The following are news announcements made during the past week:
PRESS RELEASE:
Oracle, Mitsubishi Electric Collaborate to Develop IoT Platform for Smart Manufacturing
Oracle today announced its collaboration with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation to develop an Internet of Things (IoT) platform for smart manufacturing. With Oracle Cloud, Mitsubishi Electric developed its new FA-IT Open Platform for factory automation. Using edge computing between devices and business applications, the new platform enables the rapid collection, analysis, and utilization of data at production site.
With organizations rapidly adopting Industry 4.0, manufacturers are increasingly seeking to optimize their total manufacturing processes by using IoT to collect data from all equipment in factories for visualization and analysis. Developing such IoT systems from scratch is an enormous task requiring that data be collected and modeled from a wide variety of production equipment, including existing equipment, for analytical purposes.
With FA-IT Open Platform, vendors can create manufacturing applications for operation on the platform, including connecting the platform to industrial networks to collect data from diverse devices and production equipment. The cloud-connected platform can be used to link manufacturing sites with cloud vendors’ own cloud-supported manufacturing-optimization services for supply chains, administration of multiple factories worldwide, and other applications.
FA-IT Open Platform leverages Oracle Database Cloud, Oracle Java Cloud, Oracle BI Cloud, Oracle IoT Cloud, Oracle IoT Production Monitoring Cloud, Oracle SOA Cloud, and Oracle Infrastructure as a Service. Information received in real time from machine tools and production terminals is received by Oracle IoT Cloud, enabling efficient real time processing with the extensible infrastructure. Mitsubishi Electric utilizes machine learning of Oracle Database Cloud, the reporting function of Oracle BI Cloud, and the cost-effective Oracle Cloud Infrastructure in the analysis of accumulated Big Data, contributing to further development of solutions in the factory automation area for customers and to smart manufacturing industry.
“Mitsubishi Electric develops advanced technologies and products for rapidly emerging factory automation,” said Toshiya Takahashi, corporate executive group senior vice president, factory automation system, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. “Our e-F@ctory concept for integrated automation reduces the total cost of developing, producing and maintaining products. Mitsubishi Electric’s new FA-IT Open Platform is based on edge computing to accelerate IoT utilization for smart manufacturing. By adding Oracle Cloud services to this platform, we believe that it will be possible to visualize factories and build an application development environment. In order to provide the platform to customers early, we will also work with partner companies, including IT companies, to develop applications utilizing the platform.”
PRESS RELEASE:
IOTA, Evernym Launch Collaboration Aimed at Making Internet of Things More Secure
Blockchain technology innovation leaders IOTA and Evernym announced a new collaboration dedicated to jointly developing Internet of Things-enabling solutions focused on increasing trust by providing secure, irrevocable identity to all connected devices. The announcement was made during a joint presentation at the MyData2017 conference in Helsinki.
“Evernym and IOTA are both intensively working toward achieving the same goal,” said IOTA founder David Sønstebø. “That is, a world where distributed ledgers facilitate the secure and efficient exchange of resources and data between all connected entities. This is a natural pairing and the world should pay attention to the exciting products that result from it.”
IOTA is perhaps best known for its Tangle protocol, which facilitates transaction settlement with zero fees, permitting devices to trade exact amounts of resources on-demand, as well as securely store ledger-verified data from sensors and dataloggers.
Evernym technology mediates the exchange of verifiable claims via distributed ledgers, permitting connected entities to interact with complete confidence in the counterparty’s identity, as well as the validity of the attributes which each professes to possess.
“The challenge of determining identity goes far beyond simply identifying humans,” said Evernym’s Chief Trust Officer Drummond Reed. “If the great promise of the Internet of Things is to be fulfilled, connected devices must also be uniquely and enduringly identifiable, and the validity of what they claim to be must be quickly verifiable. This is precisely the work Evernym is pursuing. Expect significant advancements to emerge from our collaboration with IOTA.”
PRESS RELEASE:
Ericsson, Qualcomm Technologies Complete CAT-M1 Test for Internet of Things in Africa
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and Qualcomm Technologies have successfully completed a lab trial for a Cat-M1 solution with MTN South Africa in support of MTN’s Internet of Things (IoT) ambitions.
This is the first Cat-M1 test implementation of its kind on the African continent and represents the first stage of a wider scope of test activity. The Cat-M1 trial uses IoT devices integrated with a Qualcomm MDM9206 global multimode LTE IoT modem and the Ericsson Massive IoT Radio Access Network product.
The successful test will ensure MTN continues to lead in technological IoT advancements and will prepare MTN for a new wave of solutions that can be implemented in the new future. MTN South Africa will continue trialling devices and applications for Cat-M1 in its Test Bed lab.
Cellular IoT technologies, such as Cat-M1 and their evolution into 5G, set a solid foundation for massive IoT by reducing complexity, lowering power consumption, expanding coverage, and increasing device density. Cat-M1 enables advanced IoT applications by providing hundreds of kilobits per second in throughput, mobility, and VoLTE support. Examples of typical Cat-M1 IoT applications include smart watches or fitness bands with integrated voice communications services, pet tracking devices, point of sale terminals, vending machines and vehicle tracking with emergency calling support.
Giovanni Chiarelli, CTIO, MTN South Africa, says: “Cat-M1 provides key advantages of low-cost devices, long battery life, extended coverage and supports a wide range of use cases. The successful trial, in conjunction with Ericsson and Qualcomm Technologies, proves that both companies have the ability to support new IoT services and technologies for MTN. The initial use of this technology has been for tracking and reporting use cases that have benefited both consumer and business customers. At MTN we are providing the platform for these and future applications to enhance people’s lives.”
Rafiah Ibrahim, President, Ericsson Middle East and Africa, says: “Today, the majority of telco IoT revenue comes from machine-to-machine connectivity, but in the next five years, this will change to revenue from platforms, applications and services. This trial ensures MTN South Africa will capture new revenue streams and deliver the best experience to its customers.”
James Munn, Vice President of Business Development, Qualcomm South Africa, says: “This trial supports the first wave of IoT use cases requiring extended coverage and battery life, compared to today’s baseline 2G/GSM and LTE. Our MDM9206 global multimode LTE IoT modem, designed to support LTE Cat M1, NB-1 and E-GPRS and global RF bands, brings many enhancements and optimizations to LTE that can help reduce IoT complexity, up to ten years of battery life and low device costs, and support operators such as MTN South Africa.”
PRESS RELEASE:
451 Research Finds IoT Impacting IT Infrastructure from Edge to Cloud
451 Research today unveils the latest trends in IoT use and finds that the massive amounts of data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT) is already having a significant impact on enterprise IT. Please let me know if you are interested in speaking with an analyst regarding the survey results below.
In the latest Voice of the Enterprise: IoT – Workloads and Key Projects, analysts find that organizations deploying IoT are planning increases in storage capacity (32.4%), network edge equipment (30.2%), server infrastructure (29.4%) and off-premises cloud infrastructure (27.2%) in the next 12 months, to help manage the IoT data storm. Analysts find that spending on IoT projects remains solid, with 65.6% of respondents planning to increase their spending in the next 12 months and only 2.7% planning a reduction.
Today, IT-centric projects are the dominant IoT use cases, particularly datacenter management and surveillance and security monitoring. Two years out, however, facilities automation will likely be the most popular use case, and line-of-business-centric supply chain management is expected to jump from number 6 to number three.
Finding IoT-skilled workers remains a challenge since the last IoT survey in 2016, with almost half of respondents saying they face a skills shortage for IoT-related tasks. Data analytics, security and virtual¬ization capabilities are the skills most in demand.
451 Research finds that the collection, storage, transport and analysis of IoT data is impacting all aspects of IT infrastructure. Most companies say they initially store (53.1%) and analyze (59.1%) IoT data at a company-owned datacenter. IoT data remains stored there for two-thirds of organizations, while nearly one-third of the respondents move the data to a public cloud.
Researchers find that, once IoT data moves beyond operational and real-time uses and the focus is on historical use cases such as regulatory reporting and trend analysis, cloud storage gives organizations greater flexibility and often significant cost savings for the long term.
Despite this centralization of IoT data, the survey also finds action at the edge. Just under half of respondents say they do IoT data processing – including data analysis, data aggregation or data filtering – at the edge, either on the IoT device (22.2%) or in nearby IT infrastructure (23.3%).
“Companies are processing IoT workloads at the edge today to improve security, process real-time operational action triggers, and reduce IoT data storage and transport requirements,” said Rich Karpinski, Research Director for Voice of the Enterprise: Internet of Things. “While some enterprises say that in the future they will do more analytics – including heavy data processing and analysis driven by big data or AI – at the network edge, for now that deeper analysis is happening in company-owned datacenters or in the public cloud.”
PRESS RELEASE:
Wibu-Systems Joins Dell IoT Solutions Partner Program
Wibu-Systems, an innovative security technology leader in the global software licensing market, announced today that they have become a Dell IoT Solutions Partner.
The Dell IoT Solutions Partner Program is designed to give Technology and Services Providers the tools needed to focus on the advancement of commercial and industrial IoT solutions. The program enables ISVs, OEMs, developers and end customers to find the right tools to deploy scalable, differentiated solutions on top of Dell’s broad portfolio of IoT-enabling technologies. Through this partnership, Dell customers can easily deploy Wibu-Systems IP protection and IoT software licensing and license tracking solution on their Dell Edge Gateway 5000 Series and Embedded Box PC 3000 and 5000 Series systems.
“Security is a huge priority when it comes to implementing IoT where critical organizational operations and data are at risk,” said Jason Shepherd, Director, IoT Strategy and Partnerships, Dell. “With Wibu-Systems’ technology, our customers have a qualified licensing and protection solution that will help them address the many security and monetization challenges that will arise along their path towards IoT success.”
IoT is delivering real benefits in efficiency, customer experience, safety and new revenue models. Security-by-design is integral to successful IoT initiatives to achieve functional integrity and protect private and mission-critical data. Wibu-Systems’ award winning CodeMeter technology enables software publishers and intelligent device manufacturers to safeguard the intellectual property of their applications against illicit and fraudulent use, reverse engineering, and tampering.
Furthermore, CodeMeter enables new business models for intelligent device manufacturers through secure licensing and automated deployment and tracking. CodeMeter is a proven solution with use cases across many industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, communication, energy, transportation and logistics, and industrial automation. It fully integrates easily into the most popular ERP, CRM, and e-commerce platforms.
CodeMeter supports all mainstream platforms, including Windows, Windows Embedded Standard, and Windows Embedded Compact, Linux and Embedded Linux, macOS, VxWorks, CODESYS, B&R Automation Studio, and Rockwell Studio 5000 Logix Designer.
Oliver Winzenried, CEO and Founder of Wibu-Systems, said: “We are excited to join Dell’s technology partner ecosystem and strengthen our joint commitment to help the development community address the many security challenges that abound in the IoT. CodeMeter is the perfect solution for licensing, license tracking and IP protection, all of which give developers the flexibility to launch innovative, secure, and successful IoT monetization strategies.”
PRESS RELEASE:
Kerlink, YEAP! Team Up to Roll Out Argentina’s First LoRaWAN IoT Network
Kerlink (ALKLK – FR0013156007), a specialist and global leader in network solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), and YEAP! today announced their collaboration to rollout Argentina’s first LoRaWAN network. YEAP! was recently launched by Inversiones Condor (ICondor), a strong player in telecommunications and technology in Argentina and South America, to operate the new network.
Continuing its international expansion, Kerlink will provide several hundred gateways for the deployment, which begins immediately in Buenos Aires and Rosario and will provide nationwide coverage by July 2018. The deployment follows a successful pilot project early this year. The fast-growing company will supply its Wirnet iBTS Compact stations in local ISM bands (923 MHz). Kerlink already has installed more than 8,500 of these versatile, long-range, two-way and geolocation-ready gateways for IoT network operators in Europe and South Asia.
ICondor is an established and innovative telecom company with experience throughout Latin America. It created what is now the Movistar Network (MOVICOM), which operates in Spain and 13 Central and South American countries. ICondor also launched CTI Movil, which is now America Movil, a leading provider of integrated telecommunications services in Latin America. ICondor, which is based in Buenos Aires, plans to deploy LoRaWAN IoT networks throughout South America following the rollout in Argentina.
“ICondor had a broad selection of equipment for its LoRaWAN network, and its choice of Kerlink gateways underscores their modular flexibility, reliability and geolocation capability based on Semtech reference design, as well their ability to mix both LoRaWAN for data collection and 4G networks for backhaul”, said William Gouesbet, Kerlink CEO. “This collaboration with one of South America’s leading telecom companies significantly expands our international footprint, in line with our development strategy and goal of becoming a leading global provider of IoT network equipment, solutions and services.”
“Kerlink was one of the first M2M-technology companies to enable low-power, long-range connectivity and to launch easy-to-install infrastructure solutions for billions of devices that improve cost-efficiency and scalability across multiple verticals. This gives them a strong market expertise and leadership,” said Martin Rajman, CEO of YEAP! “Many Argentinian companies and cities are waiting for a versatile, secure, high-quality and high-performance IoT technology to support applications in critical B2B and B2C markets. These include asset tracking, smart cities, logistics and smart agriculture, as well as insurance, pet monitoring and home automation. YEAP!’s LoRaWAN network supported by Kerlink gateways will deliver that support and enable the connectivity of millions of end devices.”
Gouesbet also noted that the partnership with ICondor underscores the LoRa Alliance’s ability not only to supply the technology, equipment and services to quickly roll out the LoRaWAN network on any continent, but also to combine critical components and services. These include application-development environments and dedicated sensor design offered by the 500-member-plus alliance.
“This partnership with ICondor confirms that the LoRa Alliance is a dynamic ecosystem able to bring together all the components and expertise necessary for quick deployments for mobile network operators, smart cities or companies that decide to launch and operate a dedicated IoT network,” the Kerlink CEO said.
Both companies are members of the LoRa Alliance. Kerlink is a founding member and sits on its board of directors. As part of its international expansion strategy, Kerlink reinforced its local representation and distribution channel to cover all of Latin America, with a local presence for sales, deployment and customer support.
PRESS RELEASE:
Silicon Labs Collaborates With Microsoft on Internet of Things Solutions
Silicon Labs (NASDAQ: SLAB) today announced that it has joined Microsoft Azure Certified for Internet of Things (IoT), ensuring customers get IoT solutions up and running quickly with hardware and software that has been pre-tested and verified to work with Microsoft Azure IoT services. Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT allows businesses to reach customers where they are, working with an ecosystem of devices and platforms, allowing faster time to production.
Silicon Labs is a leading provider of silicon, software and cloud-based solutions for the IoT, with more than 20 years of expertise in delivering connectivity solutions. With a broad portfolio of connected ICs and modules, Silicon Labs enables developers to build low-power, reliable, secure, cloud-connected and managed products and maintain them by remotely delivering software updates and enhancements over the lifetime of the product. Silicon Labs’ software platform, combined with devices that are certified for Microsoft Azure, speeds time to revenue and delivers cost-efficient, pre-certified products. Customers working with Silicon Labs can directly and securely share data from their devices to Azure cloud services.
“Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT helps customers build IoT solutions quickly with Silicon Labs’ pre-certified, pre-tested hardware and software,” said Sanjay Kalyanasundaram, Head of IoT Cloud Services at Silicon Labs. “Customers can focus on the product experience and get their products to market faster while we deliver everything required to securely connect, manage and transfer sensor data to Azure in a cohesive manner with minimal complexity.”
“Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT extends our promise to bring IoT to business scale, starting with interoperable solutions from leading technology companies around the world,” said Jerry Lee, Director of Marketing for Cloud and Enterprise, Microsoft Corp. “With trusted offerings and verified partners, Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT accelerates the deployment of IoT even further.”
IoT projects are complex and take a long time to implement. Customers find that choosing and connecting the right set of devices, assets or sensors to the cloud can be time-consuming. To jumpstart their IoT projects with confidence, customers are looking for certified devices and platforms that are tested for readiness, compatibility and usability with the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite. By choosing a partner from the Microsoft Azure Certified for IoT program, customers can save time and effort on project specs and RFP processes by knowing in advance what devices and offerings will work with the Azure IoT Suite.