IBM to Bet Big and Invest $3 Billion in Internet of Things Division

Try and imagine a world where companies took their business decisions based mainly on weather forecast for a period of time.

It could even involve the anticipation of sudden increase in demand for electricity based on humidity and temperature expected in the next few weeks. Better yet, insurance corporations could be taking a proactive approach to alert policy holders to stay indoors as news of a storm surfaces.

Thanks to the fresh partnership between IBM and The Weather Company, those are prospects now being considered. IBM plans on investing a whopping $3 billion over four years in order to help its customers accumulate and analyze data from smartphones and sensor-equipped gadgets. Together with The Weather Company, it aims to exploit data that can allow companies the luxury of better decision making.

IBM is going to invest $3 billion over four years to help customers accumulate and analyze data from smartphones and sensor-equipped gadgets

As part of this new deal between the two companies, one of The Weather Company’s units ‘WSI’ would move its data services, that originally gathers data from over 100,000 aircrafts, sensors and drones , into IBM’s cloud service. This platform would be primarily used for analytic services that are specific to the industry ie. Targeted at insurers, retailers and utility companies. Customers could then use this data in combination with IBM’s own analytic tools to accomplish their business needs.

This pool of data will also be accessible by entrepreneurial software developers wishing to base their designed apps and services to be rendered using IBM’s cloud services. Ultimately, IBM hopes for companies to use weather forecast services in combination with the pool of business data available to them such that they are able to readily capable of adapting to changes in pertinent business factors.

IBM hopes to annually generate $40 billion worth of revenue by 2018 in this move away from its usual consulting and hardware business

IBM has already approached big names in the industry like jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney as well as German tire manufacturer Continental AG to assist IBM in its efforts to use the data in business processes. IBM hopes to annually generate $40 billion worth of revenue by 2018 in this move away from its usual consulting and hardware business. If that comes to pass, analysts believe that it would account for 45 percent of what the company generates at the moment.