In reply to Mike Roberts.

Thanks for commenting and sharing your post. I agree. Information applications that provide data collection and real-time intelligence are key – to enabling the quantified self and to manufacturing processes. By providing the ability to capture data / events, analyze them in near or real-time, and get the information to the people (or machines) that know what to do with it, these technologies will have a huge impact on process efficiencies.

The back-end connection to the cloud — along with the increased connections among things (using sensors), between machines, and to people — is creating tremendous opportunity, including the ability to reduce inventory and improve process speed and efficiency. We’re looking at ways to incorporate Cisco's Unified Communications with this real-time intelligence to drive greater agility through increased visibility, along with the ability to take action with timely interventions.

As you said, a few years ago we weren’t talking about many of these topics and now they’re rapidly making their way through the business world. Our team is doing IoE Value Assessments and Cloud consulting to help our customers keep up with these rapid changes and to understand the potential impact for them when they connect data, assets, and people in new ways. Exciting times!