IBM and ARM partner to 'accelerate delivery of Internet of Things'

Deal will allow products powered by ARM mbed-enabled chips to automatically register with the IBM IoT Foundation and connect with IBM analytics services

IBM and ARM have announced that they're set to work together to "accelerate the delivery of the Internet of Things (IoT) platform". The collaboration between the two firms will see them work together through IBM's extended IoT Foundation.

The partnership between IBM and ARM comes after Samsung began the year by urging the technology industry to "unlock the infinite possibilities of the Internet of Things".

The deal will see IBM products use ARM's mbed operating system platform for internet-connected devices in order to provide "out of the box connectivity" to allow data to be quickly collected and analysed from devices including industrial applications, weather sensors and wearable technology.

IBM describes the IoT Foundation as "a platform upon which a family of fully managed, cloud-hosted offerings" can sit, which "makes it simple to derive value from Internet of Things (IoT) devices".

Benefits that the Foundation provides are said to include analytical tools that can deal with large amounts of fast-moving data, IBM Bluemix (IBM's PaaS) and security systems designed to protect IoT data.

"Deploying IoT technology has to be easy, secure and scalable for it to feel like a natural extension of a company's business," said Krisztian Flautner, general manager of IoT Business at ARM.

"By collaborating with IBM, we will deliver the first unified chip-to-cloud, enterprise-class IoT platform. This will empower companies of any size with a productivity tool that can readily transform how they operate, and the services they can offer," he added.

Pat Toole, general manager of Internet of Things at IBM, also welcomed the partnership with ARM.

"Since 2008, IBM has helped thousands of customers embrace the Internet of Things - to help cities become smarter, hospitals to transform patient care and financial institutions to improve risk management," he said.

"The IoT is now at an inflection point and it needs the big data expertise of IBM and little data expertise of ARM to ensure it reaches its global potential," Toole added.

Under the terms of the deal, the collaboration between IBM and ARM will allow products powered by ARM mbed-enabled chips to automatically register with the IBM IoT Foundation, and connect with IBM analytics services. The move is designed to accelerate innovation and has been welcomed by customers that have already adopted IBM's tools.

"By using IBM IoT services, we are able to real-time manage and control Smart TV content in over 30 countries," said Marc Harmsen, global marketing lead and product manager EMEA for Philips Television at TP Vision

"This provides us the opportunity to continuously balance costs with increased customer experience," he continued, adding: "Lastly, we have eliminated the need to set up hardware within traditional IT infrastructure - allowing a drastic reduction in provisioning time."

IBM's planned expansion into the Internet of Things comes after the firm's revenue and profit continued to decline for the 13th quarter in a row.

Computing's inaugural Internet of Things Summit takes place on October 15 and is free to attend for qualified end users. Register here.