December 5th, 2017 – NEC Corporation, and Sakura Internet Inc., a provider of internet infrastructures today announced that they will work together on collaborated experiments using a data exchange system for Smart Cities and Smart Buildings based on FIWARE, a platform software which was developed and implemented through EU’s future internet public-private partnership programs (FI-PPP).

BACKGROUND

Recently, in order to achieve a smarter management for Smart Cities and Smart Buildings, there is a growing need for sharing and utilizing the data generated in a wide variety of industrial as well as public segments such as transport, energy, environment, tourism and public safety.  And such a cross-segment data utilization should no longer be only for those who generate the data but also should leverage much broader range of stakeholders.

PROJECT OUTLOOK

Purpose – Using FIWARE, which is already a proven system for Smart Cities in EU and other regions, the two companies will build a data exchange system for Smart Cities and Smart Buildings.  They will further work together to extract the stakeholders’ requirements for data exchange as well as their issues and also to accumulate technical knowledge for operation and maintenance of the system.

Period – To start from March 2018 for one year (tentative).

Experiments – A cloud-based testbed instance will be built in Fukuoka, Japan, for which Sakura Internet will provide its cloud infrastructure, “Sakura Cloud”, and NEC will build a FIWARE–based data exchange environment on top of it.  This testbed will be used for free by the participants to the experiments.   The participants are expected to leverage their businesses by using the data offered by this system and also to clarify the requirements as well as issues in data exchange.  Such learnings will be summarized by Sakura Internet and NEC to be shared among the participants to the experiments.

Upon kickstarting the experiments, workshops will be held in the locations including Fukuoka to explain the data exchange environment and also to encourage participation of a broad range of stakeholders.

Expected Outcomes – Such a free testbed approach for data exchange environment is expected to encourage participation of startups and small- and medium-sized enterprises, thereby quickly clarifying region-specific issues as well as common challenges in data exchange and utilization across industrial segments.  The effort will also lead to the formation of data market ecosystem and also to a creation of innovative smart applications.

Mr. Ulrich Ahle, Chief Executive Officer of FIWARE Foundation says,

“The FIWARE-based testbed to be built by NEC Sakura Internet in Japan is an important step forward to the globalization of FIWARE.  On behalf of the FIWARE community, I sincerely wish that the effort of these two companies will lead to an increase in the FIWARE users in Japan and also to the expansion of new digital market of smart services and data economy.”

Photo by chuttersnap on Unsplash.