In what vertical industries is the Internet of Things gaining traction?

Health care, manufacturing (which includes automotive) and retail are among the top three industries that enter this conversation.

And then, there are the efforts to create smart cities.

And there's agriculture, which is where Alvarez is working with a seed manufacturer that's "struggling with a number of issues" tied to product traceability; for example, finding the source of an e-coli outbreak that could be linked back to an agricultural product.

"That’s not something this company is equipped to do," Alvarez explained, "so they're coming to us and [asking] 'What do we need to do?'"