Thomas Ryd is CEO & cofounder of Northern.tech, a device lifecycle management leader with a mission to secure the world's connected devices.getty​One question quietly reveals the true operations of a connected-product company. The question is not, "What are you launching next?" but, “How do you manage (and fund) the ongoing operational and maintenance processes after the initial sale?" The first question usually earns a confident answer; the second, far too often, does not. The difference exposes whether a company is building a sustainable solution or simply treating connectivity as a feature to put on the box.It is a revealing gap, and one widely shared. In a recent industry research survey of more than 500 IoT professionals, manufacturers rated managing devices across the life cycle as a priority on par with launching new products. Yet, that conviction rarely survives the challenges posed by budgets or release schedules. Device life cycle management (DLM) is recognized as essential, but investments and operational outcomes lag behind.OEMs Value DLM In TheoryWhat's striking: The industry knows this. Ask product leaders how much it matters to have a deliberate process for managing a connected product across its full life cycle, and it rates highly—even more than launching something new. The large majority claims such a process already exists. It's an encouraging instinct, a smart product isn’t finished when it ships; release is the beginning of ongoing maintenance, updates and security.That instinct reflects a maturing industry. IoT's first wave rewarded simply shipping fast, often at the expense of security, leaving well over half of connected devices exposed to serious attacks. The focus is moving toward building products meant to last, and managing them like it.Budget Allocation Fails To Support OEMs’ IntentionsBudget allocation is where stated priorities meet reality, and the conviction should translate into capability. Here, it often doesn’t. Even organizations claiming a process is in place express faltering confidence that it works. It's the posture of an organization still finding its footing, attempting to mature as a smart device manufacturer. When asked what holds device life cycle management back, the answer is rarely technology or cost, but prioritization. Everyone agrees the work matters; it simply keeps losing the daily contest for attention and funding.Thus, maintenance is the element every team calls critical, but no team fully funds. As the industry matures, that should change. Sustained device management must grow alongside the connected products and the customers it serves.For now, the gap between intention and execution is real and quietly undermines OEMs in every sector.By Their Own Admission, The Infrastructure Won't LastThe most revealing verdict on the state of device management comes from those who run it. Infrastructure comprises the systems that keep a fielded device healthy: managing software updates, remediating vulnerabilities, proving compliance and doing so reliably across a fleet for years. Ask manufacturers how much longer their current setup will hold up under the demands of the business, and most won't give it three years. A notable share won't even give it one. Only a handful expect the infrastructure in place today to still be supporting their products by the end of the decade.Now set that honesty against a simple fact: product life cycles vary widely. Some products run for years, others are designed to be replaced quickly, but every one needs management for as long as it’s in the field. This surfaces a contradiction. Companies are running management infrastructure with a shorter shelf life than the very products it supports. The gap in DLM foundations today is buckling under current products well before the next generation arrives.Demands Are Only GrowingWhat accelerates the countdown to failure is that the job keeps getting bigger. The comfortable mental picture of an IoT product—one smart device, one update, one system to secure—is already the exception. Most products in the field today are a collection of devices, and a growing share encompasses many more than in previous generations.Every device embedded into a product is another update path, another dependency, another factor that can go wrong. The complexity multiplies. As a result, the infrastructure is straining against a complexity that grows with every product generation. This is the trap quietly closing on manufacturers everywhere: The moment they most need disciplined life cycle management is the very moment their products outgrow the improvised approach that carried them this far.​Closing The Gap With Software Management As Core InfrastructureThe encouraging part is that the awareness already exists. The next step is closing the gap between recognition and execution. That requires treating software management as a core discipline that is as fundamental to the product as R&D.Three aspects are necessary in reaching this maturity. The first is consolidation. Consolidate fragmented, product-specific update processes into a single, automated pipeline that works consistently across devices. Maintaining separate software update paths across product generations is unsustainable.The second is security by design. Treat security as part of the product. Design devices to be secure from the onset and establish practices to deliver timely remediations when vulnerabilities surface. Regulation is following suit with frameworks such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA), placing greater responsibility on manufacturers to ensure security. An OEM cannot control the moment a fix is applied in the field, but it can control whether a resolution exists, reaches the device and can be trusted when applied.The third is adopting a life cycle mindset. Proper device life cycle management for connected IoT products must start with design and end with final decommissioning. Security and maintainability must be built in from initial design decisions rather than bolted on reactively after deployment.The lesson in the survey data is that simply valuing DLM is not enough. The organizations that translate prioritizing DLM into automated, timely and fail-safe infrastructure will be the ones whose devices stay secure and reliable across their entire life cycle. And by extension, those products will continue to be trusted by customers.Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?