Avnet, IBM Create More IoT Opportunities for Partners

Technology distributor Avnet on Wednesday said is working with IBM to increase development and deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) offerings in the United States, Canada and Europe.

The two companies’ efforts aim to help customers develop IoT services built on the IBM Watson platform. This collaboration is designed to help Avnet customers, ranging from original equipment manufacturers, to vendors, service providers and VARs, to capitalize on the opportunities in the IoT market, which is estimated to account for more than $921 billion in technology spending this year.

Tony Madden, Avnet’s senior vice president and global supplier business executive, tells Channel Partners the collaboration between Avnet and IBM gives “our partners a huge jump-start on the rapidly growing IoT market.”

“We will help them design, develop and deploy complete IoT solutions for their customers that span analytics, big data, cloud, mobility and security applications,” he said. “They can turn to us to help with creating proof-of-concept solutions for their customers to accelerate the sales cycle, access data center and cloud solutions based on [the] IBM Watson IoT Platform, and develop and manage cloud infrastructures to support IoT deployments. Also, our partners can rely on us for in-depth technical training on key elements needed for IoT solutions, such as IBM Bluemix and IBM Watson … “

Companies will need to significantly increase their networking capabilities, expand their storage infrastructure to capture the massive amounts of data generated, and implement advanced analytics capabilities to gain insight from that data, Madden said. Also, companies will need to keep the data secure and increasingly will be turning to the cloud to manage the flow of information, “essentially offering a tremendous opportunity for partners to create complete solutions,” he said.{ad}

Gartner forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use globally this year, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020. This year, 5.5 million new things will get connected every day.

“The possibilities for IoT are limitless,” Madden said. “New applications are being invented every day, and savvy partners can work with customers to use IoT to find …

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… new ways to overcome their customers’ business challenges. For example, we recently worked with SPICA Technologies to improve water safety. SPICA was designing a solution to reduce the risk of contracting Legionnaires’ disease by using connected devices attached to water pipes that provide real-time information and analysis on water temperature and flow. This solution not only improves accuracy, but also reduces monitoring costs by up to 60 percent.”

Also Wednesday, Avnet announced new cloud security services – aimed at the public sector – through its partnership with IBM. Offering security as a service (SaaS), Avnet Government Solutions business partners can now access IBM’s complete security portfolio.

The new capabilities will help address one of the biggest security vulnerabilities across organizations — the laptops, workstations and servers used by individuals within an organization, which are the primary targets for cybercriminals to infiltrate with malware, social engineering, phishing scams and other methods, Avnet said.

“With its flexibility and ability to more easily visualize analytics associated with security incidents, cloud is proving to be a real game-changer in the fight against cybercrime,” said Scott Ryan, North America vice president of IBM Security Systems. “Our relationship with Avnet Government Solutions in the U.S. public sector combined with trusted IBM Security expertise will deliver unparalleled security intelligence with reduced complexity for Avnet’s valued partners and government agencies looking for innovative approaches to solving security challenges.”