IBM has announced that it will be investing a whopping $3 billion in an Internet of things unit over the next four years.
The company will also be creating a cloud-based platform designed to help clients and partners build IoT products and solutions.
"Our knowledge of the world grows with every connected sensor and device, but too often we are not acting on it, even when we know we can ensure a better result," said Senior Vice President of IBM Analytics Bob Picciano. "IBM will enable clients and industry partners [to] apply IoT data to build solutions based on an open platform. This is a major focus of investment for IBM because it's a rich and broad-based opportunity where innovation matters."
IBM also announced that it will be teaming up with the Weather Company to offer improved collection of data from weather sensors as well as from buildings and vehicles. The Weather Company is the company behind the Weather Channel. The partnership could help better warn people of impending storms and weather changes and help determine exactly where people are worst hit by a storm. In turn, this could allow responders to act more quickly and effectively, and ensure that insurers respond to claims faster.
Weather has long been one of the biggest factors that affect business, and it is expected that IBM's partnership and emphasis on data analysis could help take the problem of weather out of the business equation.
"This deal combines the capabilities of the world's largest and most advanced commercial weather company with the leader in big data and analytics," said chief executive of the Weather Company David Kenny.
IBM has been playing an increasingly active role in the Internet of things over the past few years and has deduced that 90 percent of data generated by smartphones, connected vehicles and appliances is not analyzed. Not only that, but the company also says that 60 percent of this data loses its value within a few milliseconds of it being generated.
IBM will be partnering with an increasing number of companies, including the likes of AT&T, ARM and Semtech. These partnerships could mean big changes for how companies handle data in real time. It is unclear what these partnerships could mean for other companies that are trying to keep up with the evolving nature of technology.
The announcements highlight IBM's shift away from hardware solutions and towards data analysis and software.
