There has been a slew of reports that have presented a worrying skills gap in companies building and deploying internet of things apps and devices.
A survey from Vanson Bourne and Inmarsat found that 76% of respondents said their companies need more people at a senior level to carry out IoT deployments and 72% said there were shortages in management-level experience for IoT. The survey polled 500 senior staffers in IT firms in North America, EMEA, and APAC.
Research from IT trade organisation CompTIA said that a lack of skilled workers would inhibit the adoption of IoT while according to IT recruitment firm TEKsystems, there were over three million IT jobs posted last year in the US but there aren’t enough skilled people to fill them. Projects lacking the relevant skills may lead to failed products and gaping security holes.
The internet of things, by its nature, is very broad but also still relatively new. We saw similar apparent shortages in skills in cloud computing and virtualisation in the past. Professionals eventually caught up but things may be a little different with IoT, given the vast amount of data at stake.
There has always been a struggle to sufficiently fill roles in IT and IoT now means more companies than ever are dipping into the same labour pool, says Jason Hayman, market research manager at TEKsystems. Every company in a sense is becoming a software company and they may not have the right talent on tap to deal with that.
“Even though they are established businesses, it is the first time they are adopting a modern software development process. Security is a part of that, and it’s a skill that is hard to recruit for,” explains Michiel Prins, cofounder of HackerOne.