It’s Time to Accelerate to the Cloud

Summary

The global pandemic in 2020 disrupted nearly every aspect of life, but as we start to look beyond it, we realize that we will never go back to where we were. For industrial companies, this scenario has accelerated the urgency of employing cloud technology and other modern digital tools to improve resilience and better adjust to dynamic economic conditions. In these volatile times, the competitive distance between those capable of leveraging digital technology and their less digitally evolved peers has dramatically increased.

Those successfully using digital technologies to support innovation and competitive excellence have also typically bought into the concept of leveraging technology as a means to help “future proof” the business. This is especially true for cloud-based software that enables universal access to data, introduces a collaborative environment for remote workers across the globe, and addresses the security and availability demands of the business. When the power of cloud is combined with advanced applications for engineering and operations, a new level of industrial intelligence becomes available that helps teams proactively respond to circumstances, simplify processes with automation, and continuously innovate. In fact, information and solutions in the cloud can be more secure than on-premises systems.

For example, as the workforce was suddenly forced to become both more distributed and collaborative, industrial software in the cloud made possible: data sharing and analytics, remote monitoring, mobile and remote expert work, health monitoring, automated control and access, workflow redesign, and other critical needs inherent in this new work environment. Some software providers were quickly able to deliver cloud-based solutions specifically designed for dealing with unprecedented need for remote work and more agile responses to uncertainty.

The appearance of disruptors such as COVID-19 widen the business agility gap between the less digitally evolved and those companies that have demonstrated innovation leadership. That gap seems to grow with each disruption. And the greater the disruption, the greater the growth of the gap. Those that are not moving forward with urgency are only falling behind faster.

The Role of Cloud in Digital Transformation

Together with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), modern cloud-based applications are changing the industrial software marketplace.  Industrial organizations cannot remain solely dependent on older, siloed systems and still compete effectively. These companies want to be more responsive to customer and marketplace needs, and more resilient in the face of changing business demands and opportunities. In many cases, that means re-imagining business processes and fixing the disconnect between engineering and production operations, as well as enabling data-centric digital services throughout the value chain. 

Cloud platforms for applications and the Internet of Things (IoT) are becoming a core piece of operations technology (OT) and engineering technology (ET) solutions for many industrial companies. These platforms present a modern approach for developing and deploying software applications with infrastructure-as-a-service, providing easy access to Big Data, and addressing security and availability requirements - making it easy for remote, connected workers to access the cloud platform to perform their duties. When combined with powerful industrial software applications that incorporate artificial intelligence, for example, these solutions enable the development of digital twins with enhanced agility, better collaboration, and quick deployment.

The key is to unify the needs for storage and analytics, with the deep domain expertise necessary to address industrial challenges, in a closed-loop, unified cloud solution that spans the entire value chain. Cloud platforms (servers, data storage) and industrial cloud software (solving unique business challenges) should not be viewed as separate entities, but as a single environment designed to address collaboration, scalability, security, and flexibility.

This cloud-based approach is gradually displacing many of the processes and systems supported by the older client/server architectures where large, complex, monolithic applications were created and run. The industry is shifting away from capital intensive, costly-to-support local computing and “lift and shift” storage systems, to cloud native software solutions that can be centrally managed, yet available to all.

As industrial companies navigate their digital transformation course, there is a developing expectation that cloud technologies can help companies rely less on tribal knowledge, empower virtual teams, and break down silos.  Now that COVID has proven the feasibility of remote workers and more-connected workers, many industrial companies don’t plan to go back.

What to Look for in Cloud-enabled Industrial Software

There is still quite a bit of uncertainty in the marketplace as to how to view cloud technologies and platforms. Although hyperscaler platforms can handle Industrial IoT data and devices, the suppliers of this type of technology may lack deep domain expertise for industrial applications that need to robustly solve in-depth functional problems. For this reason, it is important to look for providers with a strong history and track record in providing industrial software. On the other hand, be careful with industrial software providers that don’t manage the cloud services, as it will become your duty to handle multiple providers for analytics expertise, data storage, and software availability. The key is to partner with a provider that has both: industrial software expertise across your business functional requirements and who embraces the cloud technology, so you can take advantage of a single cloud environment that acts as a digital transformation hub across your engineering, operations, and maintenance disciplines.

When considering cloud-enabled industrial software, it’s also important to think about your use cases and how they will be supported by the portfolio of applications and services potential partners offer. For example, if one of your goals is to improve the asset lifecycle integration between engineering and production operations, it would be good to select a partner with applications and expertise in both of those areas. Similarly, if much of your data will originate in edge devices or machines, then selecting a cloud-enabled industrial software partner with relevant experience in connecting to edge data and plant assets would be important. The key is not rip and replace of your current infrastructure, but maximizing your existing investments and extending them to the cloud.

The cloud partner should have the ability to fully support your regional sites, including respecting local requirements for data storage and transfer, along with a connected community for knowledge sharing and problem solving.   It can be important to see extensive experience in your core industry, with knowledge of industrial applications, processes, conventions, technologies, and assets. Increasingly, digital twins of critical assets and industrial processes play an important role in optimizing both the handover from engineering to operations and the performance optimization of operations in service of competitive excellence targets. 

An example of a cloud partner that can connect teams, data, and processes with the cloud is AVEVA, which offers a cloud platform called AVEVA Connect, that provides a central location to access its industrial software portfolio and drive digital transformation initiatives.

AVEVA Connect

AVEVA Connect enables companies to increase business agility, collaboration, productivity, and effectiveness across both operational and engineering lifecycles. Acting as a cloud hub for digital transformation, the AVEVA Connect platform provides a central location for easy, remote access to AVEVA’s industrial software portfolio, and enables the development of rich digital twins that are augmented with artificial intelligence. This combination can increase business resiliency for customers by enabling them to transform faster, reduce costs and more readily scale to respond to dynamic marketplace conditions. The AVEVA Connect platform can be leveraged in hybrid-cloud or cloud-only architectures and allows customers to quickly address pain-points by adopting AVEVA’s fit-for-purpose solutions in the cloud with the help of rapid delivery services and implementation templates.  

The centralized approach means that the AVEVA Connect platform not only provides seamless access to a growing range of industrial software solutions in the cloud but facilitates the provisioning, upgrade and service-health capabilities, and user and usage management necessary to satisfy dynamic business needs. This managed cloud platform helps to sustain system configuration at latest “evergreen” versions, while delivering availability and addressing inter-application security. AVEVA Connect solutions support project design and execution, operations, value chain optimization, and asset performance management, with shared access to trusted information and knowledge transparency across plants and teams.

Accelerate Project Design and Execution

AVEVA engineering solutions in the cloud enable a company’s engineers, suppliers, and clients to better collaborate on a unified platform throughout the project lifecycle. This “continuous handover” brings fuller project transparency and helps to eliminate value leak, thereby helping to reducing project risk and cost.  Digital twins can be developed faster, and more quickly shared with operations and maintenance teams. Front end engineering design (FEED) time and overall project cost can be further reduced.

Drive Operations Efficiency

With cloud-based solutions for operations, AVEVA enables faster deployment and easier access to contextualized information. Together with AI and visualization tools, these systems facilitate more agile decision-making and can increase operational efficiency. Industrial companies can further drive standardization and reduce costs with a centralized SaaS solution to develop, manage, and maintain their  HMI and SCADA systems.

Optimize the Value Chain

AVEVA’s Value Chain Optimization solutions combine cloud and digital twin technologies with analytics to help simplify business processes, drive collaboration, and enable quicker, more robust decisions across the value chain. A unified solution allows companies to help break down silos and create new workflows to better optimize operations and value chain performance.

Manage Asset Performance

AVEVA’s Asset Performance Management solutions in the cloud allow companies to more quickly deploy and scale an APM solution. By empowering their workforce with digital work processes and real-time asset health and performance information, companies can help to improve collaboration, safety, and reliability. And they can also leverage AI and prescriptive analytics to help reduce OPEX and improve margins. 

Reduce the IT Burden

Since AVEVA Connect is the single location to access AVEVA’s cloud-enabled portfolio, customers also get the benefit of centralized user and usage management across the board, with the convenience of as-a-service access to software including authentication, and federated single-sign-on (SSO). There is no additional investment needed in hardware, servers, or to undertake software updates, and the service availability is guaranteed with greater than 99 percent uptime. Data remains the property of the customer, with cybersecurity a core component of the platform. Additionally, customers can benefit with flexible consumption of the software through the AVEVA Flex subscription program that simplifies consumption of new capabilities and helps make digital transformation more easily digestible.

Conclusion

Industrial companies who employ leading cloud technologies, such as AVEVA Connect, are much better positioned to deal with unexpected changes and be prepared for sustainable growth in any economic scenario.  They have the tools required by the connected worker to better innovate, foster more sustainable business, and improve operational performance.  They can quickly adapt and respond when things change, and they can rapidly shift gears to pursue new opportunities as they spring up. AVEVA’s solutions in the cloud can help its customers better balance operating expenses and risk to further optimize the supply chain, production, and asset performance.

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Keywords: Digital Transformation, Cloud, Cloud Platform, Industrial Software, Internet of Things, Resilient, Responsive, Connected Worker, Digital Twin, Cloud Engineering, Cloud Operations, ARC Advisory Group.