The Internet of Things (IoT) adds value to practically every industry, from manufacturing and logistics to retail and resource management. Drones, delivery vehicles, medical gadgets, security cameras, and construction equipment are among the linked "things" that the Internet of Things collects data from. While IoT sensors and devices collect a plethora of data, they also generate massive, difficult-to-manage, high-speed data streams that must be managed, analyzed, stored, and protected. IoT data is also perishable, and without the right tools, companies will miss out on the most valuable time-sensitive insights. This post will look at how real-time data analytics and IoT applications work together to open up new possibilities in various industries.

Modern agriculture depends on bees. In fact, our entire ecosystem, including the food we eat and the air we breathe, counts on pollinators. But the pollinator population is declining according to Sabiha Rumani Malik, the founder and executive president of The World Bee Project. But, in an intriguing collaboration with Oracle and by putting artificial intelligence, internet of things and big data to work on the problem, they hope to reverse the trend. Why is the global bee population in decline?

Modern agriculture depends on bees. In fact, our entire ecosystem, including the food we eat and the air we breathe, counts on pollinators. But the pollinator population is declining according to Sabiha Rumani Malik, the founder and executive president of The World Bee Project. But, in an intriguing collaboration with Oracle and by putting artificial intelligence, internet of things and big data to work on the problem, they hope to reverse the trend. Why is the global bee population in decline?

Even though Walmart was founded in 1962, it's on the cutting edge when it comes to transforming retail operations and customer experience by using machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data. In recent years, its patent applications, position as the second largest online retailer and investment in retail tech and innovation are just a few reasons they are among the retail leaders evolving to take advantage of tech to build their business and provide better service to their customers. Lauren Desegur, VP of customer experience engineering at WalmartLabs said, "We're essentially creating a bridge where we are enhancing the shopping experience through machine learning. We want to make sure there is a seamless experience between what customers do online and what they do in our stores." While its arch nemesis in business may be Amazon.com,

Insurance companies normally place artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and big data into individual buckets. Yet, chief information officers should invest in all three at once, according to new research from Novarica, as they are equally dependent on each other for best results. In an executive brief, "Big data, IoT and AI Maturity levels," the consulting firm argues that while AI is the next stage of advanced analytics decision making, big data and IoT--in the form of sensors, drones and wearables--feed machine learning platforms the information needed to help insurers make smarter claims and underwriting decisions. "All three of these emerging technologies are tightly intertwined. In fact, it's difficult to recognize the future value of one without the others," said Jeff Goldberg, SVP of research and consulting at Novarica, the study's author.

According to a patent application Walmart filed, it seems like its next step is integrating IoT tags to products in order to monitor product usage, auto replace products as necessary and monitor expiration dates or product recalls. These sensors would rely on a variety of technology such as Bluetooth, barcodes, radio frequencies and RFID tags and would provide Walmart with an incredible amount of data including the time of day products are used to where the products are kept in the house. This data could help create personalized advertising and expand cross-selling opportunities. If you had a tag reader installed on your fridge, it could scan everything you place inside and alert you when you need to restock or when items are expired. In another example, a RFID system could monitor how many times you pick up your laundry detergent and predict how much is left.

In their session at @ThingsExpo, Ikuo Nakagawa, Principal at Intec, Inc., and Shin Shibata, Solution Architect at Landis Gyr, will survey leading-edge business cases of Landis based on IoT / BigData technologies, and describe innovative viewpoints for digital innovations. They will also introduce the Transparent Cloud (t-cloud) Computing Consortium and discuss the emerging service architecture for IoT and Big Data. Speaker Bios Ikuo Nakagawa is a co-founder and a board member of Transparent Cloud Computing Consortium. He is also principal & the Executive Chief Engineer at Intec, Inc. He has launched and been contributing to many open projects for IoT business.

For years many of us have been paying attention to the ways that several technological realities such as the Internet of Things, big data and artificial intelligence (AI) are impacting organizations across numerous industries, applications and areas. When we looked at the several technologies in the SMAC stack (social, mobile, analytics and cloud) or IDC's core 3rd platform technologies we looked at them separately but also in their combinations and interlinked value as they powered new next generation applications. It seemed pretty obvious that cloud services, big data/analytics, mobility (mobile devices, apps and broadband) and social (business) were fully intertwined ever since we started writing about that third platform, which IDC presented back in 2011. In that sense of intertwining the same goes for the second platform and its many technologies in areas such as local area networks, the client-server model, personal computers, the Internet and so forth. And in case we forgot that these technology-driven realities, as well as their real underlying technologies (there is no such things as one social business technology, mobile technology or even cloud technology) had little value and impact as such, Gartner reminded us that it was the convergence of mobile, social, cloud and information which enabled digital business through what the research firm called The Nexus of Forces.

In this special guest feature, Vince Padua, VP of Platform Innovation, Technology and Design at Axway, discusses the emergence of "digital twin" technology which will revolutionize how industrial enterprises approach manufacturing operations. Digital twins unite physical entities with virtually-modeled "twins" based on technologies like AI and Big Data derived from IoT sensors, ultimately improving the design and execution of manufacturing and maintenance life cycles as well as creating new revenue streams and services. Vince is a platform and product executive spanning cloud, mobile, big data, analytics, and artificial intelligence offerings. He is a leader of global product management, design, and GTM teams that consistently delivered outstanding business results. The myriad uses of big data continue to unfold as new methods of generating, parsing and combining it evolve.

Even though Walmart was founded in 1962, it's on the cutting edge when it comes to transforming retail operations and customer experience by using machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data. In recent years, its patent applications, position as the second largest online retailer and investment in retail tech and innovation are just a few reasons they are among the retail leaders evolving to take advantage of tech to build their business and provide better service to their customers. Lauren Desegur, VP of customer experience engineering at WalmartLabs said, "We're essentially creating a bridge where we are enhancing the shopping experience through machine learning. We want to make sure there is a seamless experience between what customers do online and what they do in our stores." While its arch nemesis in business may be Amazon.com,