Its Google Cloud IoT Core, announced in a blog post last week, may be a good use of Google's reach, number-crunching power and device OS expertise. But the problem it aims to solve is daunting, and competitors are already focused on it.

The good news for enterprises is that there are several solutions to IoT sprawl already available or taking shape. VMware recently introduced Pulse IoT Center, the latest broad-based platform for setting up, managing and scaling IoT infrastructure. Cloud rival Microsoft has Azure IoT Hub, with a similar mission. Cisco Systems, General Electric and Nokia are also in the game.

Google says its cloud services, including Google Cloud Dataflow, Big Query and Cloud Machine Learning Engine, set Cloud IoT Core apart from rival offerings. The service is going into private beta now and will be generally available by the end of this year.

Though automation should help companies manage an IoT infrastructure, setting one up is still a daunting task, analysts say. For an enterprise, implementing IoT calls for major organizational changes in addition to technical effort, according to Gartner analyst Alfonso Veloso. It can reshape whole business processes. Cloud IoT Core will make it easier for companies to set up pilot projects to get their feet wet, then scale up their IoT efforts, said Indranil Chakraborty, a Google Cloud product manager.

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