The Internet of Things (IoT) is making its way into some unexpected environments these days, including within the “Internet of cows.”

At the Dell 1-5-10 Series IoT Discussion in San Francisco, analysts and other members of the IT industry met with Dell representatives to explore the ways in which the IoT can be expanded and integrated into a wide variety of business and life aspects.

John Furrier, cohost of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, spoke with Andy Rhodes, executive director of IoT for Dell, Inc., to get his perspective on some of the approaches the company is taking to IoT, as well as to hear about some unusual use-cases.

Data and use-cases

Rhodes began by establishing his view of IoT. “The first thing I say is that IoT’s not one thing… it’s really a set of use-cases, driven by a lot of emerging new technology or by technologies getting cheaper,” he stated, going on to break it down with a simple example. “A quick definition is” How do I take things instead of people to create data and then tie that back into datacenters? That’s what it’s all about.”

Citing instances and implementations ranging from optimizing truck fleet performance to improving safety and energy efficiency in smart buildings, as well as partner-driven developments — as with the large amounts of data generated by General Electric’s jet engines — Rhodes touched on several ways in which IoT is penetrating new markets. One of the more striking ways mentioned was the “Internet of cows,” an example drawn from a tech-embracing Indian farm, which demonstrates how IoT is being applied to very organic environments traditionally thought of as being largely unpredictable.

Consumers and partners

At the end of the day, it’s all about data, according to Rhodes. “Dell is a company that provides IT infrastructure to allow you to gather data and analyze data,” he said.

While he felt that the rising adoption rates for IoT were “really being driven by silicon getting cheaper, the sensors getting much cheaper, and then network connectivity getting better, and huge amounts of data that we can really analyze these days,” Rhodes noted that the rise of consumer awareness played a huge role by itself.

He also emphasized the importance of drawing on the strengths of business partners and their specializations to find the best connectivity. “It’s always a hybrid approach [to IoT integration]; that’s why it really depends on each customer use-case and their experience,” he said.

Looking forward, Rhodes was highly enthused about the prospects for IoT to enable changes in business and life. “Companies that were one thing yesterday might even transform their whole business model over the next couple of years as a consequence of this revolution or evolution of IoT,” he stated.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of Dell’s 1-5-10 IoT event.

Photo by SiliconANGLE