NZ leading the charge as region shifts towards Internet of Things solutions

The year 2015 will be a big one in Australia and New Zealand for developing business solutions with integrated ‘Things’ - such as industrial sensors, health monitors and smart buildings - to connect with existing and new business solutions.

According to regional results from the Software for the Internet of Things (IoT) Developer Survey released by Embarcadero Technologies, the majority (92 percent) of software developers building IoT solutions in 2015 are targeting business markets, while 8 percent are exclusively targeting consumers.

Conducted by Dimensional Research, findings reveal that 84 percent of A/NZ development teams involved in IoT projects will have their solutions in active development in 2015 with almost two thirds (62 percent) of local IoT developers anticipating their solutions will generate business impact by the end of 2015, compared to only 16 percent in 2014.

Customer demand, at 59 percent, also ranks among the top drivers for Thing solution development in 2015.

"While things like consumer gadgets are a strong focus for Australian and New Zealand developers, these survey results confirm that IoT is crossing over to business productivity and customer engagement," says Malcolm Groves, Senior Director, APJ, Embarcadero.

"Consumers typically connect to IoT through a single personal mobile device, with other IoT infrastructure surrounding them.

“However with business solutions IoT infrastructure encircles the business and enterprise assets while also including users.

“The IoT connected applications developers build for the Enterprise are essential to connect the disparate parts of a distributed IoT business solution – from mobile devices, to wearables and sensors, to cloud and on-premises Enterprise back-ends.

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“The survey demonstrates that software developers are focussed on this and will clearly play a pivotal role in driving IoT innovation and business adoption in 2015 and beyond."

Software and applications

Regionally speaking, software and applications will be critical in IoT solution development in 2015, as developers plan to interconnect Things with multiple systems – including mobile apps, desktop apps, databases, cloud services, enterprise applications, middleware and other IoT devices:

· 61 percent of Things data will move between devices and servers

· 67 percent of Things will communicate using multiple technologies

· 58 percent of Things will connect to cloud services

· Windows Desktop and Android will be the top operating systems connected to by Things

Furthermore, three out of four A/NZ developers (75 percent) think differently about the user experience – including input and output – when developing IoT solutions versus traditional software.

While more than half of Things (55 percent) are expected to use traditional input (e.g., keyboard, button press) in 2015, local Thing solutions are moving closer to the vision of Things, which does away with traditional touch:

· 86 percent of Things will accept non-traditional input (sensors, GPS, line of site, etc.)

· 22 percent of Things will present information in non-traditional ways (VR, haptic, audible, environmental change, etc.)