THE "INTERNET OF THINGS". WHAT IS IT?

Although the phrase was first coined in 1989, it's only in recent years that there's been a rush to connect up the world's devices. Research company Gartner predicts that by 2020 more than half of all major new business processes and systems will incorporate some elements of IoT, with more than 20bn "things" connected and talking to each other across the world.
The Boston Consulting Group also predicts that by 2020 B2B spending on IoT technologies, apps, solutions and systems is likely to have reached a whopping $223bn.
IoT technology is already pushing fundamental transformations in many different industries - from energy, with creation of smart networks and smart homes, to agriculture, where sensors in the soil can control irrigation systems and help save water.