IoT has immense potential in a range of sectors like manufacturing, retail and healthcare. India too has a lot of startups that have contributed to the technology, however despite the noise around home startups, this sector is yet to find its applicability in Indian market.
Problems Faced In Home Automation
In this article, we look at the challenges home automation startups/companies face in gaining widespread adoption.
1.Legal risks
IoT startups have to deal with a clutch of legal issues. The legal issues can be fully addressed only by drafting and executing agreements incorporating relevant provisions to safeguard the interest of both the IoT service provider and the IoT user. With IoT comes issues related to data protection and protect liability. Since a lot of data is involved, it becomes difficult to determine which laws can be applied in case of dispute and the court proceedings following them will be very lengthy. In order to ensure the privacy and protection of the data collected, the IoT service provider can have specifically drafted privacy policy detailing the private information that is collected by the service provider, the scope and extent of the use such information is put to and the steps taken to ensure the protection of the collected information.
2.Improper communication between interfacing devices
Every device involved in IoT home automation has unique connectivity standards and network interfaces.
They rely on different connectivity standards and have different network interfaces. Improper communication between devices can be caused due to various reasons. Incompatibility between the interfacing devices and software glitches are some of them. In order to work in as a unified system, the devices have to be properly communicating. Communication between smart devices has to be properly made and that is a challenge to overcome.
3.Security risks
With better connectivity among home devices, greater is the risk of the system being hacked. Cyber security is a big risk in this space. Hackers can gain access to all the personal data, including the location of the people in the house, all the time and can be a potential threat. It is a difficult task to make sure that the controller, device data, and the cloud are unhackable.
4.Data protection
In the space of IoT, there is a complex interface to provide seamless connectivity between devices and machines and therefore outsourcing the resources is an issue. The devices involved also have a high sensitivity, the data of which is absorbed in the cloud. But in order to be secure, the IoT startups avoid working with others because they cannot trust anyone else with the data. But that becomes a problem to them because financial constraints them come as a roadblock.
5.Lack of Expertise
IoT technology involves a complex blend of various hardware, software, and other digital technologies that help to connect countless systems and devices using the cloud-based technology. Due to this highly complicated mechanism where proper compliance of all the protocols and standards is a difficult task and even a slight negligence can result in a big damage to the process. Recovery of the same may cause an additional financial burden to the organisation. Therefore, qualifications and experience of the top managers are not substantial enough to prevent risks until and unless the entire technical team follows their guidance and quality policy of the organisation. Insufficient knowledge and experience of the core team can cause recurrent challenges and problems.
