It's often been said that partnerships are going to be a crucial factor in the evolution of the Internet of Things market, given that no single vendor has all the necessary products, services and expertise. To that end, this week Dell announced a new program involving more than 25 companies, including GE, Microsoft and SAP.
The program will combine a global, multi-tiered (Executive, Associate, Registered) network of experienced Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) with Dell’s broad portfolio of IoT assets, including purpose-built, intelligent gateways and embedded PCs, security and manageability tools, data center and cloud infrastructure, and data integration and analytics software like Boomi and Statistica. These assets will help organizations develop, deploy and maintain leading-edge IoT solutions.
The IoT Partner Program will include companies across a wide range of industries that further strengthen Dell’s expertise in areas such as industrial and building automation and transportation. It launches with more than 25 partners including GE, SAP, Software AG, Microsoft, OSIsoft and others, many of which are utilizing the Dell Edge Gateway 5000 Series to power their own IoT solutions. Dell also continues to build relationships with systems integrators (SIs) with vertical expertise and deployment scale.
The program is also generating use case blueprints for IoT, such as for predictive maintenance and automated demand response systems for power grids, according to a statement.
Dell is partnering not only with major names such as GE. Other members of the program include Azeti, Blue Pillar, Datawatch, Eigen Innovations, Flowthings.io, Flutura, OSIsoft and relayr. That's telling, says Constellation Research VP and principal analyst Andy Mulholland.
"It's not only the headline big companies that make this interesting but the small innovative players that they have added to this," he says. "These are the players that really make it possible to build new types of solutions. And that's the key here, as Dell seem to be aiming at being a services company in the new IoT integration market for solutions and have assembled the specialised functions that will add differentiate to their offerings."
Go here to read all of Mulholland's in-depth coverage of the IoT market.
