As previously published in IoT Evolution World by Jason Andersen
The global Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market is growing at a rapid rate, infusing industries across all sectors. Recent studies estimate that IIoT will add $14.2 trillion to the global economy by 2030. And as the global Industrial Internet of Things evolves, the buzz around edge computing is growing in parallel. Operators are beginning to drive more computing power to the edge of their networks, where IIoT functions actually live.
By observing industrial organizations, we can see an interesting evolution taking place as companies implement IIoT systems. Operational technology (OT) teams have historically focused on the automation equipment – both hardware and software – in their wheelhouse but are increasingly beginning to focus less on the tools themselves and more on the data generated by their systems. Organizations are becoming more focused on the data than on the applications – further recognizing that data and analytics have great potential for unlocking business value.
What’s Driving This Shift?
The top priorities for driving value with IIoT include uninterrupted production and driving new cost efficiencies. While this is not expected to change, a number of enterprises are also beginning to adopt hybrid clouds to distribute workloads more efficiently – particularly for mission-critical functions as well as real-time processing. With increased automation, data will make the IIoT a long-term business objective – and serve as a competitive differentiator for industrial operators.
This shift is also being driven by the explosive growth of data – and business proof in that data’s value. Data and analytics are currently capable of producing insights that help enterprises make informed decisions. However, as more data becomes available, we’ll see how those insights will become more intelligent and invisible – systems will soon enable real-time optimization and make decisions autonomously based on artificial intelligence, without the need for human intervention.
