From Limitations to Innovation: 4 IoT Integration Challenges

We have seen a huge global surge in IoT products in recent years. IoT features a lot of interconnected devices that are used for various tasks and services to improve people's lives. 

Of course, this can only happen when you integrate different components such as sensors, frameworks, security protocols, and even legacy systems. But, this process usually comes with certain IoT integration challenges. 

You need to know what they are and how to overcome them.

IoT Device Integration: Why We Need it

The idea behind the Internet of Things is that ordinary devices like fridges, vehicles, and even lamps may connect to the Internet and interact with us and one another. IoT allows devices like a fridge to alert you when you run out of milk or the lights to switch off automatically when you leave your house.

IoT integration is the process of getting all these various gadgets to cooperate in an organized way, much like a team in a match. Each player (or, in this scenario, the gadget) shines at a certain skill, but they must cooperate to complete a task on an IoT integration platform. 

When done right, IoT device integration can bear fruit in several ways:

Automation

IoT integration makes it possible for numerous devices to interact and automate processes, increasing efficiency. For instance, a smart thermostat can drop your energy bill by adjusting the temperature based on the number of people or the activity inside the room.

Comfort

With IoT integration, it's not difficult to control several devices from one control center, which usually appears on your mobile device. This is great since you can oversee any of your devices from one location rather than having to handle them separately.

Security

Integrating IoT devices can improve privacy and security. For example, smart alarm systems may feature surveillance cameras, wireless locks, and gate sensors that interact with one another to offer a complete security solution.

You can even take this to another level with IoT and blockchain integration. Blockchain's ability to address security concerns and eliminate centralized systems elevates the idea of a smart home to new levels. For example, you can include security measures like fingerprints and facial/voice recognition to prevent the misuse of data collected by smart devices.

Sustainability

IoT has a big potential to contribute to ecosystem preservation. Smart farming can optimize resource utilization, and smart houses and buildings may cut energy use. With a collection of cutting-edge sensors, a smart IoT waste management system can give you real-time information regarding trash cans to prevent garbage management issues. You'll know how full each can is and which one you need to empty first.

IoT Integration Challenges Along the Way

Creating a reliable IoT integration platform can be fantastic on a domestic and commercial level. But, that can only happen if you understand the common IoT integration challenges and know your way around them. Here are four big ones with their solutions:

#1 Challenge: Security

Security is the number one IoT integration challenge as 90% of professionals in this field claim that suspicious IoT platforms can lead to significant breaches in a company.

These breaches can deal a great blow to the bottom line, particularly for smaller businesses. Network security, privacy, and app security are the three biggest problems that businesses confront when planning for IoT device integration.

Because the IoT integration platform involves a wide range of devices, applications, and sensors, it leaves the whole network open to attacks. As a result, there is a strong possibility that malware and brute force hits can access substantial volumes of data. Also, IoT systems sometimes lack routine security upgrades, leaving them open to assaults from spyware and hackers.

What’s the Solution?

You can fortify your business's shields by implementing security analytics for IoT systems, creating multi-layer protection, planning for worst-case scenarios, and regularly tracking the health of devices and sensors. These steps can help to guarantee that network breaches are kept to a minimum.

You can protect data on IoT devices using an authentication procedure, limiting the use of IoT gateways to the right people, establishing an encryption mechanism based on the type of data in issue, and limiting data accessibility to safe channels.

IoT technology is used by banks to authenticate safe interbank transfers. Financial organizations may watch client activity to identify important marketing trends via IoT systems.

#2 Challenge: Compatibility

Big vendors like Amazon and Microsoft have rapidly grown in the IoT market in the last few years. Each of these platforms promotes its own IoT infrastructure, proprietary protocols, and interfaces, making it extremely difficult for these solutions to work together seamlessly. This is a major challenge as McKinsey’s analysis shows 60% of the value you get from IoT integration depends on compatibility.

Legacy platforms usually use special interfaces that are unsuitable to IoT standards. The compatibility gap must be closed in order to integrate such systems. To efficiently connect with IoT devices, older systems may require extra hardware or software elements. That inevitably can put a stop to your IoT integration efforts.

What’s the Solution?

Here are three compatibility rules to follow when attempting to integrate into an IoT environment.

1. To create a free standard and encourage global industry openness, the infrastructure should be developed within the framework that applies to all industries.
2. When IoT devices are designed using software-based technology rather than hardware tools, they operate significantly better together. This helps you implement changes for necessary improvements along the road.
3. When using various user apps, the devices must nonetheless keep an open-sourced communication protocol for efficient data movement.

#3 Challenge: Enormous Data Volume

One of the key IoT integration challenges is incorporating data from numerous sources. In fact, it’s predicted that IoT devices alone will generate 79 Zettabytes (ZB) of data by 2025. Every IoT system comes with countless sensors, which makes It crucial for key leaders to take advantage of them and improve performance, and plan long-term commercial ventures with such data. 

But, businesses are still struggling to deal with the enormous amounts of data coming in from various sensors and gadgets. It is difficult to simply remove useless or repetitious material from data sets, which is a basic need. Even more so than gathering and using this data for any useful purposes.

What’s the Solution?

You need to understand the scope of your IoT integration project and plan properly so you'll have the infrastructure, resources, and labor to handle such massive volumes of data. It is equally important to identify the channels of communication between the various IoT network segments. Smart devices will be able to connect with one another much more easily thanks to API-based IoT networks, which will minimize data differences.

For example, If you're implementing IoT solutions into an asset management platform with several distributed assets, you need to be configuring and delivering analytics across a variety of devices. With such a volume of data coming from sensors in real-time, the IoT system must be adaptable and durable enough to handle everyday challenges

#4 Challenge: Lack of Expertise

The demand for trained professionals is one of the most common and surprisingly overlooked IoT integration challenges. It doesn’t matter if it is a banking system, smart office protocol, or IoT and blockchain integration. It requires expertise in fields like software development, data analysis, and automation. Recent research by Beecham showed that about 40% of struggling IoT projects lacked the expertise to handle integration.

What’s the Solution?

An experienced team with expertise in IoT fundamentals is necessary for successful IoT integration. By cooperating with a reliable, established partner, you can get IoT development services and fully realize the potential of various technologies to obtain useful IoT insights, streamline processes, and spur creativity throughout the whole process.

This is much easier than hiring full-time experts because chances are that you’ll only need them for a temporary project. So? Why spend all that time and money on hiring and onboarding when you can directly work with a third-party partner?

Bottom Line

The biggest obstacles to IoT development and adoption are integration issues. To overcome these obstacles, you must pay attention to these pointers and more importantly, find a reliable team of experts who have gone down this road and can help you create the perfect IoT integration platform.

At Lanars, our IoT teams are exceptional at solving IoT integration challenges. We have been developing IoT software for a long time, which has given us extensive knowledge in linking various connected devices into one powerful unit. We can do that for you too. Just contact us.