Bosch says that there are already some five million devices working with its also generically named "IoT Suite" so the wheels are in motion, so to speak. For now there are a variety of gizmos designed to get your home talking including a central hub and things like door-and-window contact sensors. Nothing particularly worth getting excited about, but they're the staples for anything resembling a smart home. There are also bits for connected parking spots (reserve one before you even arrive) and auto-racing applications for a pit crew to monitor a racecar's vitals from afar, among other applications.

Reuters also notes that Bosch plans to bring some 50 of its own applications into IoT Cloud in 2016, with it granting other companies access next year. More than that, in the future Germany won't be the only data center location.