IoT Readiness, Part I: Microsoft Partners Advise, Start Small

The Azure IoT Suite is just short of a year and a half old - time enough for some best practices to emerge, most especially, "Don't bite off more than you can chew." Just recently, Jerry Lee, Microsoft's director of product marketing, Data Platform and IoT, published a blog entitled "Improve ROI by building your IoT in phases." Lee advised customers to "start small with a methodical and measured approach and realize that the transformation will follow."

Still, Microsoft publishes impressive case studies in which major manufacturers like Rolls-Royce, Rockwell Automation, and ThyssenKrupp go all in for monitoring devices as a service, performing predictive maintenance of capital equipment, or increasing reliability, uptime, and safety. Similarly, Singapore's Land Transport Authority (LTA) uses its real-time insights to make transportation decisions.

For most businesses, which approach to take is less obvious because the utility of IoT is less obvious. So the more cautious approach is likely the right one.

"In my experience, it's test the waters, small projects, small initiatives - just use it as a learning experience," says Jack Moran, Sr. Industry Solutions Architect at Columbus A/S. a Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM partner. "I don't think there are a whole lot of companies stepping into the world of IoT and know everything about it."

Moran says it's not even possible for companies to know all there is to know about IoT because it's transforming too quickly and the ...