Cisco to launch Internet of Everything centre in Australia
Cisco will invest $15 million over five years in an Internet of Everything Innovation Centre in Australia.
The centre will be established in Sydney and Perth, and will be the eighth set up by Cisco, following Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, Songdo, Berlin, Barcelona, Tokyo, and London.
It will commence in 2015 in partnership with Sirca in Sydney and Curtain University in Perth, and will demonstrate the technology on offer with connected devices. It will be open to Cisco's customers, startups, researchers, government organisations, and universities.
Cisco estimates that Internet of Everything will deliver $19 trillion in economic value worldwide over the next decade.
Cisco's senior vice president of worldwide operations Chuck Robbins highlighted the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) as an example of why Cisco chose to invest in Perth, and in Australia in general.
"There is a culture of innovation here. There is a belief in leveraging technology to lead," he said.
This week, however, funding to the SKA came under threat, because the Australian government tied its funding in with passing legislation to allow universities to set the fees they charge for degrees.
Cross-bench senators were opposed to the university deregulation legislation, posing a threat to the funding as a whole.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne split out the funding from the deregulation Bill earlier this week, but the Bill was ultimately defeated in the Senate for a second time.
Josh Taylor travelled to Melbourne as a guest of Cisco.