`Next gen` Internet Alters Global Corporate Strategies

The Internet is now entering a new phase of innovation with billions of consumer devices, including smart phones, tablets and industrial machines, being connected to one-another using sensors, telecommunications links and Internet infrastructure. More objects are becoming embedded with sensors and gaining the ability to communicate resulting in the number of objects connected to the Internet exceeding the number of people on earth. Following on from Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 (the consumer Internet), this next generation of Internet has become known as the industrial Internet, `the Internet of things`, the `Internet of everything` and machine-to-machine or [M2M] communication. This is not only creating new business models but a range of new benefits including improved business processes and reduced costs and risks. However, there are potential drawbacks for those organisations that are not able to exploit these benefits which is referred to as the `data divide`.