From smart thermostats and grocery store checkouts to public utility infrastructures and industrial manufacturing lines, the Internet of Things (IoT) is all around us—and growing larger every day. But with this rapid growth comes a number of operational challenges: IoT devices collect a large amount of data, and are often distributed across harsh, ever-changing environments.

In a factory environment, collecting data to gain useful insights from various sources is challenging because it requires connecting to many different types of automation systems, plcs and devices that often speak different languages. This is the problem that German industrial software company, inray (specialized in data communication between software systems and components in Industry 4.0, IoT and IIoT) set out to solve for its customers.

Five worthy reads is a regular column on five noteworthy items we’ve discovered while researching trending and timeless topics. Most healthcare facilities already use the Internet of Things (I0T) to make their environment a more efficient and safer place, and this week, we show you how IoT is revolutionizing the healthcare industry. As the world’s population grows, so does the need for quality medical assistance and healthcare.

The IoT, Internet of Things, has arrived. Sensors are everywhere, collecting more and more data about us and the world around us. Temperature, Humidity, Fluid Levels, Traffic counts, the status of devices and things like doors and elevators are being collected and distributed all around us. The question now is "What do we do with all that data?

As we roll into the next decade and IoT becomes commonplace in most organizations, requirements for connectivity will change. Over the last decade of Wi-Fi, we’ve seen a push for faster speeds (high throughput and very high throughput) and recently the ability for greater capacity (high efficiency). Wireless IoT protocols have a different focus. Those requirements are long distance, low power, and flexible architecture. As we consider the next generation, which capabilities rise to the top?

OK, folks. Let’s be real for a moment and acknowledge that everybody, every professional, and definitely every vendor out there is tossing out the phrase “IoT” like flyers on the Las Vegas strip. As an industry, we tend to use IoT to describe a breadth of networked devices, most often headless—those without a user attached—such as cameras, door entry systems, and HVAC controls.