Prior to Parks Associates’ 13th-annual CONNECTIONS Europe: Strategies for the Smart Home and Consumer Iot conference, Razvan Todor, Head of IoT Security, Bitdefender shared insights with the analyst team to discuss the challeneges and opportunities for growth in the European smart home market.
Razvan will be participating on the Data Security and Analytics: AI Challenges and Opportunities panel on Tuesday, November 13 at 15:15. Panelists joining him on this session include:
Jan Buis, Vice President Wireless LAN, IoT & Switches, LANCOM Systems GmbH, a member of OCF
Kristian Järnefelt, EVP Consumer Cyber Security, F-Secure Corporation
Nathan Taylor, EMEA - General Manager, CUJO AI
What are the largest recurring revenue opportunities for the smart home industry in Europe?
To answer this question, one must think abut the common ground between all smart devices, regardless of what functions they offer. They all need to be secured, hence I would say that securing the smart home could be one of the largest recurring revenue opportunities. Furthermore, I think that, in this area, European ISPs are in a very good position, as they already have a subscription based relation with their end customers and they are in the perfect position to secure the connection to their smart homes, thus securing their devices, regardless of their platforms, operations systems or any other specifics.
What are the biggest challenges rolling out new smart home products and services in Europe?
I believe there’s a very interesting paradox in this case. On one hand, we’re all aware of the vulnerabilities that come packaged in a lot of these new devices. At the same time, even though they are, in a way, carelessly built, these devices are also very cleverly built, they integrate seamlessly in the users’ lives, making their lives easier and become “full time” members of the household. I think the challenge is not actually rolling out smart devices, but protecting the end user’s privacy while doing it.
