IBM announced March 31 that the company will invest $3 billion during the next four years to establish a new Internet of Things (IoT) unit led by Pat Toole as General Manager. The company is also building a cloud-based open platform designed to help clients and ecosystem partners build IoT solutions.
“Our knowledge of the world grows with every connected sensor and device, but too often we are not acting on it, even when we know we can ensure a better result,” IBM Analytics Senior Vice President Bob Picciano said. “IBM will enable clients and industry partners apply IoT data to build solutions based on an open platform. This is a major focus of investment for IBM because it’s a rich and broad-based opportunity where innovation matters.”
Ninety percent of all data generated by devices such as smartphones, tablets, connected vehicles and appliances is never analyzed or acted on, according to IBM estimates. To address this challenge, IBM announced it will offer:
- IBM IoT Cloud Open Platform for Industries: This platform will provide new analytics services that clients, partners and IBM will use to design and deliver vertical industry IoT solutions.
- IBM Bluemix IoT Zone: New IoT services as part of IBM’s Bluemix platform-as-a-service will enable developers to easily integrate IoT data into cloud-based development and deployment of IoT apps.
- IBM IoT Ecosystem: Expansion of its ecosystem of IoT partners to ensure the secure and seamless integration of data services and solutions on IBM’s open platform.
IBM also announced a new alliance with The Weather Company through WSI, its global B2B division. The IoT and cloud computing allow for collection of data from weather sensors and aircraft, smartphones, buildings and moving vehicles.
