The Internet of Things (IoT) has an ever-evolving definition. Each week, a different company hypes a different definition that includes pieces of the market and ignores others. So, how does Compass Intelligence, a leading provider of Telecom market information, define this space? Take the scenario of a city. There are various public and private elements that add up to a city: homes, commercial buildings, government buildings, factories & industrial, infrastructure, transportation, government services, and the list goes on. Each of these elements has “things.” A commercial building has access control, video surveillance, HVAC, offices, elevators, parking structures, sprinklers, energy management, demand response… and the list continues on. The same goes for each of the elements listed above that add to a city.

Electronics and technology are always evolving; sometimes it can be tough to keep up with the latest and greatest trends. However, one thing is certain; in today’s world it can be beneficial to stay informed when it comes to some of the latest transformations, so we wanted to outline a couple of the top consumer electronic trends to keep an eye out for this year.

The Information Technology (IT) industry encompasses many different sectors, all of which receive make-overs on a frequent basis because of the constantly evolving nature of the industry and resulting new discoveries. While many IT trends change quickly, there are some trends that are sticking and expanding into bigger ideas for future technologies. Some of the most notable trends include: mobile diversity, software-defined networking, smart machines, 3-D printing, the internet of everything, and cloud computing.

The most popular terms used by enterprise communications vendors today—and, indeed, for many years—are “UC” (which stands for “unified communications”) and “UCC” (“unified communications and collaboration”). But, if you think that means IT buyers understand what those terms mean, you’re wrong.

Over the last dozen or so years, the Cloud Computing (CC) industry has made monumental strides, and there seems to be no shortage of opinions and analysis around the CC solution having huge potential across many applications. In fact, several analysts expect the market to eventually reach hundreds of billions of dollars from an estimated $35.6 billion in 2013. However, market size does not appear to be the question. The pressing issues for the CC industry lie in its security, business adoption/transformation and infrastructure, which will have a significant impact on when that market potential can be realized.