Reliance Industries Limited has entered into a global partnership agreement in the industrial Internet of Things. Reliance Industries is gearing up to enter the software services business and plans to take on India’s IT giants.
As per the deal, RIL will offer nationwide connectivity infrastructure to customers through a 4G network powered by Jio.GE would offer the security, availability and monitoring aspects of the platform to RIL and its customers.
Reliance plans to gradually evolve into software and services firm and all this will be based upon Jio. However, as per experts if Jio is providing the connectivity and Reliance as the independent software vendor, then that might make it complicated for other CIOs; as having one company as both ISP ad ISV is a concentration of risk.
Predix, the operating system for the industrial internet, is powering digital industrial business that drive the global economy. It connects industrial equipment, analyzing data and delivering real-time insights. Currently, India lacks a serious number of IOT trained engineers with Tata Consultancy Services having about 800 consultants and 50 applications that are working on this platform.
Reliance Industries Limited will use Predix internally, first in, Oil and Gas and then in retail, telecom and healthcare sectors. They are working on a blueprint for its digital services unit so as to firm up a plan with GE within the next six months. As the conglomerate starts building scale, searching for internal talent would be a prerequisite.
The partnership will drive operational efficiencies, profitability and new revenue streams by making use of data and analytics thereby benefiting the customers. As per the research firm Gartner, IIOT solutions have a potential for $25 billion by 2022 across the four key industries of oil and gas, power, healthcare and transportation.