Over-the-top headlines and estimates of the size of the IoT market create more confusion and skepticism about hype than a real understanding of how big the market really is. There needs to be a framework for understanding IoT market size.

If you think the internet's busy now, just wait until next year. Gartner estimates there will be 6.4 billion connected devices in 2016, up 30 percent from this year.

After the town of Cary, N.C., installed a water meter system that automatically radios water usage to the public works department, it eliminated 10 meter-reading positions. The water resources group operates today with a smaller staff, thanks to the Internet of Things.

You're probably getting desensitized by now to the ever-lengthening list of data breach headlines which have saturated the news for the past couple of years. Targeted attacks, persistent threats and the like usually end up with the hackers capturing sensitive IP, customer information or trade secrets. The result? Economic damage, board level sackings and a heap of bad publicity for the breached organization. But that's usually where it ends.

Cloud computing can assist manufacturers to effectively respond to increased order volumes and complexity.

A thing of mystery to some and a place of utmost security to others, cloud computing and "the cloud" have entered our lexicon as something to be either feared or revered.