Intel has announced that its Leixlip campus in Co Kildare will be the location of the latest Intel Internet of Things (IoT) Ignition Lab, a dedicated facility for the collaborative development of novel IoT solutions. The Internet of Things (IoT) is considered one of the fastest growing areas of the tech industry today and one which holds enormous potential to drive economic value and social change. IoT is built around the idea of turning any device/object into a smart device/object by having it communicate with other devices, with the cloud and to produce data that can be used to increase value. With industry analysts estimating that there will be 50 billion connected devices in the world by 2020, the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) offers business the opportunity to develop new services, enhance productivity and efficiency, gain new insights, improve real-time decision making, solve critical problems and develop new and exciting customer experiences. While keen to respond to the opportunities provided, organisations can struggle with the array of technologies involved, market fragmentation, interoperability, security challenges, device manageability and their ability to scale the deployments as billions of new connected devices are deployed and have to connect to and integrate with existing legacy systems. To address these challenges, Intel is taking a comprehensive approach to accelerating the development and deployment of the IoT with a focus on enabling intelligent devices and gateways, speeding up the connection of legacy systems to the cloud and enabling end to end analytics to turn big data into actionable information. A critical part of this approach is collaborating with the ecosystem to deliver innovative and quality IoT solutions. To facilitate this collaboration Intel has established a number of IoT Ignition Labs which provide optimized environments for engagement, learning and the efficient development of innovative solutions. To date, Intel has established five Ignition Labs across Europe and the Middle East which are located in the Swindon (UK), Stockholm (Sweden), Munich (Germany), Istanbul (Turkey) and Haifa (Israel). Each Ignition Lab focuses on serving the needs of a specific set of vertical markets with the Ireland IoT Lab focusing on: • Smart home & building, • Smart Cities • Energy and Utilities • Smart Agriculture The goal of the newly established lab is to bring together all components in the IoT value chain from hardware and software vendors, system integrators, business consultants and end users of IoT Solutions. Also located at the Leixlip campus is the Intel Labs IoT Systems Research Lab which conducts research focused on the Internet of Things with a particular emphasis on distributed edge computing, Machine to Machine (M2M) communications, IoT Applications, and data analytics. The diversity of these Intel business operations in Ireland provide an opportune backdrop for the new Ignition lab and for the development of solutions in the IoT space. As home to hundreds of hi-tech companies, a vibrant startup community and a closely knit eco-system of tech innovators, Ireland has the unique potential to become a hub for the IoT computing wave – a computing wave which has limitless possibilities and which is underpinned by innovation. Frank Jones, vice president of the Internet of Things Group and general manager of the operations and group marketing division at Intel, officially opened the Ignition Lab in Leixlip and said: “The Internet of Things is one of the most exciting areas of the tech industry today and one with enormous potential. The IoT Ignition Lab in Ireland will seek to tap into that potential by enabling collaboration between Intel and the likes of developers, customers, academia and entrepreneurs in order to accelerate the development and deployment of IoT solutions.” Jones added that Intel has chosen Ireland as the latest Ignition lab location for a number of different reasons, “Ireland has one of the most vibrant tech landscapes in the world and represents for Intel a hub of activity that spans right across our business – we believe there is an opportunity for Ireland to be a leader in this space and to drive innovation that will spur development and growth in IoT worldwide”. “Collaboration will be a key enabler of the Ignition Lab’s success and we are ready and eager to work with stakeholders from across the IoT field to ensure its success – we look forward to working with the Irish ecosystem to help shape the future of computing.” Louise Summerton who is responsible for running the Ignition Labs across Europe Middle East & Africa added: “We are delighted to add Ireland to our network our labs. The development and innovation done here in Ireland will be utilised across the IoT community locally and globally. We welcome customers and partners to connect with us to develop new ideas and solutions together.” A number of IoT demos were showcased as part of the event today, many of which have resulted from existing collaborations. One such collaboration is with lighting design and manufacturing company Patina, which has developed a range of innovative smart lighting technologies. Speaking at the launch event Patina lighting operations manager Elliott Murphy Kerry said: “We have already experienced the benefits of working with the Intel IoT Ignition Lab in the UK and are delighted that as a result of the collaboration we have deployed our solutions in a number of the IoT lab spaces themselves."