SORACOM and Sigfox Partner to Drive European IoT Deployment

25 September 2017 — Today at the Sigfox World IoT Expo in Prague, SORACOM Inc., a leading provider of cloud-native connectivity solutions built specifically for Internet of Things, announced native platform support in Europe for Sigfox’s market-leading LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) connectivity.

SORACOM’s customers will be able to use the SORACOM web console and APIs to operate and manage devices connected with Sigfox. Blended cellular/LPWAN deployments can now apply a single cloud-side architecture to simplify deployment, commissioning and ongoing support of in-field devices. Importantly, Sigfox deployments can now take advantage of the tools available on the SORACOM platform, including device management, data transmission reduction, cloud service integration, data visualization, packet inspection, and more.

“This is a major win for makers of IoT who were so far struggling to choose between cellular and LPWAN or find a combined offering, with a cloud-native integrated approach towards a blended offering”, said Parag Mittal, Chief Commercial Officer, SORACOM (above). “We are now able to create this unique value to our existing and new customers. The partnership and integration of platforms will also enable customers to utilise other SORACOM value added services like Harvest, Funnel, Canal, etc. from a single platform across a range of devices running on different network technologies. Our vision to democratise IoT is taking shape!”

“Adding Sigfox global LPWAN service to SORACOM cellular connectivity provides tremendous value to customers looking for multiple-mode deployments,” said Davide Pacchini, director Global Alliances at Sigfox (left). “This partnership will extend Sigfox’s market leading story of low cost, low energy and ubiquitous service with SORACOM’s cellular connectivity to provide dual-mode capability and grow the market of use cases for developers and customers.”

The addition of Sigfox support expands the SORACOM platform in Europe to encompass a wide range of new IoT use cases. Sigfox offers developers the opportunity to reduce connectivity cost and energy consumption for IoT devices while allowing connection over distances of miles or more. Additionally, Sigfox can be combined with high-bandwidth connectivity options such as cellular or WiFi in a blended deployment to support a broad set of IoT use cases. Sigfox is currently deployed in 32 countries worldwide, with coverage already available in most European markets.

SORACOM will also begin offering a Wisol-based breakout for direct purchase from the SORACOM User Console by end of October. This Arduino-compatible breakout is easy to program using AT commands, compatible with Sigfox in Europe and together with SORACOM Platform services, it helps developers quickly prototype a Sigfox based device.

Interested in trying? Contact SORACOM or get started by registering/pre-orders for Sens’it devices here and for Wisol devices here.

For more information on SORACOM, please visit https://soracom.io/.

Source: SORACOM.

Hitachi Launches New Digital Company Vantara

19 September 2017 — Hitachi, Ltd today launched Hitachi Vantara, a new business entity to leverage the broad portfolio of innovation, development and experience from across Hitachi Group companies to deliver data-driven solutions for commercial and industrial enterprises.

This new company will unify the operations of Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and Pentaho into a single integrated business, Hitachi Vantara to capitalize on Hitachi’s social innovation capability in both operational technologies (OT) and information technologies (IT).

More Than a Century of OT Expertise Combined with IT Trusted by the World’s Largest Enterprises
Hitachi has been a leader in OT for industries such as finance, government, manufacturing, power/energy and transportation for over 100 years, providing solutions that have positively impacted cities, industrial operations and businesses at large. The company has also been a leader in IT for over 50 years—bringing IT applications, analytics, content, cloud, and infrastructure solutions to market that have transformed the way enterprises do business. Combining Hitachi’s broad expertise in OT with its proven IT product innovations and solutions, Hitachi Vantara gives customers a powerful, collaborative partner in data management.

“Hitachi Vantara marks a monumental change for Hitachi as we continue to advance our unified corporate vision of Social Innovation,” said Hitachi, Ltd. President and CEO Toshiaki Higashihara (above). “Hitachi has been helping customers harness the power of their data to support meaningful business action for years. Now as the world is being transformed by digital tools and processes, we are unifying our strongest digital solutions companies together as a new Hitachi company that delivers exponential business impact for our customers and the betterment of society. The formation of Hitachi Vantara underscores Hitachi’s commitment to collaborative creation with customers and partners, and being a true innovation partner for the era of IoT.”

The Opportunity in Data
Hitachi Vantara is uniquely able to help customers extract all the value their data has to offer. By bringing new data-driven solutions and services to market, Hitachi Vantara will help its customers achieve tangible outcomes that positively drive business and society forward.

The market opportunity for mission-critical data solutions has never been greater. Data has become a businesses’ greatest asset—if they can extract actionable insights from it. Data holds the key to new revenue streams, better customer experiences, improved market insights and lower costs of doing business.

Filling a Critical Gap in the Emerging IoT Market
Hitachi Vantara will continue to provide superior infrastructure and analytics technologies that enterprises rely on for their mission-critical data in their data centers, in the cloud and at the edge of new innovations. The new company is targeting the emerging IoT market opportunity, in which there is no clear winner yet.

To address this market, Hitachi Vantara will harness business, human and machine data across OT and IT environments to build comprehensive, data-driven solutions. Customers will be able to manage, store, govern, blend, analyze, and visualize data—and then take action based on uncovered insights.

Hitachi Vantara’s Breadth of Solutions: From the Data Center to the Factory Floor
Hitachi Vantara will continue to develop the trusted data management and analytics technologies Hitachi is known for, including Hitachi’s popular data infrastructure, storage and compute solutions, and Pentaho software. It will also be driving the development of strategic software and services solutions, including Hitachi Smart Data Center software and services, Lumada, Hitachi’s IoT platform, now available as a standalone, commercial software offering, and Hitachi co-creation services. Announced concurrently today and now in its 2.0 release, Lumada has been fully updated with enhanced artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and advanced analytics capabilities. It also has an elegant, portable architecture that enables it to run both on-premises or in the cloud, and supports industrial IoT deployments both at the edge and in the core.

The company will focus on serving global Fortune 1000 companies with best-in-class data management, infrastructure, content and analytics products and industrial IoT solutions for a number of industries including financial services and insurance, government, industrials/manufacturing, telecom, and transportation.

“No other company brings together more than a century of operational technology expertise with informational technology trusted in the world’s most demanding enterprise environments,” said Hitachi Vantara CEO, Ryuichi Otsuki (left). “Hitachi Vantara capitalizes on this unique combination by creating solutions that meet the needs of an increasingly connected world. Like our customers with whom we partner and co-create, Hitachi Vantara sees data as an opportunity—a path to outcomes that matter.”

For more information, please visit HitachiNEXT.com.

Source: Hitachi

HPE and PwC Expand Partnership to Smart Cities

12 September 2017 – Today, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a new project with long-time strategic partner, PwC, to jointly create a Center of Excellence (CoE) in Kolkata, India, to advance development for future cities. Together, HPE and PwC are capitalizing on the Internet of Things (IoT) landscape to create opportunities for city administrators to optimize their assets and provide citizen-centric services.

Recognizing the need for effective connection and exchange of information across a diverse range of devices and applications, PwC will leverage the HPE Universal IoT (UIoT) Platform to support development, testing and management initiatives around future cities. The HPE UIoT Platform will allow PwC to start small and scale the business as demand increases. The CoE will utilize UIoT platform features, including lightweight machine to machine (M2M) support, expanded device management and increased Long Range (LoRa) support. Together, HPE and PwC will enable IoT applications to provide advanced analytics and machine learning innovations.

“HPE and PwC are working together to offer enhanced services, greater security and improved civic engagement to municipalities around the world,” said Nigel Upton, General Manager, Universal IoT Platform, HPE (above). “By combining HPE technology solutions and services with PwC business strategy, process, people and change capabilities, we can help organizations accelerate business and societal transformations, and derive greater value faster from their IoT initiatives. The Center of Excellence in Kolkata is a testament of our joint efforts.”

PwC’s applications and dashboard will be integrated with the HPE UIoT Platform to drive scale, security and speed for the new CoE. Initial use cases that are in development in the CoE span the environment, transportation systems and waste management, and will enable:

• Pollution reduction: Smart poles deployed throughout the city will serve as aggregation points for sensors, cameras and digital display boards collecting environmental data. The environment data the smart devices collect across the city will be used to identify areas subject to heavy pollution.
• Urban mobility: IoT devices will be used to collect traffic data and model traffic condition to further modify the timing cycle for signals based on traffic flow. The collected traffic data will then be integrated with GPS data from the transit management system to provide accurate estimated times of arrival (ETAs) for public buses. Also, sensors will be placed in parking lots to enable real-time tracking of available spots.
• Intelligent waste management: Sensors will be used to track the amount of trash held in garbage bins, helping waste management companies determine where garbage must be collected. Also, the garbage collection vehicles will be equipped with GPS devices and RFID readers to ensure the vehicle takes the best route to full trash bins.

Data gathered from IoT devices and cameras deployed across the city will be used to facilitate pre-emptive governance and improve city operations and emergency response. HPE and PwC are also expanding use cases to other industry verticals including manufacturing and infrastructure.

“Through this project, we are taking our partnership with HPE to the next-level,” said Raman Kalra, Partner, Technology Consulting, PwC India (left). “The burgeoning impact of IoT is going beyond the enterprise and now has large societal implications. Bringing together our industry consulting and technology teams with HPE, we are working on solutions which will bring significant productivity gains to the organizations and societies at large.”

For more information on the UIoT Platform, please visit https://www.hpe.com/us/en/solutions/iot-platform.html.

Source: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)