Today at IBM impact, we will be previewing the first prototypes of the IoT starter kit we have been working on with IBM. Due to be released later this year, the kit includes an mbed enabled cellular platform and access to IBM IoT cloud, plus all necessary parts needed to run the first example programs right out of the box.

IBM are a leading global provider of technology and services. The chances are you've recently used a service (ATM, supermarket checkout for example) that is built on IBM technology. With a leading position in Big Data (moving, storing and analysis) it was a natural fit for us to work together, leveraging ARMs leading position Little Data (Sensors, aggregation, communication). Bringing these components together realises IBMs long held vision of "Instrumented, Interconnected, Intelligent"

Our work with IBM has also included partnering with other leading suppliers of cellular hardware (u-blox) and data services, to ensure that we have all we need in the kit to take data from sensor to server.

A MQTT team has also been sprung up and they're porting the official MQTT C library to mbed from Eclipse Paho. This is still a work in progress but HelloMQTT and other examples should be ready by the time kits are available. Development is happening now so anyone interested in getting started with it, contributing or providing feedback can drop a line in the teams development forum.

Ian Craggs has done some great work bringing this to mbed. You can check out his personal blog too.

We'll be posting more as the kit becomes available for pre-order with our distributors, so keep an eye out, or if you're especially interested, contact support@mbed.org for more details.