As businesses invest in Internet of Things technologies for new opportunities, it’s important to understand how technical and social factors play in to how well-primed a region is for expansion. The Internet isn’t created equally depending on where a person is, so while IoT devices may perform well in the coastal United States, elsewhere, the infrastructure may be ill-equipped to handle the necessary level of data movement. Understanding how well-prepared an area is for IoT technology helps companies preemptively identify opportunities and challenges when developing a business strategy.

IoT Preparedness: The Top Five Markets

As of late 2016, IDC ranked the following countries as the best-prepared for IoT use:

  • United States
  • South Korea
  • United Kingdom
  • Australia
  • Japan

Technical Factors in IoT Preparedness

  • Cloud Infrastructure: IoT devices typically don’t possess much in the way of on-device computing power, so they act as data collection and display endpoints. According to Business Insider, IoT devices are pushing an unprecedented amount of data, which makes a sufficient cloud infrastructure to handle all of that information essential to success. Countries with better cloud infrastructure have the computing capacity to handle IoT, whereas ones that don’t will be quickly overloaded.
  • Access to Broadband: The sheer amount of data IoT devices push means that broadband access is necessary for long-term success; therefore, countries with high broadband-adoption and access rates are prime markets. The traffic demand is forcing service providers to offer higher bandwidth service and IoT devices could force countries to upgrade broadband infrastructure to higher bandwidth fiber-optic connections.

Social Factors

  • Gross Domestic Product: GDP plays a role in whether customers can purchase IoT products, but cultural efforts to embrace IoT can be even more important. For example, South Korea’s GDP is considered moderate among the top IoT-friendly countries, but the country’s business climate encourages innovation.
  • Business Readiness and Innovation Climate: Countries that are best-equipped to create IoT businesses are also the ones best suited for expansion. Despite having a comparatively small GDP, Australia’s business climate in relation to ease of starting and conducting business have made it a market suitable for IoT to thrive. It’s also a matter of priority. For example, South Korean businesses have made investing in IoT technology development a priority.

Location-Based Monitoring and Load Testing are the Answers

According to IDC, the Asia-Pacific market alone is expected to grow from $335 billion in 2016 to $565 billion in 2020. Fortunately for businesses looking to seize IoT opportunities in areas where performance is an issue, making steps such as using cloud servers closer to slower regions and incorporating CDNs equipped for the area can help. For instance, Apica’s 2,600 monitoring nodes from 83 different countries are an incredibly powerful tool for measuring performance for different customers across the globe, which your business can use for strategic planning.

If your business is taking advantage of the growing opportunities in the IoT industry, guaranteeing that those customers have a smooth, reliable experience with your products is essential. The performance experts at Apica can help your company use location-based monitoring tools to help provide a better customer experience regardless of the customer’s physical location. Contact us today to learn more!