Data is the bedrock of the IoT’s value and perhaps the core challenge to get right. To harness unprecedented amounts of complex information from billions of decentralised end-points worldwide, a radical new infrastructure model is required.

Yet, for the business leaders that spoke to us, the real value of the IoT isn’t driven by ubiquitous connectivity or even a tsunami of data. Instead, it stems from the potential to capture, extract and apply actionable insights more quickly, easily and cost-effectively for personal or business advantage.

With connected objects generating, interpreting and applying insights from vast amounts of data, security is of paramount concern.

As smart devices start to permeate our world in the form of everything from clothing to cars, organisations and individuals will face an entirely new category of risk to their security and privacy. Solving this conundrum is a must for many of the business leaders that spoke to us, since without trust neither businesses nor consumers will fully embrace the IoT.

With so much hype surrounding the IoT’s future potential, we were keen to hear how it’s being used today to generate tangible benefits.

While news headlines often focus on how the IoT will revolutionise our lives, it’s the business world that’s really leveraging the IoT for advantage today. With benefits that include cost-savings, improved productivity and competitive insights, many industries are investing heavily in innovation and experimentation to capitalise on the IoT’s potential.

While the IoT’s real-world applications are gathering pace, especially in the B2B arena, many of the experts that spoke to us pointed to problems with isolated pilot projects. These ‘islands of innovation’ are inherently more costly and time-consuming to set up, harder to scale, lacking in interoperability and limited in the value they create for businesses and customers.

What’s needed is a holistic IoT ecosystem; a shared foundation of technologies, standards and services. With one standardised ecosystem, harnessing the potential of the IoT becomes faster, easier, less expensive and more predictable—allowing human ingenuity to flourish.

So, what’s next? Truthfully, no one’s certain. Just as it was impossible to predict all the business applications of the Internet, the same will be true of the IoT.

Today, the focus remains on experimentation. The requirements of the IoT age, as well as the opportunities it generates, will be in flux for some time to come. However, the leaders we spoke to were confident of one thing: the economic and social value of the IoT will continue to grow even as we learn to orchestrate and harness it in new ways.