It’s the biggest mass IoT investment we can remember, and it’s coming from SAP. The data giant will spend more than $2.2 billion over the next five years to help business and government entities benefit from IoT and Big Data, the company said. It plans to accelerate innovation in its IoT solution portfolio, increase sales and marketing, scale service, support and co-innovation, and grow its ecosystem of partners and startups in the IoT market.
“With billions of connected devices, we now have the potential to reshape society, the economy and the environment,” said Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP. “SAP HANA is the data platform we knew would unlock the Internet of Things. Today SAP is making another bold investment to help our customers seize the benefits of live business. Only SAP empowers businesses to innovate from the core to the edges to the networks.”
SAP IoT aims to make sense of Big Data from the multitude of things through IoT solutions that apply machine learning and integrate with the core business applications of HANA. The company will introduce Industry 4.0 packages that are designed to initiate operational and business system connectivity as a foundation to monitor equipment effectiveness and provide insight into shop floor operations.
Meanwhile, SAP has acquired PLAT.ONE, an enterprise-grade IoT provider that simplifies the process of creating, deploying and managing complex IoT solutions, along with Fedem Technology, a Norwegian company specializing in advanced engineering analysis, and building software for multi-body dynamic simulation and lifetime calculation of structures and mechanical systems under the influence of complex loads.
SAP plans to establish IoT labs around the world to collaborate on Industry 4.0 and IoT with customers, partners and startups, intended to act as lighthouse locations and primary access points for IoT research, development proof-of-concept modeling and incubation, with IoT showcases, thought leadership, expertise and infrastructure for strategy and product co-innovation. Planned locations include Berlin, Johannesburg, Munich, Palo Alto, Sao Leopoldo, and Shanghai, with SAP and partner experts in areas of specific IoT focus native to each region such as Industry 4.0, logistics, cities and digital farming.
SAP’s IoT announcement comes on the eve of an IoT customer showcase event, where SAP will join with executives from Trenitalia, Italy’s largest train company, to display technology innovations and the way predictive maintenance technologies are currently transforming the modern transportation industry.
Edited by
Alicia Young
