The US giant has partnered with Reliance to launch UNLIMIT, which aims to provide enterprises in India with IoT solutions, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday 15 November.

The UNLIMIT platform will be based on Cisco Jasper’s connectivity management platform, which includes Reliance’s mobile network.

The new IoT service will play a role in the development of the Digital India project, Reliance claimed. Digital India is a government scheme aimed at building 100 Smart Cities to help increase the quality of life for residents.

Juergen Hase, CEO of Reliance Group’s IoT business unit, said, "IoT is a critical enabler for India’s growth, and businesses throughout the country are already utilizing its huge potential to help deliver innovative new services to their customers, while reducing cost and increasing revenue.

"We are delighted to partner with Cisco Jasper, and this strategic partnership will strengthen the market position of UNLIMIT significantly."

Cisco Jasper works with more than 30 mobile operators, and 120 networks worldwide. The service will also be made available for companies using its platform outside of India.

It is the latest move by Cisco in India. Recently, the US firm has begun hiring IoT engineers in the country to work at the Cisco Innovation Center in Bangalore.

"We are a company with deep roots in India, as both myself and one of my co-founders were born and raised here," said Jahangir Mohammed, GM of Cisco Jasper (and former co-founder and CEO of Jasper, which Cisco bought earlier this year). "It is inspiring to see both the Government and enterprises throughout India invest in IoT to advance both the country and commerce, which is why we are making our own investment in this market. Reliance Group’s deep commitment to advancing IoT throughout the country makes them an ideal partner."

Cisco has surpassed more than $1 billion revenues in India, with growth at more than 20% last year. In a recent article for Indian news service IANS, Cisco executives said it will launch advanced data centres and deploy cloud-based security solutions for governments and enterprises in the country. It has more than 11,000 employees there.

"Rapid digitisation is helping India grow at a faster pace than ever before. With the government's key initiatives like Digital India and Make in India firmly in place now, Cisco sees a massive growth in the country," Cisco president for Asia Pacific and Japan Irving Tan told IANS.

"(Data centres) is a huge area of interest for us. The data centres of the future will have embedded security throughout. Cisco's strategy is to provide a data centre architecture that enables customers to 'Analyse, Simplify, Automate, and Protect' (ASAP) their data."

capacitymedia.com