Tech Data, the global IT distributor, has created a new, separate unit to help customers enter and tackle the sprawling connected-products business.

The new practice, dubbed Smart IoT Solutions by Tech Data, will cull the rapidly expanding connectivity market and provide “simplified route … for solution providers,” the company said.

The IoT division will be headed by Victor Paradell, a 20-year veteran of Tech Data who most recently served as VP of IoT Solutions, Europe.

“Tech Data is positioned at a very advantageous point in the IoT ecosystem — right in the middle — to provide our customers with all the pieces necessary to deploy complete IoT solutions,” Paradell said.

The company cited a Gartner report that forecasts a 32 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for IoT connections through 2020, when the installed base is expected to hit 21 billion units — nearly two-thirds of which will be in consumer applications.

The new unit targets system integrators, value-added resellers (VARs) and managed service providers (MSPs), and will span such solutions as fulfillment, security, data analytics and applications for manufacturing, retail, transportation and logistics, and smart spaces (i.e., building safety, smart parking and energy optimization).

The announcement was made earlier this week at Microsoft’s 2016 Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) in Toronto, where Tech Data is a participant.