A few years ago, many lines of business (LOBs) started bypassing their IT departments to buy cloud services directly. That’s because IT couldn’t provide the resources they needed fast enough to build and test new products — projects that would enable the company to make more money and stay competitive. History may be poised to…

When most people think about wearables and the Internet of Things, it’s usually smartwatches and fitness trackers that come to mind. But the world of wearable IoT is a lot bigger than that, and the devices do much more than alert users to text messages or track their number of steps. By 2020, the number…

Radio frequency identification (RFID) has been around for a long time. In the 1940s it was used successfully to identify airplanes. In the ’60s and ’70s, still a government technology, it was used to keep secrets safe and restrict access to sensitive areas. In the ’80s, passive tags were created. This helped reduce the price…

The days when digital technology lived only on our desktops and in our data centers are gone. Now almost everything in our work environment is digital, from our vehicles to our air-conditioning systems. And we have powerful computers in our pockets at all times. IT leaders must understand — and respond to — this new…

Digital technology on the factory floor is nothing new: Many manufacturers already incorporate automation and sensors into their production lines. But a broad move is under way to integrate these types of operational technologies (OT) with enterprise IT.