January 2026 - For this interview, we spoke to Cisco’s Fran O’Brien (FOB). Fran was a member of the Steering Committee in the early days of launching oneM2M’s standardization activities. He has more than three decades of experience in IoT and standardization more generally. For this interview he provides a long-term perspective on the evolution of the IoT sector, pitfalls that new adopters can avoid, and developments to watch in the emerging technologies landscape.
Q: Would you begin by introducing yourself to our readers?
FOB: My background is in technology standardization. Almost ten years ago, I served as the Steering Committee Chair of oneM2M during a period when the industry was defining what large-scale IoT could and should become. Today, I represent Cisco in several global standards bodies including the ETSI Board, 5G Americas Board of Governors, NGMN, and the ITU-R WP5D.
My current focus spans next-generation systems, data governance, and AI-native networks, along with the broader intersection of technology, policy, and regulation. A significant part of my role involves ensuring that evolving standards and architectures support both innovation and compliance across global markets.
My background has always centered on connecting emerging technology to practical deployment. oneM2M was an important part of that journey.
Q: Cisco being a large organization, would you tell us about the group you work in?
FOB: I am part of the Global Technology Standards team, working across multiple Cisco business units that shape future network capabilities. This covers data, AI, platforms for 5G/6G, and secure cloud-edge systems. Much of my work involves translating global policy and technology trends into actionable guidance for Cisco’s business units and customers. It is a role that keeps me deeply connected to where networks are heading next.
Q: What are your recollections about IoT from 10-to-15 years ago when you got involved with oneM2M?
FOB: When I first became involved with oneM2M, IoT was at its absolute peak of excitement. There was a real sense that we were on the verge of something transformative. Many of your readers will know about market forecasts predicting tens of billions of devices, new revenue streams for operators, and entirely new service ecosystems. Every industry, including utilities, transportation, smart cities, industrial automation, and healthcare, was experimenting with pilots and proof-of-concepts.
The enthusiasm came from several converging factors:
- The rapid spread of mobile broadband
- The potential of low-cost sensors and embedded modules
- Cloud platforms maturing
- Governments launching “smart” national programs
- Operators looking for post-3G/4G business opportunities
In those early days, IoT felt like a frontier, full of possibility and urgency.
Q: How did you become involved with oneM2M?
FOB: Personally, I have always been driven by the opportunity to help define leading-edge technology standards through open, collaborative engagement across the industry. IoT was fragmented, with dozens of alliances forming, each with its own vision. I saw that oneM2M had the potential to become a leader in global standards bringing order and coherence to the IoT landscape.
Along with colleagues from Qualcomm, Telecom Italia, and several other companies, I was one of the original founders of oneM2M during my time at Alcatel-Lucent. After moving to Cisco, I later served as Steering Committee Chair. It was the right moment to bring structure and harmonization to a rapidly growing and highly fragmented IoT landscape.
Q: What do you think changed in the market and punctured the hype bubble?
FOB: Several realities caught up with the IoT sector’s early enthusiasm. Firstly, business models matured much more slowly than expected. Many projects required significant integration work, and the investment return was not always immediate.
Secondly, fragmentation continued to persist. Even with strong standardization efforts, different verticals continued to prefer their own frameworks and to build around their legacy systems.
Thirdly, many in the industry underestimated the importance of security and lifecycle management. The industry realized that connecting millions of unmanaged devices introduced risks and operational complexity that were not trivial to solve.
Fourthly, operators did not see the revenue uplift they had anticipated. This reshaped investments, particularly around platforms and horizontal services.
Lastly, technology constraints were very real. I would point to battery life, ruggedization, connectivity costs, and inconsistent coverage as factors that slowed deployments.
Ultimately, IoT did not fail, but it transitioned from a “skyrocket” narrative into the slower, steadier adoption curve we see today.
Q: When we look in more depth at the IoT market today, what changes do you see?
FOB: A few major shifts stand out for me. IoT is now defined by business outcomes, not by device counts. The early obsession with “billions of devices” has been replaced with a focus on automation, resilience, sustainability, and operational efficiency.
Unsurprisingly, the IoT technology base has matured. The emergence of low-power wide-area networks, private 5G, cloud-edge architectures, and stronger security baselines have all helped to stabilize deployments.
From an adoption standpoint, we no longer think about IoT in isolation. Instead, IoT has become a normal part of IT and OT disciplines. Teams no longer discuss IoT as an exotic initiative but something that is embedded into enterprise architectures.
I also see vertical solutions dominating the marketplace. Instead of horizontal “IoT platforms,” we now see sector-specific stacks for manufacturing, buildings, logistics, and utilities.
Overall, IoT has grown up. Its success is quieter, more pragmatic, and more integrated.
Q: oneM2M set out to address fragmentation. How do you view standardization today?
FOB: Standardization is still essential, but the ecosystem has become more complex. Verticals now expect standards to align with cloud, AI, cybersecurity, and data-governance frameworks, not just communications protocols. Successful standards today must:
- integrate with hyperscaler platforms
- support open APIs and data models
- address security and lifecycle management
- align with regulatory expectations such as the Cyber Resilience Act
- operate across heterogeneous networks (Wi-Fi, 5G, LPWAN, satellite)
We have entered a world where interoperability is not optional. The value of standards has shifted from technology specifications to ecosystem coherence.
That is a space where oneM2M made, and still makes, a meaningful contribution.
Q: Your professional interests have taken you to other areas in the ICT industry. How has your focus evolved, and what does that say about IoT priorities?
FOB: My focus widened from IoT as a connectivity challenge to IoT as one contributor to a much larger data continuum. Today, my work spans emerging technologies, data governance, and next-generation wireless and 6G. I am engaged in next-generation wireless and 6G research, including sensing-communication integration, deterministic networking, and sustainability-driven architectures, alongside quantum-safe cryptography and data governance frameworks needed to ensure long-term trust and resilience.
The shift in my professional activities mirrors what has happened across the industry: IoT is no longer a standalone domain. It feeds into data pipelines, analytics platforms, automation loops, AI training models, and enterprise business processes.
ETSI’s launch of TC DATA is a perfect example of how the IoT industry is evolving. IoT is now seen in terms of data handling, semantics, interoperability, and trust frameworks rather than just devices. The evolution shows that IoT’s true value lies not in the “thing,” but in the data and intelligence built around it.
Q: From a Cisco perspective, what are your thoughts on adoption factors for business in the wider technology ecosystem?
FOB: Across the wider technology ecosystem, adoption is driven less by any single vendor or platform and more by confidence in interoperability, governance, and long-term viability. Businesses adopt when they can integrate new capabilities into existing operational, regulatory, and architectural environments without creating lock-in or fragility.
Key adoption factors include open and stable standards, common data models, and APIs that enable multi-vendor deployment. Another category of factors includes clear security and trust frameworks that address identity, provenance, and lifecycle management. Putting these ideas into practice requires scalable architectures that support cloud-to-edge distribution and evolving workloads.
Increasingly, organizations are also evaluating how well technologies align with regulatory requirements, sustainability objectives, and cross-domain data sharing, particularly as IoT data is reused across analytics, AI, and digital twin applications.
From that perspective, initiatives like oneM2M play a critical role by reducing ecosystem fragmentation and providing a neutral foundation for interoperable, secure, and future-proof adoption.
Q: Do you have a few concluding thoughts or advice for organizations entering the IoT or standardization arenas?
FOB: A few key lessons stand out. It is important to solve a business problem first. Avoid starting with devices and start with outcomes instead. Next, organizations should plan for security and lifecycle costs from day one. IoT is a 5-to-15-year operational commitment, so it pays to think about long term implications and operational resilience.
I would also caution organizations not to underestimate integration requirements. Interoperability does not come for free. Standards do reduce costs, but they do not eliminate them. That is why it helps to participate in standards early. It is far easier to influence the ecosystem when you are at the table.
When it comes to operational deployment, organizations should be realistic about scale. IoT success comes from focused, repeatable use cases, not from chasing billion-device forecasts. IoT is most powerful when deployed thoughtfully, with a clear understanding that the “thing” is only the beginning. The real value comes from the data, intelligence, and automation layers that follow.
