How to speed up IoT deployment: Give each device an identity

Most enterprises are in the process of evaluating how the Internet of Things (IoT) will affect their organization, especially how devices targeted at the Enterprise of Things (EoT) will be deployed.

Indeed, companies that deploy “things” need to worry about security, manageability, longevity/availability and robustness — unlike consumers who generally don’t concern themselves with such things. I recently discussed what I see as a real lack of focus on IoT security from a device perspective. What I’d like to discuss now is the need make it easier to deploy and manage devices, especially those focused on enterprise deployments. This can be relatively easily accomplished by creating a unique unalterable identity for each device.

Why each IoT device needs an identity

Why should we care about generating such a unique identity? Well, as it turns out, in a corporate setting, it’s not only about physically deploying the “things” that’s important, but it’s also about connecting them to intelligent control systems. And that can be a major challenge.

Let’s look at a simple example. Say you have to replace 1,000 light bulbs with next-generation smart bulbs. There is the physical task of actually changing out the bulbs, which is labor intensive. But that may be the easy part.