Colt Technology Services and IBM’s cooperative relationship took a new direction when the two joined together to open a new Industry 4.0 lab in the United Kingdom where businesses may test edge cloud services.
While IBM will give its Cloud Satellite hybrid cloud and Maximo Application Suite, Colt will contribute its cloud SD-WAN technology and Colt Edge computing platform. With three key edge use cases—visual inspection-based inferencing, supply chain telemetry, threat monitoring, and data protection—the duo is initially focusing on the manufacturing industry.
“We’re bringing together the best of connectivity, edge, and smart manufacturing solutions,” Colt VP of Innovation Mirko Voltolini said in a statement. “Industry 4.0 has huge potential for the manufacturing sector, and the lab is an exciting next step for Colt and IBM as we support enterprises to improve the visibility, analysis, performance, and maintenance of their industrial systems and operations.”
The opening of the lab expands on Colt and IBM’s ongoing efforts to collaborate. Since Colt stated in 2015 that it would support IBM’s Direct Link service for corporations, the two have been collaborating. Colt introduced support for IBM’s Cloud Direct Link service in 2018, and the two businesses announced last year that they will collaborate to promote edge computing adoption using IBM Cloud Satellite and Colt’s edge platform.
Colt’s continued initiatives to collaborate with companies like IBM are a part of a three-year plan that CEO Keri Gilder put in place when she took over in 2020. Her strategy focuses on co-developing solutions with cloud providers, among other things.
But Colt is also looking to beef up its network capabilities. In 2021, it announced plans to deploy Cisco’s Silicon One switches and 400G Open ZR+ pluggable optical technology. And earlier this month, the company struck a $1.8 billion deal to acquire Lumen’s networks and data centers in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.