IBM emerges as global IoT leader; launches Global Watson IoT Consulting Solutions

NEW DELHI: Tech giant IBM has announced an array of new services, industry offerings and capabilities to help enterprise clients, startups and developers drive digital transformation with the Internet of Things (IoT). With the number of connected devices skyrocketing, IBM is making IoT accessible to millions around the world. IBM is dedicating more than 1,500 industry experts with its new Watson IoT Consulting Solutions, as well as giving open and free access to its Watson IoT Platform.

To help clients across industries capture the massive business opportunity of the digitization of the physical world, IBM launched the industry’s first global IBM Watson IoT Consulting Solutions practice. The practice will feature 1,500 experts across IBM Watson IoT headquarters in Munich, Germany and in eight other IBM IoT centers across Asia, Europe and the Americas. By integrating IBM Watson IoT Platform APIs and technologies, including cognitive, analytics, mobile, security and cloud capabilities, together with development and implementation consulting and ongoing support, clients can fully use the IoT without the risk and complexity of dealing with multiple vendors.

The IBM Watson IoT Consulting Solutions practice will employ a global network of skilled consultants, data scientists and design and security experts with deep domain and industry expertise, all dedicated to providing clients with guidance on tackling industry specific IoT adoption challenges. The first priority industries include automotive, electronics, industrial products, insurance, retail, telecommunications, transportation and buildings. Clients can apply Watson cognitive computing capabilities, including machine learning and natural language to tap into massive amounts of unstructured data -- such as videos and sounds –- to gain insights and augment decision making.

Also, this announcement follows Forrester Research naming IBM a leader in its Wave report 1 on IoT software platforms. In The Forrester Wave: IoT Software Platforms, Q4 2016, Forrester analyzed and scored 11 IoT software platform vendors, identifying IBM as a leader, citing “The Watson IoT Platform can serve a broad range of advanced IoT use cases.” The report also notes “IBM has added significant capabilities to the platform, including augmented reality, cognitive capabilities, blockchain, edge analytics, analytics tooling, and natural language processing, to name a few. With a strong commitment to open source standards and a robust global partner ecosystem, IBM is well positioned for market leadership.”

IBM is already working with over 50,000 developers around the globe to help them to get up and running on the IBM Watson IoT Platform. Just seven months ago, IBM teamed up with Coursera, the education platform that partners with top global universities and organizations to offer online courses, to create and launch "A developer's guide to the IoT,” a course that already has more than 22,000 registrants.