IBM, AT&T Team Up to Target the Internet of Things

A new global alliance agreement between IBM and AT&T aims to develop solutions for the Internet of Things, with an initial focus on city governments and midsize utilities. The companies will combine their analytic platforms, cloud, and security technologies with privacy in mind to gain more insights on data collected from machines in a variety of industries.

“This collaboration of two world-class companies will help deliver a more connected planet,” said Chris Hill, Senior Vice President, AT&T Advanced Solutions. “We share a vision that the ‘Internet of Things’ will help companies in a variety of industries rely on their remote assets and connected devices to take their business to the next level.”

IBM and AT&T intend to integrate and analyze vast quantities of data from assets such as mass transit vehicles, utility meters, and video cameras. As a result, cities may be able to better evaluate patterns and trends to improve urban planning and utilities can better manage their equipment to reduce costs.

The connected cities with technologies from the two companies will enable better allocation and distribution of resources based on information reported from incidents and service disruptions, as well as the ability to analyze the movement of people to improve traffic management, parking capacity, location and number of first unit responders. It can also identify inefficient traffic patterns and monitor social media updates from citizens reporting bad weather or major traffic.

AT&T brings its M2M globally accessible network, devices and Global Subscriber Identity Module to help connect assets worldwide to a single network. IBM brings the Intelligent Operations Center, Maximo Asset Management, its advanced analytics capabilities, and IBM MessageSight MQTT Appliance, which complements the IBM MobileFirst family of solutions. The two companies will work together to build solutions at the AT&T M2M Foundry in Plano, Texas and IBM Global Solution Centers around the world.

“Smarter cities, cars, homes, machines and consumer devices will drive the growth of the Internet of Things along with the infrastructure that goes with them, unleashing a wave of new possibilities for data gathering, predictive analytics, and automation,” said Rick Qualman, Vice President, Strategy & Business Development, Telecom Industry, IBM. “The new collaboration with AT&T will offer insights from crowdsourcing, mobile applications, sensors and analytics on the cloud, enabling all organizations to better listen, respond and predict.”