“Smarter Cities” solution from IBM

John Dunderdale, VP-Software Group, Growth Markets and Pradeep Nair, Director for the Software Group for India/South Asia gave an overview of some of the fantastic work being done in the emerging world tailored for their needs.

John Dunderdale, VP-Software Group, Growth Markets and Pradeep Nair, Director for the Software Group for India/South Asia gave an overview of some of the fantastic work being done in the emerging world tailored for their needs. IBM’s global footprint painted the picture of a new world, where power centers were shifting from developed markets to emerging economies.

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It was heartening to see the list of offices IBM had in the Indian subcontinent region rise from the Delhi-Mumbai-Bangalore to a list of 20 odd hubs, spread all over India. You could see the commitment IBM had to genuinely make the world a better place with their ‘Smarter Planet’ suite and many others.

The highlight of the whole convention was the ‘Smarter Cities’ solution which worked with municipalities to deliver a dashboard style overview of the entire city for those in command. Rio De Janeiro was one of the earlier cities to get it and Pradeep Nair said talks are on with municipalities across different cities to implement it.

“The ‘Smarter Cities’ suite is for cities with a population of around 1-2million. But interestingly, we are seeing more demand coming from tier 2 cities.”, he added. On being asked about software for our villages and panchayats he added that “For the level of complexity the software handles, it needs a critical mass of around 1-2 million residents.”

That said, in the cities of the future where everything is interconnected, security must be taken care of. Solutions must be built to a fault where the end user is in complete control of their lives and the data is in safe hands. The consequences and cost of insecure systems, we don’t even want to imagine.