AT&T and IBM today announced a partnership that aims to develop solutions that help support the “Internet of Things.” (IOC)

According to a press release, the two companies will combine their analytic platforms, cloud, and security technologies to gain more insights on data collected from machines in a variety of industries. 

The partnership will initially focus on creating new solutions targeted for city governments and midsize utilities.  

Chris Hill, senior vice president of AT&T Advanced Solutions, said in a statement that AT&T and IBM “share a vision that the ‘Internet of Things’ will help companies in a variety of industries rely on their remote assets and connected devices to take their business to the next level.” 

AT&T says the partnership will help cities better allocate and distribute resources based on information reported from incidents and service disruptions, while also allowing them to analyze the movement of people to improve traffic management, parking capacity, location and number of first unit responders. 

AT&T also said it will look to monitor social media updates from citizens reporting bad weather or major traffic so the city can take best course of action.

The partnership will take advantage of AT&T’s Machine-to-Machine (M2M) globally accessible network, devices, and Global Subscriber Identity Module (SIM), as well as IBM’s Intelligent Operations Center, Maximo Asset Management, analytics capabilities, and IBM MessageSight MQTT Appliance, which complements the IBM MobileFirst family of solutions. 

New of the partnership comes as the GSMA today released numbers that forecast global M2M connections will hit 250 million in 2014.