AT&T, Cisco and Intel are all part of a broad new IoT partnership announced today by GE. IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to the emerging capability to connect machines and devices to the Internet. This enables equipment to be remotely controlled by a mobile device, and to yield data for analysis.
“Industrial data is not only big, it’s the most critical and complex type of big data,” said GE CEO Jeff Immelt in a statement. “Our greatest challenge and opportunity is to manage and analyze this data in a highly secure way to deliver better outcomes for customers and society.”
GE has created a new software platform called Predix that it says is up to the task of processing industrial big data. Predix applications can be tailored to a specific machine or industry, and can be remotely managed via a wireless connection.
AT&T will supply GE’s secure wireless communication system for connecting industrial machinery to the Internet. AT&T’s network and cloud infrastructure will give workers access to remote monitoring and diagnostics capabilities. Energy and healthcare are among GE’s major focus areas so far, although its IoT solution touches many industries.
Cisco, which sells networking gear into the industries GE is targeting, is extending its partnership with GE. The two companies say they plan to collaborate in industries that they may include oil and gas, transportation, healthcare, and power generation. Cisco’s Virtual Networking Index, one of most-watched forecasts of mobile broadband traffic, predicts that connected machine-to-machine (M2M) modules will grow 24-fold between 2012 and 2017, when the number of connected modules will hit 1.7 billion.
Intel is working with GE to make Predix more efficient by embedding virtualization and standardized interfaces. GE wants an open interface to enable machines to connect to service provider networks around the world.
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