Nokia and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a strategic collaboration on Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for enterprise customers.

The companies will jointly market and sell solutions for two IoT vertical enterprise segments, including industrial/manufacturing and smart city applications. They will provide industrial/manufacturing customers with solutions for asset management, smart manufacturing, remote site automation and predictive maintenance, and enhanced networking choices for improved connectivity for smart city solutions, such as smart lighting and smart buildings.

According to research firm Markets and Markets, the IoT market for smart cities and manufacturing will reach USD 161 billion by 2020. The markets will grow as manufacturing companies use IoT to improve productivity in the production process and the supply chain, and as cities with growing populations use IoT to improve operational efficiency, maintain and protect their infrastructure, and operate in a sustainable manner.

The joint offerings combine connectivity, core networking, data aggregation and compute technologies from Nokia and HPE. The companies are currently working on a proof-of-concept for smart cities, combining Nokia’s routing capabilities with HPE’s Hybrid IT capabilities for joint project delivery models.

The IoT partnership extends the existing collaboration between the two organizations, which to date includes end-to-end deals with 25 enterprise and service provider customers, and more than 30 proof-of-concepts.

Kathrin Buvac, chief strategy officer at Nokia, said: “We are pleased to extend our partnership with HPE into the IoT space. HPE’s market presence offers Nokia expedited and increased access to the enterprise market and target verticals along with a complimentary portfolio of products and services.”

Antonio Neri, executive vice president, Head of Enterprise Group at HPE, said: “The addition of Nokia to the HPE IoT partner ecosystem will bring broader choice and market-leading technologies to our joint customers. HPE and Nokia have a long history of innovation that will help our customers through their journey of digitization.”

HPE has joined Nokia’s IoT Community (www.iotcommunity.com), an ecosystem of innovative companies collaborating on solution concepts, end-to-end prototypes, business models and market trials that will unleash the full potential of IoT. Nokia is joining part of HPE’s IoT initiative within HPE’s industry leading Partner Ready program.

The joint solutions will be ready to market from early 2017 onwards.