The Internet of Things is a growing network of everyday objects – from industrial machines to consumer goods – that can share information and complete tasks while you are busy with other activities, like work, sleep or exercise.

Soon, our cars, our homes, our major appliances and even our city streets will be connected to the Internet – creating this network of objects that is called the Internet of Things, or IoT for short.

Made up of millions of sensors and devices that generate incessant streams of data, the IoT can be used to improve our lives and our businesses in many ways. But how does it work? And what are these things that are part of the network?

The Internet of Things consists of three main components:

1. The things (or assets) themselves.
2. The communication networks connecting them.
3. The computing systems that process and make use of the data that our things transmit and receive.