What Developers Think About IoT

So much has been said, written and blogged about the Internet of Things (IoT), yet the voice of the developer is often overlooked. Until now. Our recent study called, “State of IoT: 2015 Global Developer Study” finally took a moment to gather the thoughts of 675 developers on IoT.

State of IoT Now

While the IoT potential is endless—and many benefits do seem to be firmly entrenched in the future—it was refreshing to learn that many developers are deploying what they consider to be IoT applications right now. A blog by Jen Looper, Developer Advocate, Telerik, a Progress company, does a great job of summarizing 8 Key Findings About IoT Development as found in the study. Definitely worth a look.

Successfully Harnessing IoT

From my observations of the IoT landscape, I believe developers need several things to harness the revenue potential of IoT:

• Clear and well-defined business use-cases
• Productive tools to simplify the development processes
• Opportunities to automate decision processes
• Agile data management and strong security to keep it all safe
• Upgraded developer skills

While this list is relatively short, the implications are far from it. Hence all the IoT confusion.

Beyond these broader needs, there seems to be some natural alignment developing between IoT applications and specific industry verticals. Healthcare is a natural fit, as is automotive, consumer products and all manner of electronics. Whatever the application, the future of IoT largely falls in the increasingly capable hands of crafty developers. Here’s hoping they have all they need to be successful.