According to the 2023 Eclipse IoT & Edge Commercial Adoption Survey Report, last year saw a surge of IoT adoption among commercial organizations across a wide range of industries. Open source technologies are crucial to this expansion with 75% of organizations are actively incorporating open source into their deployment plans.

When Eclipse conducted its first IoT Developer Survey in 2015, the majority of respondents were involved with Home Automation. The balance between Home and Industrial automation gradually changed so that by the 2023 I0T & Edge Developer Survey Industrial Automation came top followed by Agriculture and Home Automation had slid down to 7th position.

Meanwhile in 2019 the Eclipse IoT Working Group launched a second survey - the IoT Commercial Adoption Survey. Second time around, in 2021 this became the IoT & Edge Commercial Adoption Survey. The newly published report, 2023 IoT & Edge Commercial Adoption Survey Report, is the fourth in this series and, looked at together with the earlier surveys, shows trends in the evolving IoT and edge computing.

In case you are uncertain as to what "edge computing" implies, it refers to the situation in which, rather than rely on central cloud servers to process information some of the processing is done at the "edge" on devices closer to the user. This has several advantages, including:

• Reduced Latency: Since data doesn't have to travel as far, applications running on the edge can be significantly faster for users.
• Offline Functionality: Edge devices can store and process data locally, enabling some features to function even without an internet connection.
• Improved Scalability: Distributing workload across the edge reduces pressure on central servers, making applications more scalable for high traffic situations.

Sponsored by the Eclipse IoT and Eclipse Sparkplug Working Groups, the survey was conducted from 4 April to 5 July 2023, with respondents recruited via social media channels, the Eclipse Foundation websites, and through Eclipse Foundation   members and partners. A total of 1,037 respondents, comprising developers, committers, architects, and decision-makers,  participated in the survey, an increase of 15% from the previous year.

The survey's top finding is summed up in the headline IoT Adoption Surged in 2023 with this chart providing the details:

It reveals that 64% of respondents are now deploying IoT solutions, up from 53% in 2022. An additional 23% are planning to deploy within the next 12-24 months and less than 5% have no IoT deployment plan.

With regard to adoption of edge computing solutions, one third of respondents already use edge computing in IoT solutions; 20% have plans to deploy within the next 24 months; 27% are still evaluating the use of edge computing platforms and only 10% have no plans to deploy edge solutions.

The most popular cloud strategy is the Hybrid Cloud, i.e a combination of public cloud services such as Amazon AWS, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure with on-premises infrastructure and/or private clouds.

Stating that "Edge computing is a natural extension of the hybrid cloud and facilitates machine learning (ML)", the report reveals how edge computing is being used - with data exchange and sensor fusion being the  most common selections.

As reported at the start, 75% of organizations rely on open source software in IoT and Edge Tech, made up of 40% who use a mix of proprietary and open source software and 35% using predominantly open source software. 

Of the survey respondents, 63% identified as open source users, with 21% actively contributing to open source projects. Asked about the benefits of using open source software, the top answer was the ability to influence or customize code, followed by cost advantage and flexibility.

 In its recommendations the report states:

Embracing open source not only aligns with industry trends but also provides cost advantages, flexibility, and the ability to customise code – crucial factors for successful and sustainable IoT and edge implementations. Plus, transitioning between IoT cloud platforms is much easier when platforms are based on open source.

More Information

Request the 2023 IoT & Edge Commercial Adoption Survey Report

Related Articles

Eclipse IoT Developer Survey 2020

Eclipse IoT Developer Survey 2019

Eclipse IoT Developer Survey 2018 

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