US IT giant IBM says it has launched new products aimed at accelerating the adoption of M2M technologies by global organizations.

The company says its new software and services will help customers to connect their existing systems to a wide variety of mobile devices and M2M technologies.

At the cornerstone of the strategy is IBM MessageSight, a new product designed to help organizations manage the billions of mobile devices and sensors installed in automobiles, traffic management systems, smart buildings and household appliances.

Solutions provider Wiless Controls says it has teamed up with Channel Islands telecoms operator JT Global on the development of M2M services.

Under an agreement signed this week, JG Global (St Helier, Jersey) is to support Wiless Controls’ M2M platform “on every continent using a guaranteed network connection”.

Keeping M2M platform development in-house could help operators to exploit M2M opportunities by lowering their costs, according to new research from Heavy Reading Insider.

“Telecom operators have their eyes firmly set on winning M2M market share,” said Simon Sherrington, a research analyst with Heavy Reading Insider and author of the report. “While many telecoms operators appear inclined to buy expertise from third parties in order to speed their market entry, there are some significant players not taking this path, and others may be planning to go it alone longer term.”

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom has signed what it calls a “nearly double-digit million euro contract” with cargo monitoring service provider arviem for the provision of M2M services.

The operator describes the deal as an “important building block” for expanding its presence in the M2M market.

The two companies are to work together on providing real-time monitoring services for freight consignments, with Deutsche Telekom (Bonn, Germany) contributing hardware and SIM cards while arviem (Baar, Switzerland) provides the software needed to evaluate data.

The French telecoms regulator ARCEP said it had asked prosecutors to investigate Microsoft Corp's Skype for failing to register as a telecom operator.

Skype (Luxembourg City, Luxembourg) has not complied with the regulator's repeated requests to register as an "electronic communications operator", ARCEP said in a statement on Tuesday.

The regulator said that since Skype let users make voice calls to fixed and mobile numbers in France and around the world, it had an obligation to allow emergency calls and permit legal interception of calls when required.

Bosch Software Innovation GmbH (Berlin) is well known for its business-process software products – some of which are used to supervise pipeline networks for major energy companies like Gazprom and E.ON. Bosch Software chose CeBIT 2013 to unveil a new, integrated software suite for what it calls the “Internet of Things & Services”.

European operators have called for greater progress on the development of “horizontal” M2M standards independent of the vertical industries they are addressing.

Speaking at this week’s M2M Zone Conference at the CeBIT tradeshow in Hannover, Jurgen Hase, the head of M2M for Deutsche Telekom (Bonn, Germany), warned operators that if they built up “silos”, as they have done in the past, they would fail.

“We need standards for different layers – not just connectivity,” he told attendees. “Otherwise this will not be scalable enough.”

Security software maker Palo Alto Networks reported second-quarter revenue and earnings per share that beat expectations amid strong demand for products that offer protection from cyberattacks.

Revenue in its second quarter, that ended January 31, rose 70 percent to $96.5 million compared with a year earlier, the company said on Thursday.

Non-GAAP earnings were $3.9 million, or 5 cents a share.

Analysts had expected revenue of $93.3 million and earnings per share of 4 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Etisalat has joined the Jasper Wireless-powered M2M alliance that includes a number of leading international operators.

The operator’s membership was announced during this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and means the alliance now comprises eight players, including an operator from the Middle East for the first time.

Etisalat (Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates) was already a customer of Jasper Wireless (Mountain View, USA), whose Control Center platform is a core component of the M2M alliance.

Swedish operator Ericsson has signed an agreement with German software company SAP for the joint marketing and sale of cloud-based M2M services to enterprises around the world.

The partnership will combine Ericsson’s M2M platform expertise with enterprise services from SAP (Walldorf, Germany) and is designed to overcome some of the barriers to the adoption of M2M technology.