Summary:Few are disputing the growth of connected  devices of all kinds -- from office equipment to smartdust --  will be historic. But will it be critical to the survival and  growth of the enterprise?
    Are we to add the Internet of Things to the pantheon of        top strategic technology priorities for the decade? That's    the question increasingly in front of IT decision makers these    days as tech vendors add the buzzphrase to their marketing and    practitioners evaluate the rapidly growing array of related    tools and technologies.  
    That's not to say there's much doubt about the phenomenon    itself. There's essentially no question that the Internet of    Things (IoT) is fast becoming entrenched both in consumer and    enterprise IT. It already seems like just about other new    digital device that emerges these days comes with an app to    monitor or control it, remote home automation devices are    exploding, and everything electric and digital seems to be    heading for 24/7 connection to the Internet.  
    The     data is familiar to anyone tracking the story : By    2020, IoT will be a $8.9 trillion market in 2020, with over 212    billion connected things. To put that in perspective, that's    about half the size    of the entire U.S. economy, meaning that the connectedness    of everything will soon be one of the world's largest    industries, even though one might say it's nothing more than a    convergence of the top pre-existing trends of smart mobility,    cloud, and big data.  
    But the real question is if IoT is strategic to our    businesses? By this I mean whether or not playing early enough    and deeply enough in "IoT-ifying" the enterprise will result in    competitive ruin (or not.) Certainly some are rather skeptical    of the strategic nature of the trend. Just this week, The    Economist noted, in the     Internet of nothings:  
    By this argument there are really two Internets of    Things. One is the enterprise-grade version that has long been    in place and is already helping us run our companies. It is    largely realized wherever it is needed. The other IoT is the    emerging consumer-based cloud of connected products and    services which has only been happening in a significant way in    the last 2-3 years. The second IoT is more consumer focused and    perhaps less impactful to the enterprise. Consequently, so the    reasoning goes, we've already received the results of the    low-hanging fruit of IoT in the industrial/enterprise space.  
    Other are more sanguine: The famed consulting firm McKinsey has    included the IoT as     one of the ten truly disruptive technologies for the next    decade that will be adding several tens of trillions of    dollars to the global economy by 2025. By just this estimate,    for revenue opportunities alone it's probably vital that    organizations consider embracing IoT early and broadly in any    untapped spaces.  
    But steady, meaningful adoption is still something that can be    done tactically. There have been numerous important enterprise    technologies that didn't require the rethinking of how business    is done or constant competitive one-upping, but still generated    plenty of rewards: payroll systems, relational databases,    e-mail, SaaS, CRM software, the list goes on. In this light,    it's somewhat unlikely that IoT will ever crack the     top 50 greatest technology breakthroughs (the Internet has,    but will the Internet of Everything?)  
    Unfortunately, all of this thinking leaves out a few important    concepts. Most importantly, is the idea of     network effect. The more connected something is, especially    if by being connected it provides additional value to those on    the network, the more valuable it becomes. The value     grows expontentially according to connectedness. That's the    basic truism of Internet business, and the reason why growth is    always the primary and first order of business for Internet    startups. You can do anything, create any business model, find    new and better ways to monetize, if only you are deeply    connected. If you aren't, the most innovative digital business    models just have no meaning.  
    Key Point: Network effects don't just mean being    connected, but by being connected and contributing value of    some kind to those on the network in some way. Traditional    enterprises don't usually manage to network effects, which is    why they typically have low impact in the digital world.  
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Is the Internet of Things strategic to the enterprise?