Cisco Australia IoT evangelist Scott Reid has joined one year old Brisbane-based IoT systems integration, RioT Solutions, saying he wanted a chance to be able to work on delivering complete end-to-end IoT implementations.
Reid has been appointed director, smart and connected networks at RioT Solutions. RioT Solutions said his job would be to grow business with major customers and develop strategic partnerships with organisations specifically requiring services in network architecture and cyber security for IoT solutions.
Reid was formerly national lead of digitisation for the public sector at Cisco. He told IoTAustralia: “At Cisco I talked to people a lot about entrepreneurialism and startups and about how agile companies could be with IoT, but I could only deliver a piece of it. Cisco is an important part of IoT but you cannot go and buy an IoT system from Cisco.”
He said RioT Solutions name derived from ‘Real IoT’. “Our focus making IoT real and in particular the integration between operational technology and information technology.” (Reid said the company name did not indicate any connection with the Riot Linux-based open source operating system for IoT)
He added: “We know companies are sitting there stressed about digitisation and the traditional resellers are talking a lot about IoT but not really able to bring it into effect. We aim to pull everything together.”
Bringing IT and OT together
However that pulling together is likely to be as much organisational as technical. OT and IT have a reputation for mutual distrust and Reid said: “A big part of my job is being a relationship broker within organisations.”
RioT Solutions was founded as a one-person company by Rob Merkwitza in September 2015 and now has 15 staff. It still operates from a single location in Queensland. Reid said plans were afoot for national expansion, but would give no details of expansion plans.
Meanwhile the company continues to increase staff numbers. Reid said: “We are looking for the best engineers in the country. I am looking for people with operational technology backgrounds and in-depth expertise in traditional networking and wireless skills. Cisco skills would be fantastic. And I want people who know about SCADA, lighting, industrial systems.”
