Even before the ARC Advisory Group 2014 Industry Forum, there was a buzz in the air about connected devices and the implications of the emerging Internet of Things (IoT) on industrial plants and enterprises.
In his leadoff presentation, Andy Chatha, ARC’s president, dove right into the “connected devices” theme by referring to Amazon's recent announcement that the company is looking into using drones to deliver packages right to its customers' doorsteps. "What is the role of all these connected, intelligent devices in all this, and what does it mean to us in industry and infrastructure?" Chatha asked.
He elaborated on the main components of the Industrial IoT as ARC sees it. These include intelligent devices, products, machines and other assets; a cloud-based infrastructure for data communications and “big data” storage capable of addressing a complex value chain; a combination of descriptive, predictive and prescriptive analytics and software to support asset and system optimization; and, of course, people, processes and systems. According to Chatha, our consumer smartphones represent the ultimate connected devices and now is the time to bring this type of technology to the industrial world. He also made it clear that most of the building blocks for the Industrial IoT are already in place.