Wipro sets up centre of excellence for industrial IoT in Kochi

IT major Wipro has set up a centre of excellence (CoE) for industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in Kochi, the commercial capital of the southern state of Kerala, a company statement said.

The Bengaluru-based IT services and consultancy major said that the centre will develop innovative IIoT solutions across various industrial manufacturing sectors like automotive, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, consumer products and goods, and the utilities sector, it added in the press statement.

The IIoT centre will leverage emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain and robotics to develop proofs of concepts (POCs) and market-ready IoT solutions under the agile development model, Wipro said. Agile software development model is where developers and end-users work together to develop solutions that are flexible.

“We have focussed on technologies, which are critical to the Industry 4.0 concept and IoT is an integral part of this proposition. Kerala has endeavoured to address skill-related issues in emerging technology areas including IIoT by fostering a vibrant hardware-based startup ecosystem and a skilling framework that connects technical institutions," said M Sivasankar, IT secretary of the government of Kerala.

Kerala is rolling out an ambitious optic fibre network called Kerala Fibre Optic Network (KFON) within the next 18 months that will connect most large enterprises and institutions in the state. Sivasankar said that all the stakeholders will benefit from IoT deployments and the research being carried out at Wipro's CoE.

Wipro has two other IoT labs, in Mountain View, California and at its headquarters in Bengaluru.

“The company's decision to set up its third global IIoT lab in Kerala is a timely one and I hope it grows into a major development centre in a short period of time," Sivasankar added.

Late last year, Wipro had partnered with US-based Rockwell Automation to develop industrial automation solutions, and early last month, it announced setting up an AI innovation centre for research in Australia.

The company, which has a focus in the manufacturing sector, also has two automotive development centres in Detroit, US.

“Kerala has grown into a technology hub that offers access to a dynamic talent pool with an aptitude for new-age technologies. IoT presents a huge opportunity for industries in a hyper-connected world and we are confident that our end-to-end services and offerings will help our clients leverage IoT as part of their digital transformation goals,” said Jayraj Nair, vice president and global head for IoT at Wipro.

Wipro, with its focus on manufacturing, claims to have comprehensive engineering solutions for IoT with domain expertise to build applications for its customers. Its solutions and partnership ecosystem help the company provide edge computing, storage, AI, ML and analytics as well as cloud partners for delivering IoT for its customers.