Arm and Intel announced a new collaboration to reduce fragmentation in the Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem and make it easier to scale deployments by offering a common platform to manage connected devices.

The partnership will combine Arm’s Pelion Device Management platform with Intel’s Secure Device Onboard system, a move the pair said will enable more flexible provisioning and allow IoT devices to connect to any cloud framework.

Arm said in a press release the alliance is “a big step forward” in expanding customer choice. The company added it will also streamline the manufacturing process, resulting in “fewer device SKUs, higher volume and velocity through IoT supply chains and lower deployment cost”.

“This will shift the industry from siloed supply chains to a harmonised framework for the design and sourcing of secure, connectable devices,” it noted.

Expanding the ecosystem even further, Arm announced separate partnerships with IoT project development company myDevices and open-source hardware company Arduino to incorporate its Pelion platform with their IoT offerings.

The company also debuted a new Mbed Linux OS, which is integrated with the Pelion platform to support more complex IoT devices which use Cortex-A processor cores.