IBM, Microsoft, Oracle and SAP’s recent moves into IoT software have CIOs salivating for an off-the-shelf Internet of Things (IoT) solution.
But not so fast, writes Forrester in new research. This is just the first lap in a five-year IoT journey for the big four enterprise software players, and CIOs must be prepared to build, not buy, an IoT architecture, with no expectations for a turnkey solution.

IoT software platform specialists like Arrayent will continue to be the best source for specialised IoT hardware, security, network standards, and data formats, the researcher adds.

Meanwhile, solutions from Microsoft and the like will be useful to help CIOs integrate IoT applications into broader enterprise capabilities.