IBM plans to invest $3 billion over the next four years to establish a new Internet of Things (IoT) unit, and build a cloud-based open platform designed to help clients and ecosystem partners build IoT solutions.

With new industry-specific cloud data services and developer tools, IBM will build on that expertise to help clients and partners integrate data from an unprecedented number of IoT and traditional sources.

These resources will be made available on an open platform to provide manufacturers with the ability to design and produce a new generation of connected devices that are better optimized for the IoT, and to help business leaders across industries create systems that better fuse enterprise and IoT data to inform decision-making.

“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,” said Bob Picciano, senior vice president, IBM Analytics.

“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.”

IBM estimates that 90 per cent of all data generated by devices such as smartphones, tablets, connected vehicles and appliances is never analyzed or acted on. As much as 60 per cent of this data begins to lose value within milliseconds of being generated.

To address this challenge, IBM has announced that 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.  For example, IBM will introduce a cloud-based service that helps insurance companies extract insight from connected vehicles. This will enable new, more dynamic pricing models and the delivery of services that can be highly customized to individual drivers.

•    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. Developers will be able to enrich existing business applications – such as enterprise asset management, facilities management, and software engineering design tools – by infusing more real-time data and embedded analytics to further automate and optimize mission-critical IoT processes.

•    IBM IoT Ecosystem: Expansion of its ecosystem of IoT partners – from silicon and device manufacturers to industry-oriented solution providers – such as AT&T, ARM, Semtech and newly announced The Weather Company – to ensure the secure and seamless integration of data services and solutions on IBM’s open platform.

For its first major partnership, IBM said a unit of the Weather Co will move its weather data services onto IBM's cloud, so that customers can use the data in tandem with IBM's analytics tools.

As a result, IBM is hoping that companies will be able to combine live weather forecasting with a range of business data, so companies can quickly adapt to customer buying patterns or supply chain issues connected to the weather.

For example, insurance companies could send messages to policyholders in certain areas when hailstorms are approaching and tell them safe places to park, saving money all round.

Or retail stores could compare weather forecasts with past data to predict surges or drop-offs in customer buying due to extreme weather, and to adjust staffing and supply chain logistics accordingly.

IBM’s capabilities are illustrated in a new global strategic alliance announced today with The Weather Company through WSI, its global B2B division.

The new unit will be led by Pat Toole as general manager. – TradeArabia News Service and Reuters