Honeywell recently announced that it will join Georgia Tech’s Center for the Development and Application of Internet of Things Technologies.
This comes after the company opened a software center and office in Atlanta near the Georgia Tech campus last fall. Honeywell joins competitor Stanley Black & Decker, as well as Cisco, IBM, and AT&T in participating in the research center.
Honeywell likely wants access to the talent and resources that a large technical university like Georgia Tech can offer. It could be looking to recruit developers and engineers from the school — by securing a spot on its campus, Honeywell will be able to develop relationships with the high-skilled students that Georgia Tech is grooming before they even graduate. Meanwhile, Georgia Tech’s center offers research and testing labs that Honeywell may otherwise not have had access to.
This lab will only add to Honeywell’s leading status across many IoT segments. Honeywell stands out as a provider of both consumer and enterprise IoT hardware, including smart thermostats and enterprise robotics. The company earned $15 billion in revenue in 2016 from its home & building and safety & productivity units, up nearly $1.5 billion from 2015. Participation in this research center should help the company continue to grow this already large revenue stream by helping it to attract more top talent.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is growing rapidly as companies around the world connect thousands of devices every day. But behind those devices, there’s a sector worth hundreds of billions of dollars supporting the IoT.
Platforms are the glue that holds the IoT together, allowing users to take full advantage of the disruptive potential of connected devices. These platforms allow the IoT to achieve its transformational potential, letting businesses manage devices, analyze data, and automate the workflow.
Peter Newman, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider’s premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on the evolving IoT platform ecosystem. This report sizes the market and identifies the primary growth drivers that will power the IoT platform space in the next five years. It also profiles many of the top IoT platforms by discussing key trends in the platform industry such as platform consolidation.
