IBM and A*STAR’s I²R to partner for Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative

They will work on big data and analytics, among others.

Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative is slowly coming to fruition, as government agencies continue to work to make it happen.

According to a media release, IBM and A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research (I²R) have signed an agreement to bring together leading edge technologies and research assets to create innovative solutions in the areas of big data and analytics, cyber security and urban mobility for Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative.

A*STAR announced that in addition to creating next-gen solutions to harness greater insights from data for city operations, both organisations will work on data protection and cyber security to ensure safe digital operations.

During the two-year partnership, IBM will provide I²R the use of their cloud innovative application development platform, Bluemix and its embedded mobile solutions. Bluemix combines the strength of IBM’s enterprise solutions with tools from IBM’s partner ecosystem to offer DevOps & Mobile capabilities in the cloud, making it possible to deploy applications from months to minutes and giving the marketplace easier access to solutions via a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model.

The first project that IBM and I²R will work on is building a data federation & analytics solution, leveraging A*STAR’s Data Analytics and Exchange Platform (A*DAX) and IBM’s suite of Big Data & Analytics solutions to serve Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives. It will serve as a launch pad for the industry to productise the A*STAR ADAX platform for commercial expansion outside of Singapore.

“IBM’s joint partnership with I²R is an excellent platform for us to be able to continually contribute to Singapore, and further reflects our leadership in delivering value through our smart city solutions. With our expertise in big data, analytics and security and both organisations’ extensive research capabilities, we look forward to enhancing our local ecosystem and servicing the global marketplace by productising valuable research assets to build next generation solutions,” says Janet Ang, vice president of Systems of Engagement & Smarter Cities, Asia Pacific, IBM Singapore.