are just another endpoint, said Carolyn April, senior director of industry analysis at CompTIA. More than half of MSPs currently see significant revenue opportunities in managed IoT, according to CompTIA.
"What's a little different about IoT is it's collecting quite a bit of data from those sensors and that's where the real lucrative opportunity lies -- in what do to with data that's collected and applying some analytics to it," April said. That gives MSPs more of a consultative role by helping customers determine how to use the findings to improve their business or achieve some goal they've outlined, she said.
However, that requires having more people with analytics skills. "So that will require some investment and frankly, most rank-and-file MSPs don't have that skill set today," April said.
CompTIA job reports have shown there is a lot of need among companies to find people with analytics skills who can apply them to the reams of data IoT devices collect. "There's an overwhelming amount of stuff and if you don't do something with it, that's all it is, April said. "But if you can turn it into something actionable that's gold, and you will be paid a lot more for that."
The pandemic accelerated the need to manage and monitor IoT devices during the swift move to remote work.
"With that work-from-home transition came threats of ... unmanaged internet of things devices that permeate our homes on routers, modems [and] personal devices," as well as every imaginable home appliance, said Charles Weaver, CEO of the MSPAlliance. "Until last year, corporate IT didn't factor in home threats from appliances with internet connections," because it wasn't something major organizations considered a potential threat, he said.
Continue reading: https://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/IoT-opportunities-for-MSPs-in-monitoring-management
Indeed, partners can engage in IoT opportunities in a few ways, one of which is monitoring and managing IoT devices, a task that includes providing updates and security. MSPs, however, may need to invest in a broader set of services to provide such an offering. They should also prepare themselves to deal with a dramatically expanded device population.
IoT opportunities for partners
MSPs already manage and monitor other devices for clients and IoT sensors are just another endpoint, said Carolyn April, senior director of industry analysis at CompTIA. More than half of MSPs currently see significant revenue opportunities in managed IoT, according to CompTIA.
"What's a little different about IoT is it's collecting quite a bit of data from those sensors and that's where the real lucrative opportunity lies -- in what do to with data that's collected and applying some analytics to it," April said. That gives MSPs more of a consultative role by helping customers determine how to use the findings to improve their business or achieve some goal they've outlined, she said.
However, that requires having more people with analytics skills. "So that will require some investment and frankly, most rank-and-file MSPs don't have that skill set today," April said.
CompTIA job reports have shown there is a lot of need among companies to find people with analytics skills who can apply them to the reams of data IoT devices collect. "There's an overwhelming amount of stuff and if you don't do something with it, that's all it is, April said. "But if you can turn it into something actionable that's gold, and you will be paid a lot more for that."
The pandemic accelerated the need to manage and monitor IoT devices during the swift move to remote work.
"With that work-from-home transition came threats of ... unmanaged internet of things devices that permeate our homes on routers, modems [and] personal devices," as well as every imaginable home appliance, said Charles Weaver, CEO of the MSPAlliance. "Until last year, corporate IT didn't factor in home threats from appliances with internet connections," because it wasn't something major organizations considered a potential threat, he said.
Continue reading: https://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/IoT-opportunities-for-MSPs-in-monitoring-management
