The company – which also owns Global Cloud Xchange (GCX) – has started the project with IoT specialist Cumulocity. It is calling the new venture Unlimit.
Jürgen Hase, CEO of Unlimit, said: “With the number of connected devices in India projected to rise from 200 million today to 3 billion by 2020, nearly every part of the economy will be positively impacted by IoT.”
Hase, who was formerly head of Deutsche Telekom’s IoT competence centre, joined Reliance in July 2016.
The companies said that the combined offering will enable Unlimit’s customers to benefit from rapid machine, sensor and device integration; data collection and normalisation; and real-time analytics for condition monitoring.
It further offers predictive maintenance and supply chain automation; comprehensive device management and remote control; vertical application configurable real-time dashboards; and fast and affordable enterprise IT integration.
Bernd Gross, CEO of Cumulocity, said: “The combination of Reliance Group’s vast vertical market expertise, Unlimit’s innovative business approaches and Cumulocity’s world-leading IoT software platform allows the fast-evolving Indian market to step up to rapidly build, secure and deploy state-of-the-art IoT solutions in an extremely cost efficient way.”
Düsseldorf-based Cumulocity used to be the IoT division of the former Nokia Siemens Networks – now just Nokia – until it was spun off four years ago.
Reliance and Cumulocity said that they believe IoT in India will grow at a CAGR of 28% over the next five years, “which may result in technological leapfrogging of more established economies”. They suggested that “early benefits are already anticipated in many sectors such as transport, wellness, healthcare, buildings, home, factories, agriculture, livestock, electric grids and water supply networks”.
Reliance has given no information about any plans to offer Unlimit’s IoT services outside India.
