Preparing your business for the Enterprise of Things (EoT) era

The Internet of Things (IoT) gives enterprises new opportunities to improve operational efficiency. By bringing sensor-based digital assets into the workplace, organizations can move toward the Enterprise of Things (EoT).

EoT uses technologies such as:

• Wireless communication
• Embedded systems
• Smart sensors
• Connected physical devices

These technologies support business activities such as data acquisition and decision-making. They can also enable new operating models and revenue streams.

Connecting traditional IT infrastructure with physical endpoints can improve the scalability and efficiency of business operations. EoT bridges the gap between physical assets and IT systems while supporting more customer-centric operations and stronger employee and customer engagement.

However, enterprise IoT adoption also introduces management challenges. Organizations may need to extend their existing architecture, address cybersecurity and asset-management risks, and redefine enterprise policies.

This guide explores:

• The EoT capabilities that can support digital transformation
• The strategic changes EoT introduces in the workplace
• The management measures UEM solutions can provide across the enterprise

What is Enterprise of Things (EoT)?

Enterprise of Things (EoT) is the enterprise adoption of the Internet of Things (IoT) and so before coming to EoT, let me brief what IoT is.

Internet of Things or IoT is one of the most-hyped technological initiatives enabled by the enhancements in embedded systems, communication technologies, smart sensors, actuators, and internet protocols.

It constitutes a set of uniquely addressed, identified, and connected physical and digital components that can gather, integrate, analyze, and exchange data using inter-operable information and communication technologies without the involvement of humans.

IoT is a broad term that covers technologies related to:

• Connectivity
• Virtual and augmented reality
• Cloud computing
• Artificial intelligence
• 5G
• Machine-learning analytics
• Process automation
• Big data

Common categories include consumer, commercial, industrial, and infrastructure IoT.

These technologies support sectors such as education, healthcare, transportation, government, retail, hospitality, and business.

Although IoT first gained broad attention through consumer applications, it has increasingly become part of enterprise digitalization initiatives.

The Enterprise of Things: Harnessing the power of IoT in the enterprise

Enterprise adoption of IoT allows organizations to integrate physical objects and embedded systems into business environments.

These connected technologies can help reduce manual work, lower costs, and improve visibility into business operations.

EoT can also support the monitoring and automation of routine tasks, improving overall operational efficiency.

Its role may extend beyond supporting existing processes. In some environments, EoT can replace legacy workflows and change how employees carry out their work.

Although broad EoT adoption is still developing, some organizations already use it as an important part of their operations.

EoT can affect areas such as:

• Data storage
• Management functions
• Accessibility
• Network connectivity
• Enterprise Resource Planning
• Security infrastructure
• Customer Relationship Management

Benefits of EoT:

EoT has an array of benefits for businesses though the struggle to integrate it into your system may not always go smoothly. Here we will decipher the actual benefits of EoT, which proves that EoT, along with intelligence distribution and data gathering, is not a wastage of time.

• EoT connects people at work and on the move to ensure higher service quality and safety.
• Enterprises will get a greater ability to change work processes as they have more insights into the business operations, product, and internal systems.
• Optimized asset utilization, reduced human intervention, and reduced overhead costs.
• An improved decision making capability.
• Enables new business models and collaboration methods.
• EoT is at the core of forces enhancing customer experience. EoT adoption is one of the promising factors that differentiate a data-driven business from its competitors by making it more profitable and smarter.
• EoT helps smoothen the process of connecting devices at remote locations taking communication to the next level. Cloud-based EoT systems, along with machine-to-machine communication, connects devices at different units to streamline operations.
• Continuously monitor the state of devices.
• Improves the implementation of big data solutions to ensure real-time availability of data.
• Revolutionize many essential business functions, including process automation, analytics, and quality analysis.
• Detects the pain points in the business process to pinpoint efficiency.
• Make businesses socially and environmentally responsible in tackling global challenges by reducing energy consumption and wastage powering an intelligent work procedure.

Some common EoT use cases

IoT can have different use cases when it comes to its enterprise usage. Devices with real-time location provisions, smart metering, energy management systems, smart warehousing, and intelligent devices particular to the business niche are examples of IoT gadgets used by businesses.

Here is a list of some common use cases of EoT:

• Remote sensing of hazardous locations – IoT equipped drones can be used to analyze and evaluate hazardous environments before sending field workers to those places.
• Device condition monitoring – The working condition of different devices can be monitored with the help of embedded IoT sensors, and the analytic data can be transmitted to other devices. This helps in determining which all devices need maintenance services. This also helps in prolonging the device’s life span. Asset optimization is another critical aspect. Real-time data and analytics from key assets like frontline worker devices help in using these assets to their maximum potential.
• Detect environmental changes – Change in operational conditions like temperature, humidity, and vibration ranges can be detected using specific sensors and RFID technologies. Work processes can be altered automatically according to the changes in the external factors.
• Collision avoidance systems– Construction companies can launch collision avoidance services with IoT devices to reduce the risk of accidents.
• Smart parking at office premises – Real-time parking space availability checking equipment and parking sensors are some of the recent parking trends enabled by IoT technology.
• Remote work – The corporate ecosystem of connected physical equipment enables employees to work from any location with seamless collaboration.
• Workspace distribution – Sensors can help in identifying vacant rooms and distribute convenient workspaces to the employees. They can also help in predicting the availability of conference rooms for scheduled meetings.
• Product quality assurance – IoT scanners can check the product quality and initiate changes in the production line if there is no satisfactory result. These systems can work efficiently than human supervisors.
• Video surveillance – This is an important security feature that helps in reducing human errors while monitoring video feeds. Intelligent image detection algorithms and smart sensors help in identifying unauthorized employee presence in forbidden areas.
• Self-optimizing production – EoT helps optimize the production process by making automated adjustments to improve quality and prevent failures.
• Fleet management – EoT helps in managing the vehicles of the workers in real time. With greater insights on the fleet location, condition, and usage, companies can reduce repair and maintenance costs.

EoT: Challenges and Considerations

Companies considering EoT face several significant challenges. Rapid adoption of IoT devices across the enterprise can introduce inherent flaws that put corporate data at risk. Whether organizations are just beginning their EoT journey or expanding an existing deployment, they encounter similar challenges when deploying, managing, monitoring, and maintaining IoT devices.

Some of the top enterprise concerns associated with EoT include:

Security Is the Prime Concern

EoT can increase the enterprise attack surface. Discussions around EoT often focus on security because vulnerabilities in enterprise IoT deployments can have a significant impact on business outcomes, depending on the criticality of the affected systems. Many IoT devices are designed primarily for functionality rather than security. In most EoT use cases, these devices collect highly sensitive data, further increasing security concerns.

The negative impact on enterprise IT infrastructure and data capabilities can be substantial.

The risk of IoT devices being compromised is greater than that of many previous technology assets due to several factors:

• Too many IoT devices in the workplace give little thought to security basics like encryption and password protection.
• Poorly structured EoT can quickly introduce organizations to security vulnerabilities or simply leak data.
• There can be vulnerabilities in the device itself. Threat actors exploit known vulnerabilities to compromise the device.
• Not much known patching software.
• Degradation of software security over time.
• Not investing in security control due to too much focus on profit.
• Lack of standardization of data communication protocols.
• Usage of old devices. Devices that have passed their end-of-life period can have unfixable vulnerabilities.
• Lack of awareness due to the relatively new nature of the technology.
• More sophisticated threats.
• Lack of integration with legacy technologies.
• Sudden changes to the business ecosystem.
• Large number of devices to monitor and lack of proper management technologies.
• Open ports can expose network services.
• Flaws in software.
• Device connectivity and potential communication can possess an issue. Devices that reside on the same network can be reached by threat actors even if they haven’t communicated in the past.

EoT also introduces cybersecurity risks because attackers actively target IoT devices such as routers and webcams, making them susceptible to IoT botnets, even within enterprise environments. Identity theft is another major concern, as it can be relatively easy to obtain a person’s information from just a few sensor readings.

Management Difficulties

Compared to laptops, tablets, smartphones, and other traditional endpoints, IoT devices are significantly more complex to manage, particularly when organizations must monitor large deployments. The growing diversity and number of connected devices introduce management challenges of varying severity.

Managing the enormous volume of data flowing to and from connected devices is equally important for maintaining operational efficiency.

Privacy Concerns

Connected devices have introduced an unprecedented level of privacy risk in the workplace. Employees are naturally concerned about how their personal information is collected and used. With sensors continuously gathering data about workplace activities, EoT can create significant privacy challenges.

Questions surrounding what data is collected and how it is used continue to grow in importance. Organizations must address these concerns while managing data privacy and compliance risks alongside broader security challenges. They also need to comply with local, national, and global regulations.

Flexibility

Businesses should be prepared to adapt quickly as connected technologies evolve. Enterprise infrastructure must remain flexible enough to accommodate new connected products and changing business requirements.

Latency

Making IoT data actionable remains a significant challenge. As IoT deployments grow, it becomes physically impractical to transmit terabytes of collected data to a centralized location for processing.

An actionable management plan to win EoT

A strong starting point is to adopt an end-to-end EoT security approach that enables business growth without overwhelming enterprise IT. An effective EoT management plan should address security and privacy trade-offs while helping organizations maintain operational control.

The following best practices can help organizations build a secure foundation for long-term EoT adoption.

Planning and Asset Discovery

Adopt EoT technologies that are practical and affordable for your business niche. Select technologies that your organization can build upon while ensuring interoperability between connected devices.

• Gain complete visibility into your existing assets and identify additional IoT devices that need to be managed and protected.
• Understand your EoT landscape and identify critical IoT assets. Analyze where devices become vulnerable, monitor new devices entering the corporate network, and inspect them before they connect.
• Meet with employees and develop an EoT roadmap that aligns with business objectives.
• Anticipate future requirements, adopt proactive protection measures, and monitor emerging threats.

Security Ownership and Employee Awareness

• Appoint a team responsible for EoT security. This team should monitor compliance with corporate policies, identify security gaps, conduct regular audits, and ensure software patches remain up to date.
• Educate employees on IoT security best practices. Establish a common security vocabulary and train users to identify potential risks.
• Define employee roles and ensure only authorized personnel can access appropriate IoT assets.
• Consider joining an Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC) to exchange threat intelligence with other organizations.

Device, Network, and Data Protection

• Maintain reliable data backups to support business continuity in the event of a security incident.
• Keep software and firmware up to date.
• Establish complete control over IoT assets by defining organizational scope and enforcing effective security policies.
• Centralize asset logs so IT teams can identify threats before they result in a breach.
• Adopt a multilayered security strategy by enforcing multi-factor authentication and strong password policies.
• Separate IoT devices from the primary enterprise network by using an independent network, such as a virtual LAN (VLAN).
• Require VPN usage and data encryption.
• Deploy IoT technologies and networks that are designed with security as a core principle.

Governance, Compliance, and Centralized Management

• Understand how sensor data is used and ensure only data that supports defined business objectives is collected.
• Enforce compliance and be sure to meet all the compliance regulations like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy regulation to strengthen data protection.
• Consider UEM to manage all the things in your workplace. To realize the full potential of EoT, you’ll need the right solution. Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) is one such tool that reduces data breach risks with EoT and increases the overall resilience of networks across the enterprise.

Your entire enterprise assets, not just EoT need a centralized and holistic management approach that aligns different business processes concerning traditional work devices and IoT smart devices. Enterprises should leverage UEM solutions to have a centralized approach to EoT management and new technology integration to existing systems ensuring all elements work well together.

Mastering Mobility Management: MDM vs EMM vs UEM

The evolution from MDM to EMM and then UEM reflects the need to manage a broader range of workplace devices.

UEM extends management beyond mobile devices to include:

• Desktops
• Laptops
• Rugged devices
• Smartwatches
• Augmented-reality glasses
• Other connected endpoints

Dedicated IoT management platforms may still be necessary for specialized deployments, and UEM cannot always replace them.

However, organizations already managing conventional endpoints can use UEM as a centralized and potentially cost-effective way to manage a broader workplace device environment.

Hexnode UEM for EoT Management

The following are some EoT management features that Hexnode UEM offers:

• • Support for smart TVs like Apple TV, Android-powered displays, barcode scanners, RFID readers. We are looking to add support for wearables, printers, and other smart devices in the near future.
  • Seamless endpoint manageability with a see-through view of the entire process through a single pane of glass for every network connected devices, along with remote management features like remote monitoring and control and real-time compliance and risk reporting. Helps in detecting new or suspicious devices connected to the system.
  • Automated enforcement of policy-based control with countermeasures to mitigate threats, data loss and compliance gaps.
  • Zero-touch and bulk provisioning methods for scaled and high-volume endpoint deployment can meet the onboarding needs of even the largest and most demanding businesses.
  • Identity and access management features help manage who has privileges to access a device and data contained in it.
  • Security management features help in addressing most of the EoT security concerns. Vulnerability and patch management, encryption and password enforcement, data loss prevention, and mandatory VPN connections to keep EoT devices isolated from other endpoints.
  • Application adaption with an enterprise application store experience.
  • Over-the-air software updates.
  • Remote troubleshooting and life cycle management of devices.
  • Expense management features to cut down data usage and other potential costs.
  • Helps in maintaining GDPR compliance.

Companies currently have a timely opportunity to lay down the building blocks for the new era of a one-of-a-kind business line. With the range of future-proof EoT management solutions offered by UEMs, businesses can attain traction in the EoT space and position themselves to stake a claim in one of the biggest market opportunities of this generation.