Cisco, along with an ecosystem of partners, has officially launched Innovation Central based in Australian Technology Park in Sydney.
The Sydney centre will initially focus on developing new ideas and ‘IoT’ solutions for agriculture, transport and smart cities.
Initial partners include CSIRO’s Data61, University of NSW, National Farmers’ Federation, NSW Farmers Association, ATP Innovations and NSW Department of Primary Industries.
It aims to create a state of the art ‘connected community’ focused on Cloud, analytics, cyber security and IoT network platforms.
Cisco experts, industry partners and ecosystem startups will develop proof-of-concepts, features and functionalities, as well as prototyping.
It is the second innovation centre in Australia and it will collaborate with the Perth-based innovation centre, which opened last year. It will also combine with Cisco’s eight global centres based in Rio De Janeiro, Toronto, Songdo, Berlin, Barcelona, Tokyo, London and Paris.
According to Cisco, it will invest $US15 million in the next five years into the Australian centres. Investment will also be further boosted through the partnerships.
Cisco A/NZ vice-president, Ken Boal, said the aim of Innovation Central was to turn innovation into real commercial solutions based on IoT in agriculture, smart cities and transport.
NSW minister for primary industries, lands and water, Niall Blair, said that Innovation Central was an ideal mechanism to drive the transformation of primary industries in NSW.
“The NSW Government is determined to increase the value of primary industries and drive economic growth right across the state,” Blair said. “In order to do this, we know we need to work closely with industry and to focus on digital transformation taking place in all sectors, not only in Australia, but globally.”
