Why do Enterprises favor private or hybrid IoT deployments over public clouds?

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The Public Cloud has been a huge success, so why are most enterprise IoT solutions deployed using on-premises or hybrid data platforms?

Arm Blogs, Jun. 13, 2019 – 

Internet of Things (IoT) system deployments using the public cloud have helped many companies deploy products quickly and reduced their upfront capital costs. But using the public cloud in isolation is not the favored option for most enterprises needing to manage networks of IoT devices. Instead, according to the Uptime Institute, 65% of enterprises running IoT management workloads are currently using on-premises data centers. That is not to say that they are using on-premises solutions solely and we see that many will also pair on-premises data handling alongside a public cloud connection. This hybrid solution is favored by more than half of all IoT-enabled enterprises according to the 2019 State of the Cloud Survey from Rightscale.

If you are a company looking at deploying IoT devices across your organization, it is worth examining why organizations are now choosing to deploy IoT systems within an on-premise or hybrid environment rather than solely in the public cloud.

1. Efficient decision-making closer to the point of action

Organizations often want to keep decision-making at a local level rather than sending data to a centralized location for analysis and processing. For example, data that might be relevant for one factory may not be as useful to all factories within the same organization.

Using local on-premises IoT device management systems reduces organizations' decision-making time. However, for insights that are worth sharing across the organization, there is the option to adopt a hybrid approach where some data/insights can be shared via the public cloud. The system benefit is in having local access for fast critical data use, while data it is worthwhile aggregating can be shared more universally.

2. Critical infrastructure requires zero disruption and latency

Organizations running or owning critical infrastructure often need access to operational data and the ability to provide updates and deal with any potential issues in real time. Total reliance on a public cloud as a way of managing the system is not a resilient solution as it is too vulnerable to available internet connectivity, which in itself could be part of a fault. So for critical infrastructure management, an on-premises system, or potential hybrid system, is the sensible choice to keep control where it is most needed – within the organization.

On-premises device management also provides much faster data connectivity between devices and a server, reducing latency and allowing organizations to make decisions faster and apply updates sooner.

3. Regulations: Rules and parameters that form value

Today, data protection is a key factor behind companies choosing on-premises data management solutions. Many organizations must be compliant with data and security regulations such as the GDPR which is intended to secure citizens' personal data and mitigate threats. Beyond the GDPR and similar state controls, many organizations have now developed strict internal data rules in order to protect themselves and their customers, so being able to control their own data within a company firewall is advantageous.

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