Cisco has announced it has opened its global Internet of Everything (IoE) Innovation Centre in Barcelona, in Spain.
Between 2015 and 2020 the company plans to invest $30m in the facility, in particular in restoration, innovation lab and IT equipment. Additionally, Cisco wants to hire talents in the area of engineering, application development and research.
The new centre is expected to provide a platform for research, development and market opportunities related to the Internet of Things for smart cities, it says.
Barcelona has been chosen due to a city’s commitment to innovation in the field of the services and solutions for smart cities and its significant technological, academic and research resources. Also, the city serves as a hub for business development and mobile worldwide capital, it says.
The new centre will open in 2016 and will be one of five Cisco facilities focused on IoE. This includes creating the IoE Innovation Lab for services and solutions to promote smart cities initiatives such as smart parking, lightning, energy management, security and cloud exchange. Cisco will also use the facility as a live showcase area for its solutions for smart communities, it says.
The company has already two IoE sites located in Brazil and South Korea and two other are under development in Germany and Canada.
“Barcelona has become a worldwide reference smart city. It’s the Mobile Worldwide Capital and in 2014 has been appointed as the Innovation European Capital. Both the new Centre of Innovation located in the Smart City Campus and the strong Cisco commitment with our city, will help us to reinforce our bet on a new model of economical growth based on technology, urban innovation and advanced services, improving the wellness and the quality of people life,” says Xavier Trias, Barcelona City Mayor.