IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation that manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware and software, and offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology. IBM is intent on leading the development of a global data field. Year founded: 1911 Revenue: $92.7 billion (2014) NYSE: IBM

SAP is the leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software used to integrate back-office functions such as distribution, accounting, human resources, and manufacturing. The backbone of SAP's products has been its On-Premise offerings, spearheaded by its Business Suite, which includes ERP and customer relationship management (CRM) software, among others.Year founded: 1972Revenue: $17.6 billion (2014)NYSE: SAP

Huawei is a global leader of ICT solutions. Huawei's strategy in the enterprise domain focuses on close cooperation and integration with partners to deliver a wide range of highly efficient customer-centric ICT solutions and services that are based on a deep understanding of customer needs. In line with their portfolio covers enterprise networking, unified communications & collaboration (UC&C), Cloud Computing & data center, enterprise wireless, network energy and infrastructure services.

Silver Spring Networks is a leading networking and solutions provider for the Internet of Things. Silver Spring’s pioneering IPv6 networking platform provides connectivity for a range of applications to some of the world’s leading utilities and major cities. Silver Spring’s open-standards platform enables multiple applications and services to leverage a common network, control, and data platform. With over 23.6 million devices connected on five continents Silver Spring’s platform supports a wide range of customers, including leading utilities such as Baltimore Gas & Electric, CitiPower & Powercor, Commonwealth Edison, Consolidated Edison, CPS Energy, Florida Power & Light, Jemena Electricity Networks Limited, Pacific Gas & Electric, Pepco Holdings, Progress Energy, and Singapore Power, and cities such as Copenhagen, Glasgow, and Paris.Year founded: 2002

Watson is a question answering computer system capable of answering questions posed in natural language, developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's first CEO and industrialist Thomas J. Watson. The computer system was specifically developed to answer questions on the quiz show Jeopardy!. In 2011, Watson competed on Jeopardy! against former winners Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. Watson received the first place prize of $1 million. Watson had access to 200 million pages of structured and unstructured content consuming four terabytes of disk storage including the full text of Wikipedia, but was not connected to the Internet during the game. For each clue, Watson's three most probable responses were displayed on the television screen. Watson consistently outperformed its human opponents on the game's signaling device, but had trouble in a few categories, notably those having short clues containing only a few words. In February 2013, IBM announced that Watson software system's first commercial application would be for utilization management decisions in lung cancer treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in conjunction with health insurance company WellPoint. IBM Watson's former business chief Manoj Saxena says that 90% of nurses in the field who use Watson now follow its guidance.