NTT is adding a new “as-a-Service” product to its portfolio. In partnership with Cisco, it is coming out with IoT-as-a-Service. It should help enterprise customers to take advantage of the broad capabilities of Internet-of-Things.
The possibilities of IoT integration are vastly expanding. For many industries, the use of Internet-of-Things is an obvious asset in order to improve efficiency. NTT and Cisco provide plenty of examples of the applications the new service enables.
The two parties cite “real-time data visibility, enhanced security, improved decision making and lower operational costs through predictive maintenance, device tracking and supply chain management capabilities.” One combines Managed Services expertise at NTT and management of IoT-related IT from Cisco.
Business unit
NTT is adding quite a few jobs to make IoT-as-a-Service a reality. For example, it is coming up with new consulting services and an IoT-focused business unit. 1,000 employees are expected to build out more than 100 use cases. The press release makes mention of “connected cars, fleet management, predictive maintenance, smart cities, digital twins and factories.”
What all this will concretely bring to businesses and other organizations is a broader understanding of practical applications. The two parties name water management as a prime example. The Belgian water company CILE is equipped with “thousands of LoRaWAN(Low Power Wide Area Networking) sensors” that provide clarity on water quality, consumption, distribution and maintenance.
A clear example that makes it easy to envision other applications, then. After all, optimizing critical aspects such as consumption and maintenance is crucial for almost every business. Higher energy costs, scarce personnel and increased inflation are forcing organizations to tighten their belts. Solutions like these can ensure that the right decisions are made and the smartest possible use is made of existing capabilities.
“We are accelerating our IoT business initiatives to deliver a powerful portfolio of repeatable services that can be tailored to meet customer demand for these types of solutions. We are in a unique position,” reveals Devin Yaung, SVP of Group Enterprise IoT Products and Services at NTT.
Yaung says NTT is doubling NTT’s IoT offerings, thanks in part to its partnership with Cisco. “What we are doing is combining our collective knowledge and skills and putting the full power of NTT behind it, to help our customers and the growing need to equip or customize their organizations with the connectivity and visibility they need to improve day-to-day operations.”
Collaboration
Cisco also benefits from the interaction between the two companies. For example, 500 Cisco vendors have already been trained by NTT. “We are proud to work together to accelerate our customers into this IoT-as-a-Service model so they can realize business advantage in all industries and around the world,” said Samuel Pasquier, VP of Product Management, Industrial IoT Networking at Cisco.
In any case, the two parties have a positive outlook on the future. “The global IoT market is expected to grow 19 percent by 2023, with a potential market size of more than $483 billion by 2027,” the press release reveals.
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