by Gary Mintchell | Oct 30, 2020 | News, Organizations
PTC and Rockwell Automation have announced an extension to their agreement for joint development and partnership in selling each other’s products. On the one hand given persistent rumors around the market about not everything being rosy with the partnership so far, this is perhaps surprising. On the other hand, Rockwell Automation has invested a lot of money into this and with an equity piece of PTC, it’d be hard to walk away.
Looking through the press release, notable items are extension to PLM, something I’ve been suggesting to Rockwell executives for many years. The digital twin part could be powerful, except that PTC doesn’t really have a lot of market share in that area. But I’d like to see Rockwell do more in this area, and PTC would no doubt like the US market clout of its partner. It also sounds as if the companies are redoubling their joint sales effort.
[I’m reprinting the press release without editing the superlatives of “first”, “best”, and the like. These are Rockwell’s own propositions.]
Having already helped almost 250 new customers around the world to achieve their digital transformation goals, PTC and Rockwell Automation announced October 28, 2020 the expansion and early extension of their strategic alliance.
This extension will ensure continuity in both companies’ sales and product development efforts and expand the agreement to include PTC’s product lifecycle management and software as a service (SaaS) products. This expansion will streamline both companies’ commercial efforts to extend a comprehensive digital thread solution, from upfront design through the operate, maintain and optimize-lifecycle stages. PTC will also offer Rockwell Automation’s virtual machinery simulation and testing software to its own customer and partner network. Under the agreement, both organizations will continue to leverage each other’s resources, technologies, industry expertise, and market presence to seamlessly serve their customers through 2023 and beyond.
The companies’ primary joint offering, FactoryTalk InnovationSuite, powered by PTC, is the industry’s first comprehensive digital transformation software suite that offers fully integrated Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), edge-to-cloud analytics, manufacturing execution systems (MES), and augmented reality (AR) required for the connected enterprise. FactoryTalk InnovationSuite makes it simple to rapidly develop, operationalize, and globally scale innovative solutions to operations.
“Our selection of FactoryTalk InnovationSuite, powered by PTC could not have come at a better time for our company,” said Teja Schubert, Director, Controls, Automation and Technology, Norbord, an international producer of wood-based panels. “As the first wave of COVID-19 hit, it became even more important to have a platform that helps us reduce costs, improve our employee’s experience and make better use of our maintenance and training efforts. This ever-important alliance has made it easier for our company to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic so far, and we look forward to leveraging future solutions.”
“Over the past two years, PTC and Rockwell Automation teams have combined great innovation to offer our customers the world-class FactoryTalk InnovationSuite solution,” said Blake Moret, chairman and CEO, Rockwell Automation. “The expansion and early extension of our contract with PTC signifies the increasing value of this strategic alliance and its importance to the Connected Enterprise.”
Jim Heppelmann, president and CEO, PTC, said: “The strategic alliance with Rockwell Automation has expanded our reach and our capabilities as we champion Industry 4.0 initiatives around the world. The powerful impact of our offerings amid the current macroeconomic environment proves the market’s need for this collaboration.”
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 29, 2020 | Internet of Things, News
These analyst ratings don’t often get my attention. However, the recently released 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Industrial Internet of Things Platforms was interesting. There were three companies in the “Leader” quadrant, none in the “Challenger” and a number of companies in the “Niche Player” quadrant.
The news came to me from Hitachi Vantara. That company had excellent companions in the upper right block– Microsoft and PTC.
Hitachi Ltd. and its digital infrastructure and solutions subsidiary Hitachi Vantara announced that Hitachi was named a Leader in the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Industrial IoT Platforms based on Gartner Inc.’s evaluation of the company and its Lumada IoT software. Hitachi also received the highest placement in the 2020 Leaders quadrant for ability to execute. The company had previously been positioned in the Visionaries quadrant for the past two years.
“Hitachi is thrilled to be recognized as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Industrial IoT Platforms, which we feel is a positive testimony to our multi-year effort and investment in Lumada technology, solutions and services,” said Brad Surak, president, Digital Solutions, Hitachi Vantara. “Lumada enables data-driven innovations that connect people, products, and processes for industrial transformation. Today our clients are deploying Lumada in complex industrial environments as a key enabler of their digitalization strategies.”
“Lumada acts as an engine for Hitachi’s long-term growth strategy to deliver technology and services that create new value from data and improve business and society,” said Hiroyuki Kumazaki, Chief Lumada Business Officer, Services & Platforms Business Unit, Hitachi, Ltd. “We are very proud of the Hitachi team for continuing to expand the Lumada portfolio to serve more customer cases that help our clients. We believe Hitachi’s Leader position demonstrates that our digital solutions are gaining traction and delivering value in a growing industry.”
Lumada Data and Edge Services provide a flexible, intelligent and composable software foundation to accelerate IoT solution creation for customers. It also powers Hitachi Vantara’s growing portfolio of industry solutions. Its portable architecture makes it ideal for use on premises, in the cloud and in hybrid environments, and it supports industrial IoT deployments.
Ideal for enterprise-grade data management, Lumada combines the power of artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics and intelligent Digital Twins to streamline and simplify management of connected business and industrial assets. This helps to increase asset utilization and accelerates the time to value of industrial IoT initiatives, driving faster time to actionable insights and high-value business outcomes for industrial and enterprise clients. Outcomes include increased operational efficiencies and cost savings, enhanced operational safety and reliability, improved asset utilization, performance management and product quality, and the creation of new business models.
Clients looking to further accelerate the time to value of their industrial IoT initiatives with Lumada will also benefit from proven solution cores and co-creation services engagements with Hitachi, which taps them into Hitachi’s expansive industrial, operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) expertise to create customized IoT solutions tailored to their unique requirements.
Wenco International Mining Systems, a subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd., has demonstrated success supporting such customers with Lumada components and solutions.
“Clients have told us that the future of mining depends on standards-based interoperability of systems and the ability to extract actionable insights from data to maximize asset availability and productivity,” said Andrew Pyne, CEO, Wenco. “Hitachi is uniquely able to leverage its many decades of experience in operational technologies such as mining, manufacturing, transportation and energy with the industry-leading machine learning and data analytics of the Lumada portfolio. This helps clients modernize their operations through open systems, data intelligence, digitalization and material movement automation that are shaping the mining industry in the digital age.”
Download a complimentary copy of the October 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Industrial IoT Platforms at https://www.hitachivantara.com/ext/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-iiot-platforms-2020.html (registration required).
Gartner Disclaimer
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 28, 2020 | Internet of Things, Standards
The trend du jour no doubt includes computing at the edge to enhance the Industrial Internet. This news from the Industrial Internet Consortium shows how companies working together can develop a common set of standard frameworks to assure interoperability.
Moving computing from the cloud to the edge increases the performance, trustworthiness, and efficiency of industrial IoT applications
The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) announced the publication of the Industrial Internet of Things Distributed Computing in the Edge Technical Report. Designed for IoT system architects and implementers, the report describes a distributed computing framework that moves the capabilities of data center-based cloud computing closer to intelligent IoT devices at the edge.
“In edge computing, data, networking, storage, and computing are distributed throughout layers of edge computing nodes from IoT devices to the data center – distributing the economies of scale of cloud capabilities throughout the system,” said Chuck Byers, Co-Chair, IIC Distributed Computing Task Group, and Associate CTO of IIC. “The migration of cloud capabilities into the edge allows data, storage, and computation to gravitate to where it can be handled most efficiently, whether in a data center or the edge.”
The technical report includes:
- A structural and functional framework for distributing computing in the edge
- Definitions of key architectural concepts employed in distributed edge computing
- Essential capabilities of an edge system’s elements
- Security and management functions
- Essential interfaces for these elements
System architects can use the framework as a template to derive a concrete distributed computing architecture. Operations technologists, information technologists, network and business managers can use the report to learn more about the essential elements and advantages of distributed computing in the edge.
“Distributed computing, and the nodes and edge systems that form its key components are essential to the success of organization’s critical IoT systems and digital transformation plans,” said John Zao, Co-Chair, IIC Distributed Computing Task Group. “By moving to a distributed edge computing architecture, organizations across industries can reduce costs and meet critical performance, trustworthiness, and efficiency requirements for their IoT applications.”
The Industrial Internet of Things Distributed Computing in the Edge Technical Report is free of charge. The technical report and a list of authors who contributed to it can be found on the IIC website.
The Industrial Internet Consortium has the goal of accelerating adoption of a trustworthy internet of things. The Industrial Internet Consortium is a program of the Object Management Group (OMG).
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 27, 2020 | Security
Another partnership in the news. I have visited IBM’s cybersecurity operations, and it has a powerful story to tell. This news should bolster ABB’s customers.
ABB process control systems can connect with IBM security platform for digital threat visibility.
ABB and IBM today announced a collaboration focused on connecting cybersecurity and operational technology (OT). As a first result of this collaboration, ABB has developed a new OT Security Event Monitoring Service that combines ABB’s process control system domain expertise with IBM’s security event monitoring portfolio to help improve security for industrial operators.
Industrial control system environments are increasingly targeted in cyber-attacks. In fact, IBM’s latest X-Force Threat Intelligence Index found that attacks on industrial and manufacturing facilities have increased by over 2,000% since 2018.
To better connect OT data with the broader IT security ecosystem, ABB has developed a new offering that allows security events from ABB to be sent to IBM’s security information and event management platform known as QRadar.
The ABB solution was designed according to a reference architecture jointly developed by ABB and IBM. It provides the domain knowledge needed to swiftly react to security incidents related to process control and is especially suited for complex industrial processes in industries such as oil, gas, chemicals and mining. The new event collection and forwarding software which enables this integration is currently being used by early adopter customers and will be made broadly available by ABB in the coming months.
This collaboration marks the first time that OT data and process industry domain expertise is being brought directly into a Security Information and Event Monitoring (SIEM) system, allowing threats to be managed as part of an organization’s broader cybersecurity operations and strategy.
“ABB’s collaboration with IBM makes it possible to analyze process control events in the context of security and impact to the operational environment, delivering strong improvement in our OT cyber threat visibility across the board,” said Robert Putman, Global Manager of Cyber Security Service for Industrial Automation at ABB.
Disruption of production due to a cyberattack or technical glitches can be costly in terms of lost production and damage to physical assets. Most mature operational monitoring is focused on the performance of the asset, whether it be a gas turbine for electricity, a drive system used to crush ore, or simple monitoring of pollution output from a chemical facility.
The new ABB offering allows ABB’s process control system data collection and forwarding technology to harvest event log detail from ABB process control systems, and share that information with IBM Security QRadar, which uses automation and artificial intelligence to help identify security anomalies and potential threats.
“We see the integration of these solutions as bringing market-leading capabilities together for a singular view of OT security,” said Dr. Andreas Kühmichel, CTO, Chemicals, Petroleum & Industrial Products, IBM. “With more comprehensive OT and IT security visibility, clients can help reduce the risk of production being suddenly interrupted due to a security event, resulting in costly downtime and broader risk to the company.”
The ABB and IBM technologies involved in this solution are designed on open platforms allowing them to operate on the edge and deploy easily across hybrid cloud environments spanning on-premise, private or public clouds. The joint solution is designed so that security processes operate via automation and do not disturb industrial workflows. The security analysis in QRadar operates through a use case library, which automatically flags incidents and triggers corresponding alarms.
The two companies plan continued collaboration in the realm of OT security, in order to develop new capabilities and offerings that address customer challenges in this space.
by Gary Mintchell | Oct 26, 2020 | Uncategorized
Businesses implementing what we’re calling Digital Transformation, which is actually just a new focus on something we’ve been doing since the 70s—applying digital technologies in service of improved operations, find many tools within the toolbox. One of those basic tools is called Digital Twin. That is the ever-closer representation of the physical asset and product in digital format. This allows improved quality, closer tolerances, better processes.
Companies seem to be joining together more than ever to develop best practices and de facto standards around these digital technologies.
This release details how Autodesk, GE Digital, and Northrop Grumman join Ansys, Lendlease, and Microsoft as founding members of the Digital Twin consortium.
This from the press release
The newly formed Digital Twin Consortium announced that its membership has grown to nearly 150 in four months since its formation. The Consortium also announced that Autodesk, GE Digital, and Northrop Grumman Corporation are now founding members, joining founders Ansys, Dell Technologies, Lendlease, and Microsoft as well as Executive Director, Dr. Richard Soley and President Bill Hoffman on the Consortium’s Steering Committee.
“Our ecosystem of experts is working feverishly to reduce the risk of implementing digital twin technology – improving interoperability, developing best practices, and influencing requirements for digital twin standards. Today’s announcement shows the importance of digital twin technology to the market; Digital Twin Consortium is the fastest-growing consortium to date,” said Bill Ruh, CEO Lendlease Digital and Chair of the Digital Twin Consortium Steering Committee.
“The value of a digital twin cannot be overstated because of its ability to connect the physical and digital worlds providing real-time operational awareness of structures, machines, or products,” said Nicolas Mangon, Autodesk Vice President for AEC Business Strategy. “As the recognized leader in advanced intelligent 3D modeling, which serves as a foundational component of a digital twin, Autodesk’s participation in the Digital Twin Consortium is motivated by our tradition of openness and working with our peers to advance the industries we serve.”
“With a footprint in 100 countries, GE Digital comprises several software businesses serving the Power Generation, Oil & Gas, Aviation, Electric & Telecommunications Utilities, and the Manufacturing sector,” said Colin Parris, Senior Vice President and Chief Technical Officer for GE Digital and a board member for the Digital Twin Consortium. “The Digital Twins market category is growing quickly. Bodies like the Digital Twin Consortium will play an important role in driving new standards and lowering barriers of entry for industrial companies to accelerate the commercial adoption of digital twins to accelerate business transformation.”
“The consortium will help to better enable cross-industry collaboration while providing a forum to respond to the challenges we all face with digital twin technologies. Creating common standards and practices for digital twins will better enable our ability to deliver products and services more efficiently and more affordably to our customers,” said Silvia Bouchard, corporate director programs, quality, and engineering, Northrop Grumman.
Since its launch on May 18, 2020, the Digital Twin Consortium ecosystem of companies is driving the adoption of digital twins in six core working groups focused on technology and terminology and four industry sectors. Tiger teams are working to accelerate projects like taxonomy types, platform stacks, security and trustworthiness, and the development of uses cases within the key industry sectors of aerospace and defense, infrastructure, natural resources, and manufacturing. Digital Twin Consortium will help enhance the portability and interoperability of digital twins which, in turn, will advance the use of digital twin technology across industries.
“Today, there are no standards, definitions or common language for digital twin technology and therefore it’s been very difficult for companies to integrate it across their product lifecycle and legacy systems,” said Dick Slansky, Senior Analyst, PLM & Engineering Design Tools, ARC Advisory Group. “However, the definition of digital twin is often insufficient to provide a meaningful basis for discussion – especially when comparing digital twin technologies across applications and industries. With so many companies trying to integrate different digital twin technologies, guidance from Digital Twin Consortium comes at a great time.”
Public webinars to demonstrate the priorities for the Digital Twin Consortium began in September.
Digital Twin Consortium is open to any business, organization, or entity with an interest in digital twins. Its members are committed to using digital twins throughout their operations and supply chains and capturing best practices and standards requirements for themselves and their clients. Membership fees are based on annual revenue.
