The “internet of things” refers to the idea of turning everyday objects around us into responsive data devices. It’s one of the hottest ideas in tech right now — even if we’re totally lacking the resources we need to support it. Speaking at Gigaom’s Structure event in San Francisco, four experts well-versed in the practical problems of making this happen offered their thoughts about the infrastructure that will be needed to make use of it. For Tamara Budec, an executive with data services provider Digital Realty, the building of the physical layer for the internet of things has barely begun, and moving forward will require constructing new clusters of data centers and also and freeing up more wireless spectrum. There are also questions of how to build in global security and privacy controls, according to Jai Menon, VP and chief research officer at Dell Research.