The project will see the two working on solutions that combines the high speed and low latency of Verizon's 5G and multi-access edge compute capabilities, IoT devices and sensors at the edge, and IBM's experience in AI, hybrid multi-cloud, edge computing, asset management and connected operations.
The project comes as industrial enterprises seek ways to use edge computing to gather near real-time, actionable insights into operations to improve productivity and reduce costs.
As a result, the first solutions planned for this collaboration are the mobile asset tracking and management solutions to help enterprises improve operations, optimise production quality as well as to help clients enhance worker safety.
"The industrial sector is undergoing unprecedented transformation as companies begin to return to full-scale operations, aided by new technology to help reduce costs and increase productivity," said Bob Lord (pictured), senior vice president of cognitive applications, blockchain and ecosystems at IBM.
"Through this collaboration, we plan to build upon our longstanding relationship with Verizon to help industrial enterprises capitalise on joint solutions that are designed to be multi-cloud ready, secured and scalable, from the data centre all the way out to the enterprise edge."
Both initial solutions will leverage Verizon's wireless networks, including its 5G Ultra-Wideband network, and multi-access edge computing (MEC) capabilities, alongside Verizon's ThingSpace IoT platform and critical asset sensor solution (CAS).
These will be paired with IBM's Maximo Monitor with IBM Watson and advanced analytics. Together these solutions will help clients detect, locate, diagnose and respond to system anomalies, monitor asset health and help predict failures in near real-time.
"This collaboration is all about enabling the future of industry in the Fourth Industrial Revolution," said Tami Erwin, CEO of Verizon Business.
"Combining the high speed and low latency of Verizon's 5G UWB Network and MEC capabilities with IBM's expertise in enterprise-grade AI and production automation can provide industrial innovation on a massive scale and can help companies increase automation, minimise waste, lower costs, and offer their own clients a better response time and customer experience."
At the same, IBM and Verizon are also working on potential combined solutions for 5G and MEC-enabled use cases such as near real-time cognitive automation for the industrial environment.
The two also plan to collaborate on potential joint solutions to address worker safety, predictive maintenance, product quality and production automation.
