On Thursday, Cisco and IBM joined forces to collaborate on analytics at the network edge.
The partnership will leverage IBM’s Watson IoT and Cisco’s edge analytics software.
“With the vast amount of data being created at the edge of the network, using existing Cisco infrastructure to perform streaming analytics is the perfect way to cost-effectively obtain real-time insights,” said Mala Anand, senior vice president of the Cisco Data & Analytics Platforms Group, in a press release from IBM. “Our powerful technology provides customers with the flexibility to combine this edge processing with the cognitive computing power of the IBM Watson IoT Platform.”
The “edge” of computer networks in this case indicates areas that can benefit greatly from real-time data, but which do not have the bandwidth to upload the data to the cloud or to a data center in another location in order to analyze it. For example, oil rigs, mining operations, or shipping companies might be physically remote or otherwise lacking high bandwidth connectivity. With IBM and Cisco, the data analysis can be done at the point of data collection. Companies with intermittent connectivity will still be able to receive real-time data due to IBM and Cisco’s hyper-distributed IoT networks and experience in managing edge and fog analytics.
In Canada, IBM Watson IoT and Cisco Edge will be delivered over Bell Canada’s 4G LTE Network, the largest in the country.
“Many of our largest customers operate remote systems, requiring continuous availability and access to data to monitor critical performance factors and avoid downtime. Deploying the unmatched analytics capabilities of IBM Watson Internet of Things and Cisco networking intelligence with streaming edge analytics will help to further accelerate Bell’s leadership in Canadian IoT,” said Stephen Howe, chief technology officer at Bell.
Services that will be built directly out of the collaboration include automation at the Port of Cartagena in Colombia, and real-time collision avoidance reactions on racing watercraft from SilverHook Powerboards.
Filed Under: M2M (machine to machine)