cloud computing and m2m applications

Everything in the cloud and we now have the Internet of Things actually able to work.  Exciting times.  Major players are looking at what machines need to talk to us about – this is groundbreaking stuff .  So what would our machines like to tell us and what “things” will take over the communications volumes on the Internet?  The value of knowing the lifetime of information for any machine is HUGE.  A designer can at last review every living breath, every glitch, every fix – and review the historical data to design better machines in the future.  The machine can say – hi – I need maintenance – or hi – its time to renew a component.  My take is it is the machinery of high value that will truly show the benefit of the Internet of things.  Thoughts?