Smart Data is Key for New Revenue Opportunities

smart data iot
Martin Klapdor

As Internet of Things (IoT) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) growth heats up, telecommunication service providers have an opportunity to move beyond simply being a supplier of connectivity to grabbing a share of this burgeoning market. A recent market research report predicts global IIoT will reach approximately $232 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of around 8.06 percent between 2018 and 2023.

With the widespread adoption of 5G, connected devices, sensors and machines will soon be producing massive amounts of data, which in turn presents both a challenge and an opportunity for service providers. The data produced by IIoT and IoT will require providers to develop new business models that will rely on greater network capacity to fully exploit this mountain of data.

The key to leveraging new revenue opportunities - made possible by IoT transactions - is to tap into smart data. This is the meta-data generated by network traffic in real time, and includes critical insights into the user experience. Service level agreements offer providers a new source of revenue.

Because IIoT and IoT devices and services have different bandwidth and availability requirements, any failures and disruptions to the networks they are dependent on can be extremely costly. While the latency needs of services such as telemedicine, networked autonomous cars, robotics, power plant sensors, smart meters, etc. may vary, there will always be a premium placed on reliability. As applications and subsystems become more interdependent, assuring performance becomes more challenging. This challenge is compounded by the fact that manufacturers need to bring IoT devices to market quickly and cost-effectively, while still ensuring the security of services.

This is where a smart data approach can be a game-changer. Proactive network traffic monitoring can help identify obvious traffic patterns and potential security threats and attacks. With an ever increasing amount of data being captured, growing network complexity, and rising security risks, providers are ideally positioned to monitor network traffic for anomalies and risks, and thereby offer this as a service to companies.

Using service level agreement models, service providers can position themselves to support the service and security assurance of mission-critical IoT applications, thus allowing them to tap into new revenue opportunities.


This blog is based on the article, Telecommunication service providers have to secure a share in the digital market written by Dr. Martin Klapdor, Senior Solutions Architect for NETSCOUT, which was published at ComputerWoche.