The Financial Side of IoT

There are several things that you should think of, including:

• Hidden costs of maintaining your device fleet

As we have discussed in our recent posts and newsletters, there are a few of the hidden costs of maintaining your device fleet - for example, it would be much more financially efficient to use third-party platforms and applications in most cases since the costs of developing and providing maintenance services will possibly increase over time - simply because there would be more requirements and designing initially easily scalable system will probably take a lot of resources.

• Connectivity issues

Following our edge AI survey (we highly recommend you to check it out!), we have found out that connectivity issues are the most crucial ones to the IoT businesses. IoT devices require connectivity to transmit data to the cloud or other systems. Evaluate the cost of connectivity options such as cellular networks, Wi-Fi, or specialized IoT networks like LoRaWAN or NB-IoT.

• Secure data storage

Since IoT devices usually do collect sensitive data, you should make sure that it is well protected. While some government held companies do require on-premise deployment of third-party systems, in some cases cloud-based deployment seems like a great option to ensure data privacy and data storage security.

• Overall security measures

Speaking of security, IoT systems can be vulnerable to security breaches, which can have significant financial implications. One of the best tips here would be to invest in encryption, authentication mechanisms, secure communication protocols, and regular security audits.

• Total cost of ownership

Finally, it is very important to consider the final cost of ownership and ROI which comes from the recurring expenses over the solution's lifecycle as well as upfront costs that we have reviewed above. Also, make sure to assess all the direct and indirect costs associated with the project to get a comprehensive understanding of the financial impact.