Dell opens Singapore lab to tap IoT growth in APAC

With interest in Internet of Things (IoT) ramping up in Singapore, so are tech vendors eager to ride the wave. One such market player is Dell, which has just announced a new test site dedicated to the technology.

The hardware vendor on Tuesday unveiled a lab here to provide a platform for customers in Asia-Pacific, including Japan, to test proof-of-concept (POCs) IoT products. Its first such facility in the region and third globally, the Dell IoT lab was launched in collaboration with Intel, which associated products and services also would be showcased.

At the test site, customers will have access to Dell's technical consultants while the vendor's IoT industry partners, such as developers and independent software vendors, can build new products based on Intel and Dell's IoT technologies.

"This facility will focus on enabling intelligent devices and gateways, speeding up the connection of legacy systems to the cloud," Dell said, adding that it would also support analytics.

The lab is located within Dell's solution centre in city-state, and joins two other global sites in the US and Ireland.

IoT, together with data analytics, play a significant role in Singapore's smart nation initiatives, which encompass thousands of data sensors already deployed in Jurong Lake District. The country's next ICT masterplan also includes the deployment of IoT in logistics to improve inventory visibility and decision-making.

Pointing to strong market growth in the region, Dell's OEM Asia-Pacific and Japan area vice president Glen Burrows said in the statement: "We see vast opportunities from IoT with companies benefitting by identifying new business models, increasing operational efficiency, and fuelling innovation.

"With a strong connectivity infrastructure and the government's vision to create a smart nation, Singapore is the ideal choice for the location of our first IoT lab in the region," Burrows added.

At the lab, customers can develop and test IoT POCs with various products from Dell and Intel, including the former's Edge Gateway 5000 series as well as servers, storage, and networking offerings.

Dell said the lab would feature product demos from two of its OEM customers, Innodep and Silverline, to showcase how others could tap its products to develop their own IoT offerings. Innodep's video surveillance systems run on IoT technology to analyse metadata, while Silverline's smart home systems tap data sensors.