The Internet of Things (IoT) promises a wide range of benefits for industry, energy and utility companies, municipalities, healthcare, and consumers. Data can be collected in extraordinary volume and detail regarding almost anything worth measuring, such as public health and safety, the environment, industrial and agricultural production, energy, and utilities. New data analysis tools have been optimized for the massive amounts of data that IoT produces, enabling well-informed decisions to be made quickly.

Before you can successfully plan and implement an IoT solution, you must understand the various factors that will drive your decisions. But putting IoT systems into place can be a complicated proposition with unique considerations distinctly different from traditional IT solutions.

Business professionals often have little or no foundation for understanding of the components and design decisions that go into an IoT project. They may have a traditional understanding of IT solutions which includes knowledge of networks, cloud computing, and applications running on servers, desktop computers, and mobile devices.