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Many automation companies such as ABB, Emerson, Siemens, Rockwell, and Schneider, have long offered the service of remotely connecting to and monitoring their control systems. Can these services be said to be early examples of the Industrial Internet of Things?
Consider the question from 2 points of view, the automation supplier and the automation user (the plant).
From the supplier's perspective, a comparison can be drawn between the service they offer and, for example, a connected air compressor, wind turbine, or jet engine. Both cases involve monitoring the supplier's equipment remotely, and maintaining or optimizing it. Both can involve real-time data and sophisticated analytics. Both potentially raise cybersecurity concerns. These services weren't positioned as Internet of Things solutions when they appeared on the scene, but does that matter?
From the plant perspective, things might not be so clear. One stumbling block is, when thinking about the Industrial Internet of Things, the focus is on doing something useful with data obtained from connected assets. From the plant perspective, a large pump, compressor, or machine is readily identified as an industrial asset, but the control system is - largely invisible. Many of these remote monitoring systems focus on the control system as an asset in its own right, but in many cases they also monitor intelligent devices and the physical assets that the control system is connected to. Given that, it is fair to say that these are early examples of the Industrial Internet of Things in action. (Note that the Internet is not necessarily a requirement in this discussion. This is consistent with ARC's view that network connectivity is the essential requirement here, despite the use of the term 'Internet' in Industrial Internet of Things.)
What makes IIoT different? Sensor costs have come down. Wireless technologies can drive down installation costs significantly. New tools and platforms promise much greater scalability. New ways of tackling performance issues (e.g. reliability and energy consumption) are being explored. And new business models are envisioned.
What's your view - is it helpful to talk about these services as IIoT, or does that just muddy the waters?
Posted in IIoT and I4.0 Viewpoints