The News: Cisco stated its IoT businesses surpassed $1 billion in revenue in 2022 with double digit year-over-year (YoY) growth. A strategic part of the company’s IoT business is Cisco IoT Control Center, a connection management platform (CMP) aimed at enabling communications service providers (CSPs) to streamline operations and improve business outcomes for business customers, generated 10% year-over-year revenue growth. Read the Cisco blog here.
Cisco IoT Control Center Provides Portfolio Warrant for More IoT Business Momentum in 2023
Analyst Take: Cisco reported its 2022 IoT business topped the $1 billion threshold with the overall business and its SaaS-based IoT Control Center CMP generating double digit YoY revenue growth. Now there are 220 million devices using IoT Control Center, including over 92 million connected cars. Specifically, Cisco works with more than 50 CSPs to serve 32,000 enterprises across the planet.
The company’s introduction of a Mass-IoT solution to AI/ML-based cost optimization and anomaly detection capabilities addresses growing enterprise demand for strengthened IoT security and improved IoT revenue streams. Cisco touts that its IoT Control Center is the foundation for its mobility strategy, including the launch of its Cisco Private 5G service on the platform. Also, Cisco plans to roll out more 5G and IoT business services during H1 2023.
Cisco’s Private 5G service runs counter to private 5G offerings provided by 5G stalwarts Nokia and Ericsson. Nokia advocates private 5G or 4.9G/LTE networks as integral to Industry 4.0 operations by fusing physical and digital processes that connect everything from sensors and mobile workers in a flexible, secure framework. Today Nokia runs more than 515 private wireless networks across the global enterprise space, which I believe gives merit to its claim of having around 55% market share in the private wireless market segment.
Cisco Private 5G service also counters the recently expanded Ericsson Private Networks offering, now consisting of Cradlepoint NetCloud Private Networks, Ericsson Private 5G, Cradlepoint Private Network Endpoints, and Ecosystem Partners. The expanded portfolio broadens Ericsson’s private network portfolio targeted at enterprises and industries of all sectors and sizes.
From my view, the Cisco Private 5G solution strengthen its overall Cisco IoT Control Center proposition assuring a direct stake in the burgeoning private 5G market as competition intensifies. This includes winning mind share across the channels as Cisco and its key rivals pursue both direct and indirect sales to enterprises as well as CSPs and hyperscalers targeting enterprise adoption.
Even with macroeconomic concerns considered, such as the potential for multi-regional recession, I find that the growth prospects for the global IoT market are robust due to drivers such as the expansion of higher bandwidth, lower latency 5G networks, including especially 5G standalone capabilities that provide the intelligence, programmability, and spectrum optimization key to accelerating adoption of private 5G as well as private wireless networks overall. This includes the expectation that global IoT market size can register compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.4% from 2022 to 2028, growing from $483.3 billion in 2022 to 2270.4 billion by 2028.
Key Takeaways: Cisco Rides IoT Tailwinds into 2023
I believe Cisco IoT Control Center provides the foundation for Cisco to capitalize on the fast-growing global IoT market, particularly across major verticals and capabilities such as connected cars, smart meters, predictive maintenance, fleet management, home security, and payment solutions. Cisco IoT Control Center can provide the single platform automated administration of intricate device lifecycles, ML-powered anomaly detection, smart billing, and management of both public and private networks key to the cost optimization and accelerated adoption of IoT networking.
Disclosure: Futurum Research is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.
Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of Futurum Research as a whole.
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Author Information
Ron is an experienced, customer-focused research expert and analyst, with over 20 years of experience in the digital and IT transformation markets, working with businesses to drive consistent revenue and sales growth.
Ron holds a Master of Arts in Public Policy from University of Nevada — Las Vegas and a Bachelor of Arts in political science/government from William and Mary.
