The Internet of Things or the Industrial Internet is here. Across many industries, products and practices are being transformed by communicating sensors and computing intelligence.

Examples: Nest Labs (a digital thermostat), General Electric (smart hospital room), IBM (2,000 projects worldwide that fit in the Smarter Planet category).

“We’re going to put the digital ‘smarts’ into everything,” said Edward D. Lazowska, a computer scientist at the University of Washington. These abundant smart devices will “interact intelligently with people and with the physical world.”