Telstra has taken the wrappers off its Gurrowa Innovation Lab in Melbourne.
The new facility enables Telstra, its enterprise customers, partners, incubators, vendors, and research institutes to technologically collaborate.
One area it will firstly focus on is the Internet of Things. The Gurrowa facility will provide a space to design and prototype IoT devices, the network services attached to them and software developers.
It will also connect haptic robots to rural ultrasound equipment, design portable systems that locate lost children in remote areas and develop sensor applications to predict when equipment or structures may fail.
“Technology is changing at a faster rate than ever before, impacting business models and traditional industry structures, and to stay ahead of the curve we need to be constantly innovating,” Telstra COO, Kate McKenzie, said.
The opening of the innovation lab builds upon Telstra’s research partnership program that was launched last year.
“These include our Gurrowa co-creation environment, extended collaboration with our vast, connected innovation network and an innovation model that will deliver speed at scale for new and enhanced products and services for our customers,” McKenzie said.
Telstra is also entering into a partnership with Pivotal to enhance its software development capability and it has also become a member of the Cloud Foundry Foundation.
McKenzie said the partnerships would provide them with the tools, processes and access to systems that enable collaboration with a cross section of enterprise customers.
“The integration of the physical world with digital is key to enabling the widespread adoption of IoT and software will deliver the fabric for this evolution to meet the challenges of the modern world,” she said.
“Becoming a member of the Cloud Foundry Foundation will allow us to use Cloud native platform capabilities as the engine room for innovation projects in Gurrowa and allows us to reduce our time to market for new products and services.”
