“By 2020, 21 billion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be in use worldwide.” – Gartner Research

Picture yourself standing on a train platform. You're minding your own business when the vending machine to the right asks if you’d like your usual cappuccino with one sugar if you have 10 minutes until your train arrives, or rather an espresso if you only have 5. It’s quickly becoming the new reality. It’s the Internet of Things and it’s surrounding us more each day. For good, for bad, for ugly. Hopefully not a lot of the latter.

Dawning of a New Connected Age

It is the dawning of the new age of the Internet. First, we got it on our desktops, then it was in our palms, and now on to our heart monitors, motorcycle helmets, our babies' cribs, or even the beds we sleep on. With more things getting connected, for more and more manufacturers, IoT is the new normal. With this new normal comes data. A lot of data. BIG data.

The core of deploying IoT as a strategy means that data needs to be captured from a wide variety of endpoints. With that, IT teams need to face a new reality, one that IoT is creating a new paradigm for ensuring IoT APM (application performance management) and infrastructure monitoring is entirely and completely conforming to the requirements.

Think about this one sentence as you read further. It will communicate why solidifying the need for stringent and tailored IoT application performance management requirements is a dire necessity:

IoT deployments typically entail the monitoring of a wide variety of connected applications where each one, if not operating 100% could severely impact a number of business processes.

Back to Business

When most people think of the Internet of Things, they usually think of a GPS-guided pizza-delivering drone, smart sneakers monitoring your pace, or a heart monitoring device. IoT devices are a hot consumer trend, and that trend is expected only to swing upward according to experts as more and more consumers are hopping on the IoT train. Er, drone.

I think by now we all know of, have heard of, or own a connected device of some sort, and it’s only gaining more traction with consumers. But, let’s get back to business.

Organizations are embracing IoT as part of their strategic initiatives, with over 70% of respondents indicating that IoT is “essential” or “important” to their organization’s business and technical strategies –  Enterprise Management Associates (EMA), titled The Rise of the Internet of Things: Connecting Our World One Device at a Time.

By deploying Internet of Things within an organization, companies can do amazing things. Being able to analyze all the data emanating from the connected devices can transform a business by improving processes dealing with efficiency and decision making.

The IoT Catch

Here’s the catch — and the reason IoT APM needs to be extra tight. Application performance levels will continue to slip in the Internet of Things arena, making IoT application performance management not just an afterthought, but a necessity. As enterprises realize the benefits, many will start connecting more and more devices, elevating the strain on IT. Visibility throughout the Internet of Things chain is paramount, so IT can determine issues and fix problems before IT enters a problem ticket and causes end user setbacks.

So, to round it out, allow me to make some recommendations. It’s clearer than an azure sky of deepest summer that IT requires real-time visibility into the inner workings and performance of these widely-distributed applications. IoT APM will empower you to:

• Isolate: The ability to monitor those applications distributed within the IoT network allows you to quickly identify what is wrong; whether it is the application itself, network or infrastructure-related. Thereby, preventing or minimizing the impact on user experience.
• Prioritize: Identify the cause of the error or other bottleneck and keep a prioritized list on which issues you will address first. Since not all issues are mission critical, an APM tool with built-in analytics will empower you to distinguish processes critical to the business from the less severe ones. Once that is done, IT can delegate whether it goes to hardware engineering, development, etc. and resolve the issue.
• Take charge: By analyzing patterns that APM tools provide with regards to the entire IoT ecosystem, you can proactively identify problems before they occur and further refine your product to increase uptime, thereby enhancing the overall user experience

Thanks for checking out my post. I would love to hear stories of how APM has saved your IoT endeavor(s). The more the merrier.