Businesses are struggling to recruit skilled Internet of Things (IoT) developers, which could be slowing the deployment of enterprise IoT solutions.
In a report from Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu OS, 68 percent of IoT professions say they struggle to recruit employees with the right IoT experience. Data analytics and big data skills are the most sought after, but 35 percent of professionals struggle to find an employee with that skill set.
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75 percent of professionals surveyed said data analytics and big data were key skills for any IoT expert, with embedded software development, data security, and cloud software development also ranked highly. Artificial intelligence, automation, and robotics were not considered as useful.
Canonical included 360 IoT professionals, developers, and vendors opinions in the research.
“When it comes to the internet of things, the business community is still overcoming a significant skills gap. Many businesses are concerned by their own lack of knowledge and skills within the IoT market and many business leaders are finding themselves running head first into a set of technology and business challenges that they do not yet fully understand,” said Mike Bell, executive vice president of IoT and Devices at Canonical.
IoT to be ubiquitous
He said businesses need to realize that working in IoT should not require such an extensive variety of skills. What is needed, instead, is a simplification of the technologies behind IoT. “Within the next five years, we expect to see IoT technologies built into all aspects of the business environment,” he said.
The lack of expertise could be one of the key reasons why enterprise IoT deployment is so low. In a survey of decision makers, 16 percent said their company had a comprehensive roadmap for IoT, with most taking a “wait and see” approach to the technology.
The outlook for IoT deployment in the next few years remains positive, despite the perceived lack of skills. U.K. chip maker ARM estimates one trillion IoT devices by 2035, adding $5 trillion to the global GDP.