Cisco have announced the investment in a Cisco Internet of Everything (IoE) Innovation Centre in Australia. Cisco’s IoE Innovation Centres are aimed at catalysing and showcasing IoE innovation and development, bringing together customers, industry partners, start-ups, application developers, accelerators, government organisations and universities. The new Centre in Australia will be one of eight globally including Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Songdo, Berlin, Barcelona, Tokyo and London.
The official opening of the Centre is planned for 2015 and will include locations in Sydney at Sirca, and in Perth at Curtin University. Cisco intends to invest US $15 million over five years into the Centre, reaffirming its global pledge and commitment to new economic growth through technology innovation around IoE.
Cisco experts, together with industry partners and ecosystem start-ups, will develop proof of concepts, features and functionalities, and do rapid prototyping. The Centre will include dedicated space to demonstrate IoE in action and open areas where customers, start-ups, open communities, researchers, entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts are invited to work and brainstorm on new ideas and technologies.
The initial ecosystem partners of the Cisco IoE Innovation Centre, Australia, currently include Sirca (owned by 40 universities across Australia and New Zealand), Curtin University and Woodside Energy.
“Australia is a sophisticated market with a high level of innovation and an early adopter of new technology. Australia is already highly regarded globally for its resources and agriculture sectors and is well-placed to serve the rapidly growing Asian markets, and the Australian government has prioritised these sectors accordingly. Cisco has been involved in the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project for over five years. The aim now with Cisco IoE Innovation Centre, Australia and its ecosystem of partners is to accelerate innovation and the adoption of the IoE in Australia,” said Irving Tan, Senior Vice President Asia Pacific and Japan at Cisco.
IoE, which is the intelligent connection of people, processes, data and things to the Internet, brings unprecedented economic opportunities to private and public sectors. Utilizing 61 real-world use cases, Cisco consultants calculate that IoE-based solutions can deliver US $19 trillion of economic value worldwide over the next decade. According to a recent Cisco study, Australia is one of the countries with the greatest potential to benefit from IoE, thanks to its proximity to Asia, its well-trained engineers and its innovation power. Cisco estimates the potential IoE Value at Stake for the Australian economy to be more than US $74 billion over the next 10 years.
Developing a vibrant ecosystem and vertical solutions creates building blocks essential to capture the full value of IoE. The Cisco IoE Innovation Centre, Australia, will be a platform for technology ideas and open innovation which will help develop and test new solutions. The Centre will contribute to improve business outcomes and quality of life, as well as spark a new generation of start-ups and jobs in Australia.
Professor Graeme Wright, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research & Development, Curtin University “Curtin University has been a major player in the development of Australia’s capability underpinning the SKA and has built a broad base of computational and data scientists. We look forward to hosting the lab on our Perth Bentley Campus and working with our partners to help unlock economic and social benefit.”
Dr. Michael Briers, CEO Sirca “Sirca’s involvement in the Centre is an important opportunity to work with global leaders such as Cisco, as well as other partners to develop solutions for the knowledge economy. We have a proven track record in handling very large data sets and providing data analysis for organizations to enable better visibility and decision support.”
Ros Harvey, Chief Strategy Advisor for Sirca said “By 2050 we will need to double the amount of food produced to feed the world’s growing population whilst at the same time having access to less land, half the amount of fresh water, increasingly expensive fertilizer and unprecedented changes in climate. Technology, particularly the IoT, is seen as a potential solution to this urgent challenge. As a member of the Centre, our aim is to combine Australia’s strengths in agriculture with technology innovation, to make Australia the epicenter for IoT R&D in agriculture.”
Professor Steven Tingay, Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy, Curtin University said “Technology developed for the SKA will not only help us solve the great mysteries of science, but will also has benefits for business. SKA and its precursor projects are really motivating a lot of different people to come together and think about how we can use those opportunities more broadly. We see the Internet of Everything Innovation Centre, Australia as a good platform to extend our partnership with Cisco and to collaborate with other companies who are producing big data sets and struggling with the same sorts of things that we’re struggling with as scientists.”
Supporting resources:
- Visit the Cisco® IoE Innovation Centre, Australia Site.
- Tour the global Cisco IoE Innovation Centres.
- See how the Internet of Everything connects the unconnected.
- See See how Cisco is investing in Australian start-ups.
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