Machine-to-machine communication, or M2M, is exactly as it sounds: two machines “communicating,” or exchanging data, without human interfacing or interaction. This includes serial connection, powerline connection (PLC), or wireless communications in the industrial Internet of Things (IoT). Switching over to wireless has made M2M communication much easier and enabled more applications to be connected. As businesses have realized the value of M2M, it has taken on a new name: the Internet of Things (IoT) . IoT and M2M have similar promises: to fundamentally change the way the world operates. Just like IoT, M2M allows virtually any sensor to communicate, which opens up the påossibility of systems monitoring themselves and automatically responding to changes in the environment, with a much reduced need for human involvement. M2M and IoT are almost synonymous—the exception is IoT (the newer term) typically refers to wireless communications, whereas M2M can refer to any two ma...