IBM Opens Watson IoT Centre HQ in Munich

IBM has opened the global headquarters of its Watson Internet of Things (IoT) centre in Munich, Germany, where it plans to launch a series of new offerings which will extend cognitive computing to the billions of connected devices, sensors and systems that comprise the IoT.

IBM Watson is a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data. Earlier this year, IBM acquired cognitive computing software firm AlchemyAPI, which applies human language and text analytics to unstructured data, in order to understand customer needs and predict their behavior. The latter firm's technology has since been integrated into the IBM Watson offer, to provide innovation in areas such as cognitive computing and IoT.

In Germany, the new IoT centre will bring together 1000 IBM developers, consultants, researchers and designers with the aim of driving deeper engagement with clients and partners; and it will also serve as an innovation lab for data scientists, engineers and programmers building connected solutions. In addition, the centre is set up to encourage collaborative innovation with clients, partners and IBM researchers and data scientists to create new opportunities for growth in IoT. The company also opened eight new Watson IoT Client Experience Centres across Asia, Europe and the Americas - in Beijing, China; Boeblingen, Germany; Sao Paulo, Brazil; Seoul, Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Texas in the US.

Harriet Green (pictured), General Manager, Watson IoT and Education, comments: 'The Internet of Things will soon be the largest single source of data on the planet, yet almost 90% of that data is never acted upon. With its unique abilities to sense, reason and learn, Watson opens the door for enterprises, governments and individuals to finally harness this real-time data, compare it with historical data sets and deep reservoirs of accumulated knowledge, and then find unexpected correlations that generate new insights to benefit business and society alike.'

Web site: www.ibm.com .