Can IoT survive downtime?

Asia has high hopes for the Internet of Things. In 2015, the global Internet of Things market reached US$600 billion, with the Asia-Pacific region accounting for more than one-third of the market. Analysts expect that the value will grow by 10.2% year-on-year in the next six years. Governments of many countries and regions in the region have already made the Internet of Things an important part of their work to develop a digital economy. Asian companies are also generally looking forward to this, and expect that by 2019, nearly 90% of companies will use the Internet of Things.

Most organizations, whether public or private, agree that they need more powerful, scalable network infrastructure to support a large number of connected devices. But do businesses know what the consequences would be if these networks failed to operate properly?

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Offline IoT

The world of connected devices is inherently vulnerable to downtime. It is currently expected that by 2020, there will be 8.6 billion connected devices in Asia, and if any of them are affected by an outage, it could jeopardize the operation of everything from hospitals to power grids. Malicious threats such as the Mirai botnet not only demonstrate the vulnerability of today's IoT devices, but such attacks can cause widespread damage to devices and public Internet infrastructure.

As most countries look to integrate IoT into their daily lives, even a moment of downtime could cause significant disruption and affect public confidence in service providers. Government officials in places like Singapore have called for standards and standardized platforms to mitigate risk, while the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data in Hong Kong has encouraged companies to adopt a “holistic approach to privacy protection” to minimize the impact of any breaches.

As pressures in this regard grow, enterprises cannot accept less than 100% uptime for their IoT platforms, and the simplest way to do this is to build a scalable and resilient network. This is not only easier than trying to protect the security of a large number of independent devices, but it can also prevent outages from spreading to more critical devices, and network operators are responsible for building such networks for institutional customers and millions of affected IoT consumers.

Stability: Keeping Devices Online

It is not easy for IoT operators, device manufacturers and their suppliers to coordinate under different IoT standards, but enterprises should first focus on the stability of their infrastructure. Due to the large number of IoT devices and their wide distribution, it is becoming increasingly difficult to patch, update or otherwise maintain stable operations. A network that can stably perform automated maintenance tasks will greatly reduce downtime caused by performance issues.

Enterprises need to ensure that they can deliver firmware, software and other important content to all devices in a timely and complete manner, regardless of each device's physical location or connectivity. Stable connectivity is especially important when IoT hardware tends to rely on less reliable wireless and cellular connections. This ensures that each IoT device operates at the same level, improves network reliability and overcomes compatibility issues that can cause device freezes or network congestion.

Security: Building defense in depth

However, downtime often stems from more intentional actions against the network. Examples such as Mirai and other threats have shown how vulnerable today’s IoT devices are to relatively simple attacks. Continuous patching and updates allow devices to resist these threats through “herd immunity”. But at the same time, network operators also need to protect their content delivery systems to prevent more complex threats from spreading.

The most secure networks will use the principle of "deep defense" (that is, using multiple protection measures rather than relying on just one) to protect against different threats. Generally speaking, an attacker can compromise the entire network through any one device, and encryption can make this more difficult and improve the performance of these devices by transmitting data with higher fidelity. Other security measures include taking appropriate precautions when devices communicate with or may access unauthorized or unrecognized machines. Network virtualization can also centralize control of the entire network on a single console, which helps reduce network complexity and reduces the risk of IT staff ignoring potentially serious vulnerabilities.

In summary, no single defense strategy can completely prevent persistent attackers from targeting individual networks or causing downtime. However, if we can also promptly update and patch devices and ensure stable connectivity, we can avoid operational disruptions caused by vulnerabilities.

Raising the level of uptime

Governments, businesses and network operators should view the promise of 100% uptime for the IoT as a “responsibility.” Despite the potential consequences of downtime, these devices offer many transformative benefits that no business can afford to ignore. With a multi-layered, network-level strategy for high-reliability, secure device management, businesses can prevent the risk of downtime from becoming a reality and ensure that the expectations of the IoT are fully realized.