Report from GE Minds + Machines 2014

Summary

This year's GE Minds + Machines event demonstrated the company's commitment to providing products and services focused on the Industrial Internet. According to the company, it will have 40 GE Predictivity solutions available by the end of the year (up from about 20 last year at this time), and over $1 billion in associated revenue. This strategy reflects a belief that soon anything that can be measured or connected or controlled, will be, and that industrial companies are in the midst of an historic shift: "If you went to bed last night as an industrial company, you're going to wake up today as a software and analytics company," said chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt.

Predix for Anyone

One key announcement involved the Predix platform. Until now, the company has positioned this analytics and software "platform for the Industrial Internet," (built by the GE Software organization in San Ramon), as the undergirding platform for GE Predictivity solutions offered by other GE business operations. Now, GE has announced that in 2015, it will make it available to any company, thus allowing developers and users to create and deploy their own customized industry apps.

Predix App Factory

On a related note, GE also launched the Predix App Factory, an advanced methodology for rapidly prototyping, validating, and developing Industrial Internet applications. Based on GE's experience, this methodology shortens typical development cycles from months to weeks. To speed innovation, GE pioneered this collaborative approach with customers. The process brings together experts from user experience and design, data science, machine connectivity, and agile software development. GE uses the App Factory process at its state-of-the-art Design Center in San Ramon, California to develop new solutions that lead to real performance improvements such as reduced resource consumption, improved operational efficiency, or lower risk.

Predix-Ready Edge Devices

The Industrial Internet extends beyond just GE assets and customers. To begin to address this larger ecosystem, GE has launched new and expanded alliances to create Predix-ready edge devices. Two such partnerships, with Cisco and Intel, were featured at the event.

GE and Cisco are working to integrate Predix software on Cisco networking products to enable the collection and analysis of asset performance and operational data anywhere in the network. Shown at the event, one of the first of these devices is a Predix-ready Cisco router in a ruggedized form-factor for harsh environments such as oil and gas facilities. Supporting the distributed (fog) computing concept embraced by Cisco, this router runs GE's Predix. The first wave of new Predix-ready devices at the edge of the network will go online early next year.

GE and Intel have teamed to develop a reference architecture for edge devices that integrates Intel processors and software with Predix software to make it possible to embed intelligence and adaptability into any asset. The new design will be made available to gateway manufacturers to make the exploding number of connected devices and sensor networks Predix-ready.

Global Network Connectivity

GE also announced new global alliances with Softbank, Verizon, and Vodafone to provide a wide range of wireless connectivity solutions optimized for Industrial Internet solutions. In addition, GE continues to fuel innovation with AT&T by connecting its machines and assets such as locomotives, fleet, and aircraft engines through the AT&T global network and highly secure cloud. Together, these relationships enable GE to provide its industrial customers with advanced connectivity services in virtually any geography.

Critical Infrastructure Security

While it differs from protecting a traditional IT environment, securing critical infrastructure is vital to the Industrial Internet. As we heard at the event, GE is focused on safeguarding operations technology (OT) and improving the reliability of the Industrial Internet for customers and industries.

GE acquired Wurldtech earlier this year to leverage its Achilles industrial security products and services to certify GE and non-GE products and customer environments. The company plans to use Achilles as a standard for securing all its technology and delivering security enhancements through Predix and GE Products. At the event, Wurldtech announced the release of a firewall, currently entering beta, optimized for industrial infrastructure and operations technology environments. According to the company, the Achilles Industrial Next Gen Firewall (NGFW) provides advanced threat detection by monitoring network traffic and blocking unexpected and malicious activity.

Conclusion

Opening up the Predix platform to other companies in 2015 represents a significant step towards realizing the potential of the Industrial Internet. But it also means that GE Software must "productize" the platform in the interim. The team will be hard at work determining just how it will be modularized, packaged, documented, and priced, and what services will be included or offered separately. Until then, few specifics are likely to be available. Similarly, many of the announcements touted at this event will come to fruition next year or in the near future. Nevertheless, these announcements are evidence of real progress year over year, as well as renewed commitment to achieving the vision.

Having awakened as a software and analytics company, GE must now aggressively pursue and complete its transformation.

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Keywords: Industrial Internet, Industrial Internet of Things, Asset Optimization, Operations Optimization.