Chinese multinational telecommunications company Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. today announced a deal with digital security outfit Gemalto SA that’s aimed at making it easier for businesses to build applications for smart cities, connected cars and intelligent homes.

Now, partners using Huawei’s OceanConnect platform for Internet of Things applications will be able to connect to any mobile operator of their choice without the need for extra in-house or third-party integration with each carrier. The companies said they’re hoping the partnership will accelerate service rollout, reduce integration cost and spur more revenues for businesses looking to build IoT applications.

McKinsey Insights estimates the IoT market at about $900 million in 2015 and expects it will grow to $3.7 billion in 2020. In 2015, networking giant Cisco Systems Inc. estimated there are 4.9 billion connected devices, which could expand to as many as 12.2 billion internet-connected things by 2020, representing almost half of all Internet-connected devices.

“Huawei is accelerating growth at full throttle in the cloud and IoT space,” said Zhang Qin, president of Huawei’s Cloud Core Network Marketing Execution. “We have innovated and adopted various IoT solutions for multiple sectors, including smart homes, automotive, public utilities as well as oil and gas energy.”

The OceanConnect platform provides IoT developers and companies a way to accelerate application release, simplify terminal access and ensure network connectivity. To do this, Huawei built an ecosystem of developers around an IoT connection management platform that provides open application program interfaces and serial agents to developers.

Gemalto intends to extend OceanConnect with its on-demand IoT solution, LinqUs On-Demand Connectivity, which will provide functionality to deliver seamless remote identity management and security.

OceanConnect’s already existing ecosystem and framework allow developers to rapidly create IoT applications that can work across a network of devices. With the addition of Gemalto’s management platform, businesses can quickly scale-out deployments.

The LinqUS platform will automatically manage additional devices as they join the network and coordinate them with OceanConnect.

The OceanConnect ecosystem also allows businesses to hook into cloud computing and Big Data technologies, putting the power of analysis and app delivery at their disposal.

Featured image via Pixabay