13. Google
Enabler: Development Tools, Cloud & Analytics Solutions
Google is well-positioned in the IoT space with its open source beacons, IoT operating system, cloud, SDKs and machine learning technologies.
- Google offers Android, the world’s most popular mobile operating system that powers more than a billion devices across the globe – from phones and tablets to watches, TV and cars. Many more IoT devices are expected to be powered by IoT.
- In autonomous driving arena, Google is making consistent strides to expand the capabilities of its self-driving cars and has equipped many types of cars with its self-driving equipment. As of March 2016, the firm had test driven its fleet of vehicles nearly two million road miles, in autonomous mode.
- In addition, Google unveiled two new technologies for the IoT – Brillo and Weave. Brillo is a new lightweight OS that is designed to run on IoT devices. Weave is a new device-to-device communication protocol which is used for sending commands, updating devices, and performing initial setup of new devices.
- Google also makes Bluetooth beacons which form a part of the IoT trend. They’re little transmitters that send out information about a specific point of interest. For instance, a beacon-equipped bus stop could send out transit times to a smartphone in the range of the beacon, or stores could send special offers to customers currently in the store.
- Google offers a new open frame format for BLE Beacons, dubbed Eddystone, which allows users to manage their beacons and monitor their health.
- Google also provides an open source machine learning system Tensorflow that helps developers in everything from speech recognition in the Google app, to search in Google Photos, or even to smooth the traffic flow through a city.
IoT Page: https://cloud.google.com/solutions/iot
HQ: California, USA
14. General Electric (GE)
Enabler: Development Tools, Cloud & Analytics Solutions
GE Digital has a big focus on the industrial internet with the idea of detecting issues in manufacturing equipment before it breaks and causes downtime for manufacturing companies.
• GE is staking its claim in IoT with its IoT platform, Predix cloud platform-as-a-service (PaaS) that is designed specifically for industrial applications such as manufacturing, aviation, energy and healthcare.
• The aim of Predix is to help these industries deal with the vast amounts of data being generated by sensors attached to everything from medical equipment to aircraft engines. Predix supports the development of apps that can use real-time operational data to provide insight for better and faster decision-making.
• GE also offers software packages on top of Predix to make industrial workflows more efficient. These softwares include Brilliant Factory (a smart factory solution to optimize production), and Digital Power Plant (which reads information from sensors to generate more electricity from the same equipment).
IoT Page: https://www.ge.com/digital/industrial-internet
HQ: Connecticut, USA
15. Honeywell
Enabler: Electronics Hardware, Development Tools, Cloud & Analytics Solutions
Honeywell International, an industrial automation giant, is addressing the IoT space with automation and control solutions for a wide range of process industries, such as manufacturing and oil and gas. The firm also has vast knowledge in cyber security, smart metering, worker safety, smart buildings and wearable segments.
• Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS), a business unit of Honeywell International, recently took a big step forward into the IoT space by opening a Digital Transformation unit to help manufacturers harness the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and allow them to better manage and analyze data from their IoT devices. This is intended to help companies reduce production downtime, boost productivity, and improve safety conditions for workers.
• HPS is also working for cybersecurity solutions to thwart hackers in connected industrial environments.
• Tridum, an independent business owned by Honeywell, recently launched Niagara 4, the operating system for the Internet of Things (IoT). Niagara 4 helps users to increase operational and energy efficiency, reduce costs and maintain security. It has the ability to quickly collect and synthesize tens of thousands of data points, and visualize that data for building operators through a streamlined user interface.
• Honeywell also worked with Intel on an industrial wearable solution to help protect workers from unexpected and previously undetected risks in industrial environments.
IoT Page: https://www.honeywellprocess.com/en-US/innovations/Pages/iiot.aspx
HQ: New Jersey, USA
