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At the recent (Oct. 24-26) IFS World Conference, IFS rolled out some very interesting and significant new solutions. Two of these additions to IFS’s very extensive portfolio of enterprise software that garnered my attention were the IoT Business Connector and the Enterprise Operational Intelligence suite.
IFS’s IoT Business Connector is very indicative of the accelerating proliferation of IoT Platforms and related IoT technology applications that has been taking place in the past year or so. After an extended hype period where IoT, IIoT, and Industry 4.0 were touted as the centerpieces of the digital transformation taking place across industry and business, we have moved past the hype phase and into the implementation phase where industries now have solutions and IoT platforms available for use. What IFS is saying is that industrial IoT is where the majority of the activity is and will take place for the foreseeable future. I totally concur with that viewpoint.
What is making IIoT technology attractive to industries is quite simply the benefits it provides for maintenance and the preservation of assets, and in some cases, some very expensive and complex assets. There are, of course, other areas where IIoT and its enabling technologies of big data and analytics will have an impact, and that is in the optimization and improvement of production processes, connecting into the supply chain, and providing field services via the digital twin. But at this juncture the focus appears to be on maintenance and the preservation of assets.
IFS bases its IoT Business Connector on an industrial IoT reference model that is somewhat like one that ARC has developed. There are four distinct phases in this IoT model:
Looking at this from a functional capability perspective the IoT Business Connector has four primary capabilities: 1) Data Ingestion which is implemented using Microsoft’s IoT Hub, 2) Data Discovery which uses Microsoft Stream Analytics the Cortana Machine Learning Analytics Suite, 3) Configuration which defines incoming observations from discovery, and 4) Operationalization which allows users to define their responses to the discovery and observation process.
Clearly, the IFS/Microsoft technology partnership is very important, and the IoT Business Connector reference architecture has been designed around the Azure Cloud and Microsoft’s IoT products.
If we look under the hood a bit, the IFS IoT Business Connector has a range of components that function across its IoT reference model. At the edge device/assets and communications there is connection for transportation (trains, planes, fleets), machinery, equipment, and factory production; networking infrastructure, and API connection to consumer devices.
At the Discovery level IFS is using the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite as the basic discovery platform, but its IoT Discovery Manager contains other components such as business intelligence, machine learning, and stream analytics. The connection from the device level to the discovery level is provided by an IoT Connection Hub. The Discovery Manager can also connect to third party discovery platforms and apps.
At the Operationalize and Optimization level IFS’s IoT Gateway and IoT Controller is used to move discovery information to other IFS applications such as EAM, service, manufacturing modules, and field service management. Another important connection for discovery-based analytics and other derived actionable information is to the IFS Enterprise Operational Intelligence (EOI) platform which represents the IFS solution set for intelligent business operations.
IFS is making a very significant foray into the IoT sphere with its IoT Business Connector. They appear to have addressed the critical elements (connection at edge, discovery and analytics, operational and business improvement) that an industry or company needs to have to derive actual business benefits from implementing a smart connected IoT ecosystem. It is also clear that IoT/IIoT will be primarily achieved through technology and business partnerships that span the entire scope of the IoT reference architecture.
IFS’s IoT Business Connector is very indicative of the accelerating proliferation of IoT Platforms and related IoT technology applications that has been taking place in the past year or so. After an extended hype period where IoT, IIoT, and Industry 4.0 were touted as the centerpieces of the digital transformation taking place across industry and business, we have moved past the hype phase and into the implementation phase where industries now have solutions and IoT platforms available for use. What IFS is saying is that industrial IoT is where the majority of the activity is and will take place for the foreseeable future. I totally concur with that viewpoint.
What is making IIoT technology attractive to industries is quite simply the benefits it provides for maintenance and the preservation of assets, and in some cases, some very expensive and complex assets. There are, of course, other areas where IIoT and its enabling technologies of big data and analytics will have an impact, and that is in the optimization and improvement of production processes, connecting into the supply chain, and providing field services via the digital twin. But at this juncture the focus appears to be on maintenance and the preservation of assets.
IFS bases its IoT Business Connector on an industrial IoT reference model that is somewhat like one that ARC has developed. There are four distinct phases in this IoT model:
- Devices and Communication: networks that include edge devices (sensors on the assets), communications infrastructure and gateways, standard and de facto communication protocols like OPC, existing SCADA, PLC logic and other proprietary integration.
- Discovery: Receive and store sensor data (millions/billions), real-time data stream analysis, algorithmic data mining, human visualization driven data mining, big data analytics
- Operationalize: Receive and store “observations”, predictive and prescriptive analytics, human review, augmentation, actionable information development, parallel control flows
- Business Optimization: Maintenance and service, production process and engineering reviews, logistics, strategies, end-to-end performance improvement
Looking at this from a functional capability perspective the IoT Business Connector has four primary capabilities: 1) Data Ingestion which is implemented using Microsoft’s IoT Hub, 2) Data Discovery which uses Microsoft Stream Analytics the Cortana Machine Learning Analytics Suite, 3) Configuration which defines incoming observations from discovery, and 4) Operationalization which allows users to define their responses to the discovery and observation process.
Clearly, the IFS/Microsoft technology partnership is very important, and the IoT Business Connector reference architecture has been designed around the Azure Cloud and Microsoft’s IoT products.
If we look under the hood a bit, the IFS IoT Business Connector has a range of components that function across its IoT reference model. At the edge device/assets and communications there is connection for transportation (trains, planes, fleets), machinery, equipment, and factory production; networking infrastructure, and API connection to consumer devices.
At the Discovery level IFS is using the Microsoft Azure IoT Suite as the basic discovery platform, but its IoT Discovery Manager contains other components such as business intelligence, machine learning, and stream analytics. The connection from the device level to the discovery level is provided by an IoT Connection Hub. The Discovery Manager can also connect to third party discovery platforms and apps.
At the Operationalize and Optimization level IFS’s IoT Gateway and IoT Controller is used to move discovery information to other IFS applications such as EAM, service, manufacturing modules, and field service management. Another important connection for discovery-based analytics and other derived actionable information is to the IFS Enterprise Operational Intelligence (EOI) platform which represents the IFS solution set for intelligent business operations.
IFS is making a very significant foray into the IoT sphere with its IoT Business Connector. They appear to have addressed the critical elements (connection at edge, discovery and analytics, operational and business improvement) that an industry or company needs to have to derive actual business benefits from implementing a smart connected IoT ecosystem. It is also clear that IoT/IIoT will be primarily achieved through technology and business partnerships that span the entire scope of the IoT reference architecture.