AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM, and Intel have launched the Industrial Internet Consortium, which aims to define interfaces between IoT devices and cloud services.

The five founding members of the Industrial Internet Consortium announced plans for an Internet of Things (IoT) industry group back in August, and have now followed through with a name and a mission.

The open membership, not-for-profit IIC will help develop industrial IoT standards that define the interface between Internet of Things devices and cloud services. It will also initiate test bed projects in five sectors: energy, health care, manufacturing, transportation, and government. Other goals include “creating new industry use cases,” for the industrial Internet, as well as delivering best practices, reference architectures, case studies, and standards requirements “to ease deployment of connected technologies,” says the group.

The IIC won’t set standards itself, but instead will make recommendations that “influence the global standards development process for Internet and industrial systems.” The IIC will host open forums to share real-world ideas, practices, lessons, and insights, and “build confidence in new and innovative security measures.” It will also lobby the U.S. federal government in its planned investment of over $100 million per year in R&D related to cyberphysical systems, says the group.

Four other unnamed, elected organizations will join the permanent-member AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM, and Intel on an IIC Steering Committee. The IIC will be managed by Object Management Group (OMG), a nonprofit trade association in Boston.

In January, The Linux Foundation announced an “AllSeen Alliance” for Internet of Things technology built upon Qualcomm’s open source “AllJoyn” IoT interoperability framework. The only current IIC member on AllSeen is Cisco, which has been pushing hard on the IoT theme lately. However, Cisco is only a community member of AllSeen. Premier members include Haier, LG Electronics, Panasonic, Qualcomm, Sharp, Silicon Image, and TP-LINK.

IIC member Intel, which did not join AllSeen, last month announced a Developer Program for IoT. The program will offer 5,000 Arduino-compatible Galileo SBC-based IoT development kits, plus hackathons with prizes. The Galileo board is based on Intel’s new IoT-oriented, Linux-ready Quark processor (pictured at right).

“Enabling IoT scale requires an open solutions architecture facilitated by standards and a strong ecosystem,” stated Ton Steenman, vice president, IoT Solutions Group, Intel. “The IIC will help accelerate the momentum and make the Internet of Things a reality more quickly.”

“The Administration looks forward to working with public-private collaborations like the new IIC to turn innovative Industrial Internet products and systems into new jobs in smart manufacturing, health care, transportation and other areas,” stated U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker (photo at right).

 
Further information

More information on the Industrial Internet Consortium may be found at the IIC website.