Along with the massive explosion that is taking place in global data volumes, a similar explosion is being witnessed in terms of the proliferation of devices that create that data. This goes beyond the rapid spread of smartphones and tablets, toinclude the tens of thousands of sensors of every imaginable kind that are being connected to the Internet every day, that take and report readings on an ongoing basis, usually unattended by humans.

Smart electricity meters are one visible example, but increasingly we are hearing about numerous types of environmental sensors that are being connected up, including at the Sydney bakery Brasserie Bread.

We call this evolving network the Internet of Things, and the underlying technology is described as machine-to-machine communication (m2m), and it was the subject of my cover story for the final edition of CIO Australia magazine for 2012.