Is IoT infrastructure ready for extreme weather?

Extreme weather events are now frighteningly common. Heatwaves, droughts and flash flooding make headlines and often leave devastation in their wake.

Infrastructure can struggle under extreme conditions too, with higher-than-average temperatures buckling railway tracks and melting road surfaces.

When intense heat causes electrical components to fail, it can shutdown IoT software across a range of industries. As our climate changes, IoT device and solutions designers must prioritize resilience from the very start, to keep their systems online.

What happens when extreme weather becomes the norm

The World Meteorological Organization has reported that record-breaking temperatures and extreme weather events are becoming the “new normal”. That should be an alarm call for organizations with IoT systems as electro/mechanical failure is one of the four main causes of IoT outages, alongside power/network failure, cyberattacks and inadequate maintenance.

Severe heat can cause equipment to overheat or kick off a chain of events that jeopardize the smooth running of energy systems. This happened in 2024 when people suffering through a heatwave in Australia’s southeast Queensland cranked up air conditioners, causing a surge in electricity demand that triggered shut downs in parts of the grid to prevent equipment damage.

The impact of IoT outages

If extreme heat caused IoT shutdowns, the impact could be far-reaching. The IoT is not isolated to particular applications or industries, it is everywhere. Globally, connections are forecast to be 40 billion+ in 2034.

That’s because we live in a data-hungry world and those IoT connections transmit data. The IoT is embedded deeply in critical industries like energy, transport and healthcare, sharing data from sensors, monitors, trackers and more.

If IoT systems go offline, data stops flowing and safety-critical operations can be put at risk. Think street lighting, perimeter security systems and hospital monitors that must function and do so reliably.

IoT downtime also means processes and production grinding to a halt and that can be expensive. According to one report, 90% of companies incur over $300,000 of costs every hour of a computing/network outage. When cyberattacks target IoT in manufacturing, the average financial impact is more than £224,500.

Outages inconvenience customers and can damage hard-won brand reputations. They call compliance into question and can result in fines.

Can IoT downtime be prevented?

It is impossible to eliminate the risk of IoT downtime completely. In fact, with cyberattacks at the root of many disruptions, it’s less ‘if’ more ‘when’ downtime will occur.

IoT devices were the most frequently attacked in 2024 according to Beaming’s cyberthreat report into UK businesses and the daily attack average on those devices rose still further in the first quarter of 2025 to 178 times a day.

However, there is plenty that enterprises can, and must, do to reduce the risk of outages. They must build resilient IoT systems with measures in place that help maintain functionality should unpredictable events occur.

How to reduce the risk of IoT outages

Designers must build resilience and security into their IoT devices and solutions to reduce the risks that come from four key causes of outages and to minimize the impact, should downtime still occur.

Starting with failure of, or damage to, electrical/mechanical components. Nothing is invincible, so extreme weather, a natural disaster or intentional or accidental physical damage could take out an IoT device or solution.

How much of an impact that has will come down to the planning that went into the solution. It all begins with design, that’s why getting resilience right from the outset is so imperative.

Recovery and redundancy

To begin with, an objective for recovery time should ensure measures are put in place to meet it. These can include redundancy continuity of service and disaster recovery plans and a data backup strategy, including restoration.

Redundancy should be discussed with the relevant IoT solutions and connectivity provider to discover what is in place.

Cellular networks, for example, have multiple layers of failover mechanisms and backhaul connections and infrastructure can keep data moving, whilst a hardware failure is addressed.

Next, think about what would happen if there was a power outage. Backup sources, such as batteries, come into their own here, as do advanced network and SIM capabilities such as interconnections with infrastructure served by separate power supplies.

Network outage

To understand what happens if there is a network outage, ask about failover systems. Explore multi-network, multi-IMSI SIMs and/or eSIM/iSIM for greater control and the ability to switch between network provider infrastructure.

The third cause of IoT outages is cyberattacks. The stuff of nightmares. They can cause all kinds of damage, have a serious impact on output, production and reputation and sometimes lead to a regulatory investigation.

Any company that has suffered at the hands of cybercriminals is in good company, but that’s no reason not to do everything possible to defend against, detect and react to the threats.

There are many measures that can be adopted in IoT designs, including robust identity and access management, multi-factor authentication, data encryption, strong endpoint protection and network segmentation. In the event of an incident, rapid reaction measures include automated patch management.

It should go without saying that inadequate maintenance can also lead to an IoT outage. Again, maintenance must be planned from the start and implemented through real-time monitoring. AI-driven predictive analytics can anticipate failures, automation can help with alerts and incident management, and self-healing systems can automatically detect and correct issues.

Act to minimize IoT outages

Extreme weather can threaten IoT implementations, potentially causing disruptive, even catastrophic, outages, but that isn’t the only threat to the continued smooth operation of the IoT.

Cyberattacks, network and power outages, even inadequate maintenance can just as easily take critical applications offline.

The only mitigation is to build resilience into IoT devices and solutions at the design stage, regularly review and update the measures in place and rehearse recovery procedures. That way, the risks can be reduced as much as possible, and the impact of incidents minimized.

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