In a previous entry we mentioned that BMW will have a team at IBM’s brand new Germany-based (city of Munich) global Watson Internet of Things center.
The BMW team will, among others, look at ways to enhance the driving experience and develop intelligent assistant functions for future cars, using the IoT, an area where IBM is clearly moving in further with its cognitive computing approach and Watson IoT solutions.
The company’s global HQ for Watson IoT will house more firms which are looking to innovate in the space of, among others Industry 4.0, cognitive IoT solutions and the Industrial Internet of Things. Other collaborations include companies such as Bosch and Visa.
New partners for the opening of the $200 Million Watson Internet of Things HQ
On February 16th, 2017, the day of the IBM Internet of Things center, IBM announced that also Avnet, Capgemini, BNP Paribas, Tech Mahindra and German/European IoT Alliance EEBus will use IBM’s Munich IoT facilities and have ‘cognitive collaboratories’, joining an innovation ecosystem where cognitive and IoT take center stage.
IBM’s German center for Watson cognitive computing and Internet of Things technologies is expected to drive collaborative innovation, as the company puts it, with dozens of clients and partners. It’s not a coiincidence that this is done in the country of Industry 4.0.
The global Watson Internet of Things HQ in Munich costs over $200 Million, measures 15,000 square meters, houses approximately 1,000 IBM employees and offers, among others, industry labs and client experience zones. It’s also the largest investment in Europe of IBM since a long time.
From the Internet of Things to the Genius of Things
IBM previously committed to invest $3BN to bring Watson to the Internet of Things; the Munich investment is part of that.
It’s clear that (Industrial) IoT is a key focus for IBM to say the least and that the company wants to play a leading role in this fast growing market (you can read more about the spending predictions for 2017 and beyond in IoT here).
It’s probably not a coincidence that in the video, which IBM released (see video at the bottom), the importance of the IoT market is stressed even more where IBM says that the IoT market is exploding to a value of $14.2 Trillion (with over 20 Billion connected devices by 2022). That’s worth some investing.
Obviously IBM plays its Watson card to do so. As the video says, IBM doesn’t want to be a leader in the Internet of Things, it wants to turn the Internet of Things into the Genius of Things. Guess who the genius is.
For more information on what the mentioned companies intend to do at the IBM Watson IoT center, check out the press release.
You’ll notice there will be a bit of everything going on, across Industry 4.0 applications and IoT use case such as precision farming, predictive maintenance, healthcare and IoT innovation, banking, insurance, automotive and manufacturing case and investment advice, to cite the main ones.
