The number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and devices is set to exceed 50 billion by 2022, up from an estimated 21 billion in 2018.

This is according to a new study from Juniper Research, which found that the 140 per cent growth will be driven by edge computing services (the processing of data away from the cloud and closer to the source), increasing both deployment scalability and security.

IBM were ranked as the industry’s leading vendors, followed by Microsoft, Intel, Bosch and Nokia. The study noted that IBM’s breadth of services and investment in its Watson platform has paid off. However, Microsoft’s growth in the enterprise cloud space, its IoT Edge services and artificial intelligence technology are pushing the boundaries of IoT development.

The research found that the rise of edge computing would be critical in scaling deployments up, owing to reduced bandwidth requirements, faster application response times and improvements in data security.

Juniper predicted that a substantial proportion of the estimated 46 billion industrial and enterprise devices connected in 2023 will rely on edge computing. Therefore, addressing key challenges surrounding standardisation and deployment models will be crucial.

Research author Steffen Sorrell added: “IoT at the edge dramatically increases project scope and value. However, it must be noted that work around standardisation, interoperability and how to manage the decentralisation of data processing remain in development.”

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