The number of large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) projects has doubled in the past year, according to the results of a new poll.
The IoT Barometer Report from telecommunications company Vodafone, which surveyed 1,278 respondents in 13 countries, has found that 13% of large-scale IoT projects took place in Europe, while America leads the way at 19%, with Asia trailing behind at just 7%.
Large-scale users have also reported some of the biggest business gains, with 67% of them highlighting significant returns from the use of IoT.
The range of benefits are widening as adoption increases, with greater business insights, reduced costs and improved employee productivity topping the list.
In Europe, 33% of businesses cited increased market competitiveness as the top benefit.
However, security is still a big barrier for many companies, although only 7% of businesses with 10,000 or more connected devices in operation said that security was their top worry.
Businesses said they were taking more steps to tackle security concerns, including an increase in security training in for existing staff, working with specialist security providers and recruiting more IT security specialists.
Vodafone director of IoT Erik Brenneis said: “Over the five years of this report, we have seen the number of companies that have adopted IoT double, and projects have grown from small pilots to global rollouts of tens of thousands of connected devices.
“IoT is clearly here to stay and the future looks exciting as 79% of adopters are saying that IoT will have an enormous impact on the whole economy in the next five years. I believe we can now say that IoT has come of age and is proving itself across all industries and geographies.”