Last month, Dell launched an Internet of Things (IoT) Gateway powered by Ubuntu Core, and the product is already being tested to demonstrate how it can be used to run the smart buildings of the future.

The gateway will process sensor data at the edge of a network, providing users with flexibility to perform analytics at the edge, reducing latency for data based decisions, such as managing energy consumption or triggering a call for proactive equipment maintenance.

This reduces the time and cost associated with transferring data to the cloud or data centre. Dell’s new gateways provide an IoT edge solution that conserves network bandwidth by relaying only meaningful data back to the cloud.

Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, says that “IoT is a trillion dollar market, so it's not really surprising that everyone wants a piece”. In the case of Dell, the company is looking at IoT from a hardware point of view, and one of their key software partners is Canonical with its Ubuntu operating system.

Canonical is betting on Ubuntu Core, which has already been adopted by numerous other companies and developers to run various devices and technologies that wouldn't necessarily be considered, like fridges and ovens, for example. Of course the IoT is not limited to small devices, and it appears that Ubuntu Core can also be a good system manager for smart buildings applications. Smart buildings represent a huge market for IoT, predicted to surpass $85Bn by 2020 according to our recent report: The Internet of Things in Smart Buildings.

The news comes soon after Dell announced it had opened an IoT lab in Limerick, Ireland; as part of a plan to create a base and research arm for its brand new IoT division. In a statement Dell said, “the facility will help create innovative, industry-leading solutions”.

These moves have shown Dell’s strong intentions in the IoT market. The computer hardware giant recently formed a dedicated IoT division focused on solutions that not only span hardware, but also software and services. The new lab in Limerick will apparently be separate from their current IoT lab in Santa Clara, California, which was set up in November as a joint venture with Intel.

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Dermot O'Connell, Dell's executive director for OEM solutions in EMEA in Limerick said, “customers will have a flexible and scalable foundation for developing market-ready solutions with a trusted, reliable partner. Our specialists in the lab can reduce the complexity of IT and help customers bring their ideas to life". Dell’s new IoT product division is offering partnerships with operational technology organisations with a goal of bridging the domains of operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT). The division will provide support for a broad range of IoT offerings including security, manageability, services, analytics, infrastructure, and endpoints.

The new division’s first product release is the IoT gateway using Ubuntu Core, which is primarily designed to help companies kick start their IoT solution development. The gateway can be used for current projects and can also be utilised as a proof-of-concept for use with future specialised Dell gateways.

Furthermore, Dell also announced a partnership with IoT specialist ThingWorx that sees it joining the firm's system integrator programme as a global system integrator, offering professional services for IoT. ThingWorx offers a proven IoT platform, claimed to be one of the most comprehensive IoT solution stacks in the industry, aimed at customers seeking to develop solutions for smart connected products.