Somos senior vice president Sridhar Ramachandran has been elected chairman of the IoT M2M Council (IMC) and Ellen Boehm, SVP for IoT strategy at internet security firm Keyfactor, becomes vice chair.
The IMC – the largest trade association dedicated to the global IoT sector – held its annual general meeting in Nuremberg Germany, this month just before the Embedded World exhibition, where it set its direction and elected new officers for the coming year.
At the top of the group’s agenda is the subject of IoT security, which has been a major issue facing the fledgling technology sector of late.
“Just in the last 60 days we’ve seen an onslaught of legislation and regulation covering security and privacy in IoT deployments in the EU, USA and Asia,” said Ramachandran. “Our group feels that most of the activity is well intentioned but may not improve security for people using remote devices. With more than 30 IoT technology companies on the IMC board, we bring a practical perspective to the table that is important and urgent.”
Other subjects the group intends to tackle in the coming year include convergence in various forms of remote connectivity, as well as AI and the use of IoT technology to combat climate change.
The IMC is comprised of 28,000 products makers, designers, OEMs, enterprise users and apps developers that deploy IoT, covering 27 vertical markets and virtually every continent. The IMC is the official IoT partner for the Consumer Electronics Show and Embedded World exhibitions worldwide, and produces its own events online.
“Our mission is to accelerate the deployment of IoT technology for the public good by bringing IoT users together with providers,” said Ramachandran. “As pioneers in the IoT sector, the IMC serves as the premier platform for collaboration and building awareness around critical issues that impact the IoT ecosystem.”
The IMC (www.iotm2mcouncil.org) is the largest trade group dedicated to the global IoT and M2M sector with more than 28,000 IoT adopters as members. Board companies include 1NCE, 2J Antennas, A1 Digital, Aeris, Airgain, Blues, Digi International, eSat Global, Eseye, Fibocom, FloLive, Friendly Technologies, Giesecke+Devrient, Globalstar, Ground Control, Gurtam, Hologram, iBasis, Ignion, IoT Launch, Keyfactor, KORE, KYOCERA AVX, Losant, MultiTech, OQ Technology, Pelion, Printed Energy, Quectel, Somos, Tata Communications, Telit Cinterion and Vodafone.
