ARCwire Industry Review and Outlook - August 1, 2020

ARC Reports and Views

The Value Proposition for Open Source Software at the Edge
To make the full digital transformation and conduct manufacturing and business operations across the Industrial IoT, cloud computing, and the operational intelligent edge, companies must rely on a more “open” environment that includes open source software.  By Dick Slansky

The Future of Mobility
Transportation is one of the fastest changing and most exciting sectors in the global economy today.  Connected and autonomous vehicles, shared mobility concepts, and the shift to electric vehicles are some of the most exciting avenues driving the future of mobility.  By Eddie Fidler

Lessons Learned from Drone Journey
In his excellent presentation at the 2020 ARC Industry Forum in Orlando, Jacob Velky of Duke Energy discussed that company's interesting drone journey.  By Rick Rys

Preparing Process Plants for the Future by Proxy
Process field devices are critical parts of automation systems. However, the networking technology employed by process field devices (transmitters, control valves, etc.) has not changed substantially for over 30 years. It's time to start Preparing Process Plants for the Future. By Harry Forbes

Practical Industrial Cybersecurity Solutions Enable Security for All Facilities
The prevalence of small, unprotected industrial control systems is undermining the security of our critical infrastructure, and practical industrial cybersecurity solutions enable security for all facilities. By Sid Snitkin

Industry Trends

Cloud Platform Players Gear Up for Industrial 5G
The partnerships between leading cloud providers and telecom companies, including one announced earlier this week involving Google and Spain’s Telefónica, to deploy multi-access edge computing (MEC) infrastructure at the edge of mobile networks indicate an eagerness to exploit the new era of 5G. By Bob Gill

Acquisitions and Partnerships

Mitsubishi Chemical to Acquire European Carbon Fiber Recycling Companies
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation (MCC) recently decided to acquire two German carbon fiber recycling companies, CFK Valley Stade Recycling GmbH & Co. KG (CFK) and carboNXT GmbH (carboNXT), through its subsidiary Mitsubishi Chemical Advanced Materials AG. By Shin Kai

Infosys Launches Reskill and Restart, a Solution to Reskill the American Workforce
Infosys announced a consortium in partnership with pymetrics – a provider of fair talent matching – to leverage Infosys Wingspan and pymetrics’ AI-based talent-matching platform to reskill the American Workforce. By Ralph Rio

Company and Product News

Yokogawa Establishes Yokogawa Innovation Switzerland as Center for Bio Business
Yokogawa Electric Corporation announced that it has established Yokogawa Innovation Switzerland GmbH to build a strong base for its bioeconomy business through the provision of quick and proactive market research and development activities. By Shin Kai

ABB Launches Analytics Software and Services That Combine Operational Data with Engineering and IT Data
The ABB Ability Genix Industrial Analytics and AI Suite is a scalable advanced analytics platform with pre-built, easy-to-use applications and services. By Ralph Rio

SAP Road Map Explorer Helps Customers Map Road Through Their SAP Journey
​​​​​SAP SE announced availability of SAP Road Map Explorer, a free interactive online tool that allows customers to make informed decisions about their SAP journey.  By Ralph Rio

Cisco Edge Intelligence Now Available
Cisco Edge Intelligence is a plug-and-play IoT software solution designed to greatly simplify IoT data extraction, transformation, and delivery to multiple destinations with granular data governance policies.  By Chantal Polsonetti

Fledge Issues Release 1.8, Enabling Open Industrial Edge Software with AI/ML
LF Edge, an umbrella organization within the Linux Foundation, announced maturing of its Fledge project, which has issued it's 1.8 release and moved to the Growth Stage within the LF Edge umbrella. By Chantal Polsonetti

Red Lion’s FlexEdge Intelligent Edge Automation Platform Now Integrates IT and OT
Red Lion’s FlexEdge Intelligent Edge Automation Platform now combines Linux with the company’s Crimson 3.2 software into one operating system.  This fusion enables a single FlexEdge controller to provide more advanced networking, security, and automation functionality. By Craig Resnick

PAS Releases Modular OT Cybersecurity Solution
PAS Global LLC announced Cyber Integrity now includes in-product expansion with Modular OT Cybersecurity Solution to support industrial organizations as they mature their operational technology (OT) cybersecurity capabilities. By Larry O'Brien

Mitsubishi Electric’s Scene Awareness Technology Allows More Natural and Intuitive Human-Machine Interaction
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation announced that the company has developed what it believes to be the world's first Scene Awareness technology capable of highly natural and intuitive interaction with humans based on a scene-aware capability to translate multimodal sensing information into natural language. By Shin Kai

ARC Best Practice Surveys (respondents receive results for free)

Industrial Cybersecurity for OT/ICS
This ARC survey on industrial cybersecurity is designed to gain insight into your perceptions and needs around cybersecurity of Operational Technology (OT) / Industrial Control Systems (ICS). By Thomas Menze

Machinery Industry Between Economic Uncertainty and Technological Hype
This survey examines the role of technical innovations and new business models in the context of economic and structural uncertainty in the machinery market. By Florian Gueldner

Autonomous Operations Digital Transformation Assessment
Industrial owner-operators are entering a period in which new digital technologies have the potential to augment people and processes to an unprecedented degree.   This survey allows you to benchmark your autonomous operations digital transformation journey with your peers. By Dick Hill

IT/OT Convergence Assessment
This survey will explore where companies stand regarding how successfully they have linked their OT systems to their IT systems, covering both the technical and cultural issues. By Craig Resnick

MES/MOM Manufacturing Operations Adoption
ARC is conducting this survey to allow you to benchmark your digital transformation as it applies to your manufacturing execution systems technology journey with your peers.  MES maturity is based on your plant/company's enterprise-wide usage of modern MES technologies. By Janice Abel

Asset Performance Management Trends and Strategies
The current generation of asset performance management (APM) solutions leverages new technologies to enable more effective operations and avoid unplanned downtime.  This survey is intended to gauge the current state of understanding, success, challenges, and benefits related to APM. By Inderpreet Shoker

Aligning Digital Solutions with Current Operational Needs
This brief survey asks experts who utilize automation solutions, both hardware and software, to provide valuable insights to better understand the role that digital solutions play in your current operations.  By Craig Resnick and Allen Avery

Energy Management Software - Trends and Opportunities
ARC is conducting a brief survey to identify which application areas and/or business models are benefiting to both the software vendors and users and how do environmental regulations and Industrial IoT impact adoptions of energy management software and analytical solutions. By Naresh Surepelly

How Much Is Your Data Worth? Measuring the ROI of Machine Connectivity
What is the return on investment (ROI) on machine connectivity, and how much is the data that results from machine connectivity actually worth? By Craig Resnick and Allen Avery

Put ARC Know-how to Work for You

ARC Advisory Group has over 35 years’ experience executing primary research and strategic consulting into the leading issues facing industry.  Our experienced analysts and consultants leverage our extensive domain expertise and in-depth industry experience to drive meaningful results in key topic areas such as digital transformation, cybersecurity, smart cities, industrial automation, supply chain, and more.  Contact ARC today to see how you can leverage our extensive advisory services, custom engagements, market analytics, technology selection guides and services, and other data and experience-driven capabilities to help you meet the unique challenges of today's industry landscape.  

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