Nowadays the term IoT isn’t scarcely heard anymore, it is a trend and an innovation which now been used in all industries across the world. This trend connects more than 4 billion individuals around the world through millions and millions of application which are expanding as we speak. With these growing numbers, all sort of business opportunity arise and could potentially reach the value of USD 4 trillion (source: IDC, Mario Morales).
In Indonesia alone, IoT is predicted to have a greater spotlight in the year 2022. Gartner IoT Forecast Tools which released just recently predicted the biggest increase on IoT consumption within Indonesia will occur on the government sector at 39% of the overall process. This figure is followed by the largest number of network IoT that utilize cable-based network (wireline) such as ISDN, cable, DSL, and fiber at 33%, followed by wireless network at 19% and protocol 802.x at 27%.
Put into practice, IoT could be seen on Smart Grids program that’s implemented by Jakarta Smart City. By using the mobile application-based support system, authorities are enabled to replace broken public light bulbs even before complaints are made from the citizen or technician noticing. This transformation gave several benefits, work effectiveness and also cost efficiency.
On different case, IoT adoption could also be seen on Smart Metering that’s enabled by PT. Perusahaan Listrik Negara (Indonesian State-Owned Electricity Company). With Advanced Meter Infrastructure (AMI), customers could monitor usage in real-time and the company can control the circulation and gather accurate information for billing, also reduce the number of scams to the personnel regarded.
Importance of Network Security in the Era of IoT
Implementation of network IoT is, by all means, a complex process to implement. The main challenges encountered during the early stage of implementation is the security factor, followed by the timeframe to initiate the project, current infrastructure compatibility, and challenges on scaling up or down the network size needed.
In the topic of security issue, first of all, you must understand what network security is. According to renowned managed security providers like Gartner, Cisco, and Symantec, network security is defined as protection on the network and data from unauthorized access, thus mitigate disruption on business process of an entity.
The risk when faced with cyber attacks can also be breakdown to several aspects. In general, these attacks have 3 main goals which are, (1) disrupting the business process, (2) steal information, (3) take over a partial/entire system. On this note, IoT security must be a topic of discussion from the early phase of IoT product development, whether it’s a small-scale day-to-day technology like a smartwatch or even massive scale appliance like oil sensor.
To properly apply security on these subjects, there are 3 security aspects that form a holistic system. These aspects revolve around security on all sort of regarded appliance, secured internet connection and security on the cloud platform IoT. To ensure a strong and holistic security system, we also need an integrated application on each stage of the process, which is why Azure technology from Microsoft is the main option to be applied since they could guarantee all of the mentioned security issue above.
Business Opportunity for Managed Network Service Provider on the IoT Trend
All being said, modern businesses have a lot of aspects to focus on, organizations worldwide are starting to collaborate with professional managed network service provider. Through these collaborations, Managed Service Provider (MSP) can help create an IoT-based platform and environment in the format of end-to-end solution. A Solution that provides support from initiation, management, monitoring, and professional service within one holistic process that contribute to a well-secured system.
MSP is faced with several challenges when creating an integrated environment for an organization. The main challenges Indonesia’s MSP face is the availability of competent human resource with the required skill in IoT, artificial intelligence (AI) and software-defined wide area networks (SD-WAN).
By using a security solution from telkomtelstra, consumer can expect the best network solution as we only used the best quality vendor on the market. This network vendor can answer to all the market demand through an integrated solution, which consists of management and periodic monitoring on the appliance security aspect, network and cloud infrastructure.
As a bonus, telkomtelstra will also provide Security Intelligence to analyze all the event data and produce insights as to how an entity can prevent any cyber attack to occur. In the end, consumer can expect a strong impenetrable system that’s able to prevent, detect, and mitigate all the risk regarding the network of an organization.
written by: Agus F. Abdillah (Chief of Product and Services Officer)