Optus and Cisco have signed a letter of intent to allocate funds for a $12 million co-investment toward the development of cybersecurity, cloud and Internet of Things technologies for government agencies and businesses in Australia.
Optus said Thursday the three-year investment was established in early March at the Cisco Global Partner Summit in San Diego, where Cisco announced the telecommunications company as the 2015 Australian Partner of the Year award recipient.
The two companies will collaborate with customers to develop prototypes of new technology that will work to support local government and economy, Optus said.
“A national focus on becoming an innovation economy challenges us to constantly raise the bar and do things that have not been done before, more quickly than ever before,†said John Paitaridis, Optus managing director.
He added the partnership with Cisco aims to address potential gaps in technological innovation.