Dawn of the IoT Architect
The architect position has typically combined domain knowledge, technical skills and the necessary authority to command various disciplines. Therefore it seems sensible to have just such a role dedicated to IoT with the necessary breadth in know-how to oversee the many constituent roles and teams. The challenge of course is that with IoT being so nascent there are very few people with the level of skills, knowledge and business authority let alone actual experience across so many disciplines.
Creating current architects can take years and some think that this role may take a decade to establish. Of course that means in the interim there will be challenges, but it also means that organizations who see IoT as being significant to their future need to start investing in such individuals now. The flip side to this is that there are current roles within organizations that already possess elements of the skills required by an IoT architect. As a result, it’s likely that while there may be a dedicated IoT architect in long run, many will start by bringing together roles already harboring those skill sets into a central function or team.
The dawn of IOT era brings new challenges which means the new world order will require new skills which will include both hardware and software. IOT Architect can help you in identifying right architects with skills in the following areas –
1. Network Handling
The Internet is perhaps the most disruptive element in IoT. Many IoT devices will not plug into the Internet; instead they will connect via myriad of other networks including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Sigfox. Often these will be provided by different companies and so a typical IoT solution may be required to deal not just with different network types but different network providers
2. Security Management
Security is another area of equal complexity. Not only does the network need to be secured along with the data travelling over it, but also the hardware at one end and the processing hub at the other. Securing hardware can be complex in itself involving security at the device level (firmware)
3. Cloud Support
Many IoT solutions will involve cloud computing in some respect, and here again there are challenges.And then there are IoT-specific platforms and services that need to be evaluated against more generalist offerings. This is all aside from the decision of whether to utilize public, private, virtual private or hybrid cloud. Cloud often comes with new architectures and development skills, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) being perhaps the best example of this and a major paradigm shift for many.
4. Data and Analytical Processing
A key tenet of IoT is data and the insight it leads to, which is where the value actually resides. However, getting at that value will require analytics. The role of data scientist is often talked about and there is a shortage of such individuals. It is not enough either to simply have someone who understand analytics; they need to understand the system and the business as well.
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