IT organisations must update their network access policy to identify, monitor and manage the growing number of internet of things (IoT) devices that will need to be connected to their network over the next few years, says Gartner.

Gartner predicts that 21 billion of IoT devices will be in use worldwide by 2020, so infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders must create or modify the network access policy as part of an enterprise policy enforcement strategy. This should determine if and how these devices will be connected, as well as what role they will be assigned.

To monitor access and priority of IoT devices, I&O leaders need to adopt additional enterprise network best practices. For example, they could define a wifi connectivity policy or consider implementing packet sniffers to identify devices that may infect the network.

In addition, as more IoT devices are added to the enterprise network, I&O leaders will need to create virtual segments that allow network architects to separate all IoT assets (such as LED lights or a video camera) from other network traffic.

"Having embraced a bring-your-own-device strategy, organisations must now get employee devices on the enterprise network and start addressing the 21 billion IoT devices that we project will want access to the enterprise network,” said Tim Zimmermann, research vice president at Gartner. "Whether a video surveillance camera for a parking lot, a motion detector in a conference room or the HVAC for the entire building, the ability to identify, secure and isolate all IoT devices – and in particular ‘headless’ devices – is more difficult to manage and secure.”

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