Q&A: From Intel To Internet Of Things

Hank Skorney
Hank Skorney

With the Internet of Things market expected to grow to $7.1 trillion by 2020, according to IDC, some industry executives are trying to stay ahead of the game by heading to companies they feel are ripe to capitalize on IoT opportunities.

Hank Skorny, formerly vice president of Intel's Software & Services Group and general manager of Intel Services Division, decided to leave the Santa Clara, Calif.-based vendor to become SVP of IoT for Neustar earlier this month.

Skorny says he decided to join the Sterling, Virginia-based provider of real-time information and analytics because the company has all the right ingredients necessary to become a leader in the next generation of IoT services.

Skorny tells spoke recently with CRN about his vision and strategy for IoT, as well as the biggest opportunities for VARs looking to jump into the space.

Do you think the IoT forecasts over the past 6-12 months are exaggerated?

There are several industry research firms, as well as large enterprise and consumer service providers who have made predictions about the IoT and cloud software space. These predictions range from the lofty to the more extreme. The bottom line: current trends in the enterprise sector have made it extremely valuable to add intelligence to devices in order to deliver more efficiencies, as well as increased margins and revenues. It makes too much sense not to capitalize on these trends. Additionally, the technology capabilities required for IoT to be successful have now reached their tipping point, much like the PC industry did in the early 1990s, the Internet in the early 2000s and the smartphone sector in 2010.

It would be presumptuous to decide whether these forecasts are too high or too low. What matters is that there is already a real opportunity and in the enterprise space, we are already seeing some amazing applications of the IoT in the consumer market, enterprise and industrial.