Partners pursue health-related IoT system integration

IT service providers are finding a role in health-related IoT system integration projects amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This week, Insight Enterprises, an integrator based in Tempe, Ariz., unveiled a wearable offering for contact tracing , collaborating with Microshare Inc., a Philadelphia company that provides IoT-based smart facilities offerings.

Source: Partners pursue health-related IoT system integration

The moves point to a trend that could help fuel the growth of IoT technology in 2021 and potentially open opportunities for more IT service providers. According to Original Postredictions-2021-technology-diversity-drives-iot-growth/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Forrester Research, a market research firm based in Cambridge, Mass., “demand for new [IoT] applications, technologies, and solutions will be driven by connected healthcare, smart offices, remote asset monitoring and location services.”

Insight's contact tracing offering uses Bluetooth devices that employees wear as lanyards, badges or wrist bands. The sensor-equipped badges or bands record and transmit data when they are close to other wearable devices. Insight's Connect Platform, an IoT application, then analyzes the data collected from the wearable technology, an Insight spokesperson said. The platform brings together the sensor data in a dashboard for a single-pane-of-glass view.

In the contact tracing partnership, Microshare contributes its ability to ingest, sort and protect data. The company also provides its LoRaWAN gateways. LoRaWAN serves as the backhaul for the data, the spokesperson said. Microshare procures the Bluetooth and other IoT sensors on the open market.

Insight will sell the contact tracing offering to customers through its sales team. Insight and Microshare have pilot deployments underway, including one with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.

Accenture, meanwhile, provided IoT and digital manufacturing platforms to Blueair, a Unilever brand that specializes in home and professional air purifiers. According to Accenture, its platforms helped Blueair launch its HealthProtect connected air purifier.SearchITChannel's IT Projects Awards
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Accenture tapped the AWS cloud to create the IoT platform, which lets Blueair customers use a mobile app to remotely monitor and manage indoor air quality. The platform sends alerts to customers when filters need replacement and remotely debugs and updates an air purifier's firmware. 

Blueair uses Accenture's digital manufacturing platform to automate the assembly and testing of its connected air purifiers. According to a Blueair statement, HealthProtect has been tested on Staphylococcus albus and MS2 bacteriophage, but not tested against the coronavirus.

Channel acquisitions continue

This week's channel M&A activity involved a mix of distributors, service providers and security specialists.

• In distribution, Platinum Equity agreed to purchase Ingram Micro from HNA Technology Co. China-based HNA disclosed its plan to acquire Ingram Micro for $6 billion in 2016. The new deal is valued at $7.2 billion. The transaction is expected to close by the first half of 2021.
• Leidos Holdings said it agreed to acquire 1901 Group, an MSP and cloud solutions provider based in Reston, Va. Leidos, an IT and engineering company also based in Reston, expects to fund the $215-million deal with cash on hand. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2021.
• Sysnet Global Solutions, a cybersecurity and compliance solutions provider based in Dublin, acquired Viking Cloud, which focuses on asset, event and compliance management. The company last week purchased the Managed Compliance Solutions division of ControlScan, a managed security services provider based in Atlanta.

NetApp readies cloud tool for MSPs

NetApp has added partners into its private preview of Cloud Analyzer MSP, which will be generally available in the first half of 2021, the company said.

Cloud Analyzer MSP, a Spot by NetApp technology, lets MSPs manage, bill and provide cost optimization and governance to thousands of customers from a unified platform, said Amiram Shachar, NetApp vice president and general manager of Spot by NetApp.

Other features include active capacity planning and compute provisioning through Spot instances, backed by a service-level agreement. MSPs can also use Cloud Analyzer MSP to define customer billing rules, so customers can see their costs based on pre-defined pricing agreements, discounts, refunds or credits, Shachar noted