Cisco, IBM named top two smart city providers

IBM and Cisco have been recognised as the two top smart city vendors, according to a new report from Navigant Research.

The new Navigant Research Leaderboard Report on smart city suppliers examines the world’s leading companies that support smart city projects involving energy, water, transportation, building management and government services.

The report specifically assesses how companies provide an integrated approach to city operations, technologies and solutions.

Michael J Dixon, general manager at IBM Smarter Cities, said: “IBM continues to be the leader in the Smarter Cities market, helping transform cities of all sizes”.

Although Cisco and IBM are the uppermost smart city traders, more cities are planning on expanding their supplier relationship and develop for larger-scale programmes.

This means that cities are committing to schemes for sustainability, innovation in public services, and economic development that depend on technology investments.

Schneider Electric has adopted smart city strategies and is influencing a broader range of company initiatives to reinforce its smart city scheme.

The introduction and positive review of Microsoft’s CityNext programme has encouraged its success in ranking 11th in 2013 to 5th in 2014.

The emergence of Ericsson and Huwei among the contenders reflects the essential role of communications and IT infrastructure in smart cities and the developing ambitions of supplier in this market. Other top smart cities suppliers are Hitachi, Toshiba and Oracle.

Intel and the city of San Jose, California are cooperating on Smart Cities USA which is a public-private project expecting to produce 25,000 clean-tech jobs for San Jose’s economic growth and create environmental sustainability.

By 2023, Navigant is anticipating for the global smart city technology market to be worth more than US$27.5bn (£17.5bn), in comparison to the revenue of US$8.8bn (£5.6bn) in 2014.