Sixty percent of the communications service providers (CSPs) that took part in this month's Thought Leadership Council (TLC) survey for Heavy Reading said their companies either already have or will adopt automation to manage Internet of Things (IoT) by 2020.

Specifically, 82% of panelists said investment into the automation of connectivity is critically important for their company's IoT deployment plans. "When you think about the vast number of devices and applications supported in IoT, it becomes evident quickly that automating connectivity is key," said one TLC member in the report, Thought Leadership Council: CSPs Increasingly Rely Upon Automation in IoT Networks.

Furthermore, 59% of survey participants in the report said investment into the automation of devices is critical to their company's IoT strategy. For this report, council members were asked nine questions about the impact of IoT on network architecture.

The biggest driver for adopting automated processes is likely the concern over capacity and network management that CSPs face in relation to IoT's impact on network architecture: More than 70% of panelists agreed that such concerns are heavily impacting their company's strategy for IoT.

One panelist said, "Our network capabilities have to be at their full potential for us to monetize IoT-related services."

In fact, almost 20% of CSPs expressed concern over budgetary challenges related to IoT, with one panelist specifying, "We need a capex commitment because monetization opportunities are still very low from IoT."

Almost all panelists agreed that investment into IoT must focus significantly on security: 76% of panelists said IoT will have a significant impact on network security, while 88% of panelists said it's critical for their companies to invest in IoT security.

"For our company, we can't shift focus to what IoT services and applications we can support in the network until we are quite certain that the security challenges of IoT are addressed," one panelist said. "It won't benefit us at all to implement IoT if doing so negatively impacts the network as a whole."

The Thought Leadership Council is a unique Heavy Reading research initiative founded in August 2017, in which a panel of highly targeted CSPs participate in strategic research surveys on topics like service assurance, automation, 5G and IoT. TLC members receive private invitations to take part in completely anonymous surveys, which enables them to provide insights that might otherwise go undisclosed. Currently, TLC boasts more than 135 CSP members from companies that include Tier 1, mobile and cable providers from across the world.

— Denise Culver, Director of Online Research, Heavy Reading