IBM, TI Collaborate on Cloud-based Provisioning, Management Service for IoT Devices

IBM (IBM) last week pledged some $3 billion over four years to set up an Internet of Things (IoT) business unit. The idea is to establish a cloud-based, open platform to deliver a variety of services to harness and analyze data flowing from billions of connected devices.

At the time, IBM said critical to the effort is an expanded IoT partner ecosystem, including silicon and device manufacturers and industry-oriented solution providers, to deliver data services and solutions on IBM’s open platform.

In short order, the vendor already has begun to address both the service and ecosystem initiatives with a new collaboration with Texas Instruments (TI) and a set of industry-specific services and solutions.

IBM said it will work with TI to build a secure, cloud-hosted provisioning and lifecycle management service for IoT devices. The partners said their collaboration will produce a Secure Registry Service that will provide trust and authentication practices and protocol across silicon embedded in devices to businesses and homes.

The service will be available to all cloud service providers and silicon vendors and the APIs will be made public and available for use by other IoT cloud service providers and other silicon vendors.

“IBM is helping innovators who design and produce the next generation of connected devices and those who operate and maintain those devices, deal with the increasing complexity of creating products and solutions quickly to meet the needs of consumers,” said Chris O’Connor, IBM Internet of Things general manager.

Avner Goren, TI Embedded Processing strategic marketing general manager, said the collaboration with IBM will advance IoT adoption.

“By working with IBM to help secure device identity, provisioning and lifecycle management, we have created a foundation for IoT adoption to reach its full potential through better managed services across easy-to-use connectivity solutions,” he said.

In addition to the TI collaboration, IBM is offering two new IoT industry solutions–Aviation Maintenance to optimize the availability and extend the life of complex, safety critical aviation components; and, Product Line Engineering (PLE) capabilities to help engineers more efficiently customize product designs for specific markets.

In addition, the vendor is rolling out three new IBM IoT Cloud solutions and eight new IBM IoT Consulting Services offerings based on Bluemix IoT Zone.