IBM, the computer services and Software Company, which has been struggling with slow growth in its traditional business in recent years, said its IoT business has risen to 6,000 paying customers from 4,000 at the end of 2015.
IoT, which enables machine to send and receive data, is important to IBM’s revenue as it has refocused on areas that promise profitable growth such as analytics, security and cloud services.
To meet consistently increasing demand, IBM is planning to hire 1,000 people in the next few years at its new global IoT headquarters in Munich, executives said.
IBM will announce on Tuesday a new strategic partnership with German industrial ball bearing company Schaeffler to supply it with data analytics, cloud services and consulting. The deal covers product development, manufacturing, preventive maintenance once cars, trains, wind turbines and other moving parts are sold.
