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Dell EMC’s IoT revenue in APAC surpasses $1bn

The milestone in Dell EMC’s internet of things revenue underscores the APAC region’s rapid uptake of sensors and other IoT devices in industries and smart city projects

Dell EMC’s revenue from its internet of things (IoT) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) business in Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) has crossed the $1bn mark, underscoring the region’s rapid uptake of sensors and other IoT devices in industries and smart city projects.

Glen Burrows, vice-president and general manager for APJ OEM and IoT solutions at Dell EMC, said this milestone indicates that the region forms a significant part of the company’s global OEM and IoT business, which raked in $3bn in revenue in 2017.

In October 2017, Dell Technologies created an IoT division led by VMware CTO Ray O’Farrell, who has been tasked with orchestrating the development of IoT products and services across the Dell federation. The company said then that it would invest $1bn in IoT research and development over three years.

“Organisations in APJ are keen to realise the potential benefits of IoT, which is driving market growth faster than other regions,” Burrows told Computer Weekly. “With a $583bn market opportunity by 2020, Asia is set to be the hub of IoT.”

Besides selling IoT products and services, Dell EMC, through its OEM arm, also helps companies in the IoT space to develop new offerings and customise existing ones.

Innodep, a South Korean security and surveillance company, for example, worked with Dell EMC to add IoT capabilities to its IP-based security software in a bid to tap new IoT business opportunities.

“Innodep’s system is already built on a high-performance and scalable Dell PowerEdge R730 servers with Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors,” Burrows told Computer Weekly. “To IoT-enable the hardware stack, Dell EMC worked with Innodep to integrate a Dell Edge Gateway 5000, allowing the collection and analysis of data from multiple, interconnected sensors at the edge.”

Separately, Dell EMC, which runs an IoT lab in Singapore, was also involved in a project in the municipality of Saensuk, Thailand, to equip the elderly with wearables that send alerts to family members in the event of a fall or accident.

Read more about IoT in APAC

  • An Australian iron-ore mining giant has implemented an analytics and IoT system from SAP to track its assets and shore up operational efficiency.
  • The Australian government has pledged more funds towards deploying a Sigfox-based network that will be used to power smart city and clean energy applications across the country.
  • Siemens has opened a digitalisation hub in Singapore to develop IoT applications that cater to the needs of diverse industries in Southeast Asia.
  • Besides lowering adoption costs, an ecosystem of governments, technology suppliers and telcos is necessary for the IoT to flourish in Southeast Asia.

“It sounds like a simple concept, but this system helped to improve the responsiveness of the municipality’s care services for the elderly by at least 50%,” said Burrows.

Besides Dell EMC, rival Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) is also looking to tap the region’s IoT potential. In early February 2018, HPE opened an IoT innovation lab in Singapore to bring together different players in the IoT ecosystem to test the use of IoT across a myriad of industries.

According to IDC, a technology market research firm, the IoT market in Asia-Pacific is set to bloom as the global IoT landscape continues to mature. Across the region, South Korea, Singapore and New Zealand are the most capable and ready to generate efficiencies from IoT adoption.

Read more on Internet of Things (IoT)

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