In this edition of “Digs”, RCRtv got a look inside the AT&T IoT “Internet of Things” Foundry in Plano, Texas.
The Plano foundry is one of five locations that AT&T has set up around the world.
Foundry director, Craig Lee says the building was a “tired cube farm when I got it” and explains the building is “purposely retrofitted to be much more of an industrial look and feel to get that effect of coming here to make something.”
Each floor in the two story building has a unique focus. The first floor focuses on enterprise software projects including software-defined networking, network architecture, big data analytics and other marketing initiatives. The second floor focuses more on IoT project development.
According to Lee, the core employees have a wide array of skills and specialties ranging from radio frequency design and development to hardware and firmware expertise that have applications in the cloud.
Lee says one of the main goals of the foundry is to bring products to market quickly. With all the tools of the foundry at their disposal including an in-house 3-D printer, the foundry gives engineers the ability take the project through many different iterations very quickly.
Its not uncommon, Lee says, to have a fully functioning proof of concept within a few days or weeks.
Another unique feature of the foundry is that it often brings in ecosystem partners from other companies to offer fresh perspectives and keep the flow of ideas moving.
The building has a wide-open floor plan with no offices that AT&T believes allows employees to move within the space freely and maximize collaboration efforts.
Lee says the kitchen has turned out to be a focal point for employees to congregate and discuss ideas. Many employees have scooters or treadmills at their desk to emphasize the mobility model as well.
Lee says AT&T’s goal is to eventually have the whole company follow the foundry model. “It’s a work environment that’s a lot of fun and very enjoyable, but we’ve also started to push that further into AT&T so you’ll start to see some of the regular offices begin to adopt this kind of environment.”
AT&T and its partners have so far invested over $100 million dollars in the project. Investors include Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Amdocs, Cisco, Intel and Microsoft.
For more episodes of “Digs” and other video projects, visit the RCR Wireless News Youtube page.