Partners waiting for the Internet of Things (IoT) to really take off should consider getting in on the ground floor. There’s an entire industry waiting that goes far beyond devices.

New research from MarketsandMarkets shows that the IoT analytics market will grow from a little less than $4.9 billion this year to more than $16.3 billion in 2020. That’s a staggering compound annual growth rate of almost 27.5 percent.

The report notes that as the data from IoT-enabled devices proliferates, there will be a growing need to conduct a more detailed analysis of the large volumes of structured and unstructured data. IoT analytics extracts important information from the vast amount of IoT data generated by sensors and smart devices. It helps in business-process optimization, creating a need in just about every business vertical.

The demand for IoT analytics is driven by the increasing penetration of connected devices and analytics tools. The MarketsandMarkets research further cites the shifting interests in cloud deployment, predictive analytics for business, end-to-end automation and consumer-friendly IoT analytics as other factors driving the market and creating value.

While IoT analytics has begun to take shape with a high adoption rate among large enterprises with data-support systems and capital to invest in this area, partners should note that the increase in cloud adoption is making the IoT analytics market for SMBs look promising over the next several years.

So which vendors are at the front of IoT analytics software? MarketsandMarkets says, in no particular order, they are IBM, Intel, SAP, Capgemini, Accenture and Nokia Networks. Many niche players – including ThingWorx, AGT International and Mnubo – are also starting to make a splash. This is a market that remains to be open with few entry and exit barriers, the report says.

North America is expected to be the largest market based on spending and adoption of IoT analytics over the next five years.

Follow senior online managing editor Craig Galbraith on Twitter.