Pictured: Dr Orna Berry, Corporate Vice President Innovation, EMC Centres of Excellences (CoE); Donagh Buckley, Head of EMC Research Europe; Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Richard Bruton TD; Anne O’Leary, CEO Vodafone Ireland and Bob Savage, vice president EMC Centres of Excellence EMEA
If Ireland plays its cards right around the internet of things (IoT) it will be in the driving seat of the next industrial revolution rather than sitting on the sidelines, according to EMC’s Bob Savage.
“We don’t want to miss this one,” said Savage, who is vice president and managing director of EMC Centres of Excellence EMEA.
“We have a huge opportunity – if you think about the megatrends of cloud, social, mobile and big data but join that to the internet of things, that M2M (machine-to-machine) connection and the industrial side of it, we see this as an opportunity for Ireland and EMC.”
EMC and Vodafone have jointly invested €2m in a new INFINITE IoT industrial platform that will traverse Cork, and which will provide facilities for the testing and exploration of technologies like M2M communications.
The IoT Innovation platform is spread across three data centres in Cork: EMC, Vodafone, and data centre and cloud provider Cork Internet eXchange.
Partnership will be crucial in the internet of things universe
Businesses will be able to use the platform to test solutions for the IoT in manufacturing, fleet management, machinery, household appliances, and even clothing that contains sensors and that can communicate with other machines or things.
“The concept of partnering with somebody like Vodafone is to set up a test bed and alliances with an industrial consortium and create a platform SMEs can also use.
“From my five years with Enterprise Ireland I’ve seen the high potential of start-ups that can use this test bed for some of their potential products and services.
“It’s going to be a partnership for everyone in this new, open, connected world.
“We’re developing a pipeline of good potential use cases. We are going to open it up so people understand its capability, its openness and the opportunities it can open up.”
