This comprehensive text/reference presents a broad-ranging overview of device connectivity in distributed computing environments, supporting the vision of an Internet of Things (IoT). Expert perspectives are provided by an international selection of researchers from both industry and academia, covering issues of communication, security, privacy, interoperability, networking, access control, and authentication. In addition to discussing state-of-the-art research and practice, the book includes corporate analyses offering a balanced view of benefits and limitations, and numerous case studies illustrating the challenges and practical solutions. Topics and features: discusses issues of security and privacy in connected environments, with a specific focus on the impact of the IoT paradigm on enterprise information systems; examines the challenges of managing big data in IoT environments, and proposes cloud computing-based solutions to the limitations inherent in the IoT paradigm; suggests approaches to overcome service-level interoperability problems in the IoT environment; introduces a mobile IoT simulator designed to evaluate the behavior of IoT systems, in addition to a novel approach to manage hyper-connectivity in the IoT; describes the use of the Essence framework to model software development methods, and highlights the benefits of integrating data from smart buildings and IoT devices; presents an asymmetric schema matching mechanism for IoT interoperability, and explores the topic of automatic provenance capture at the middleware level; reviews emerging network topologies and communication technologies, and advises on the adoption of a data distribution service as a middleware platform for IoT systems. This practically-oriented volume serves as a complete reference for students, researchers and practitioners of distributed computing, providing insights into the latest approaches, technologies, and frameworks relevant to the IoT environment.