Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) recently held a press conference to announce it has opened the Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security Lab to advance its development and testing of new technologies and software to defend industrial facilities and operations such as refineries and manufacturing plants from cyber attacks.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT), reported cyber incidents on industrial targets in 2014 continue to increase and are up more than 25 percent since 2011. ICS-CERT’s latest report also said that in 40 percent of incidents that were reported, experts did not know how hackers intruded the system because of a lack of detection and monitoring capabilities.
Similar concerns were reflected in a global survey on cyber security conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs in September 2014 on behalf of Honeywell. In that survey, more than 75 percent of respondents from 10 countries said they were fearful that cyber criminals could disrupt major sectors of the economy, and identified the oil and gas, chemicals and power industries as particularly vulnerable.
For more than a decade, Honeywell has developed and provided proprietary cyber protection software and technology for its leading process automation solutions, including Experion process controls, which are used at hundreds of industrial sites such as refineries, chemical plants, gas processing units, power plants, mines and mills around the world. During that time, the Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security group has delivered more than 1,000 industrial cyber security projects globally.
“We have a successful history of providing cyber defense solutions for our industrial customers and this new cyber lab expands our capabilities,” said Jeff Zindel, global business leader for Cyber Security, HPS. “We will be able to validate new solutions faster in a variety of scenarios and increase our customers’ defenses against the growing threat of cyber attacks.”
The new Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security Lab, located in Duluth, Ga., includes a model of a complete process control network that Honeywell cyber security experts will leverage for proprietary research, hands-on training, and to develop, test and certify industrial cyber security solutions. This lab will help accelerate development time of new cyber protection technologies and speed availability to customers.
In addition to its new lab, Honeywell’s Industrial Cyber Security group has also added a number of cyber security experts to increase the bench strength of its development and business teams.
“Many of our customers have come to us looking for cyber security solutions to defend their industrial facilities, operations and people from damage, disruption and misuse,” said Zindel. “They understand the very real threat that is out there, and they want to be more proactive in guarding against it. Honeywell is building on its leading industrial cyber security expertise and experience with this new research and development lab as well as adding highly-regarded cyber security experts around the globe to support our customers’ growing needs.”
As an aside, only because I notice these little anomaly things, I wanted to attend the virtual press conference using my iPad. I couldn’t. The streaming technology used Flash technology. Flash is not a secure technology. And, Apple iOS does not support Flash. <sigh>
I think that cloud-based platforms supporting this Internet of Things (IoT) phenomenon will proliferate for a while until we reach some sort of stability. Nadella came from this part of Microsoft, so I’m not surprised to see continued emphasis on these enterprise platform technologies.
An interesting highlight for us manufacturing and production geeks was that Microsoft brought an application by Rockwell Automation front and center. When Rockwell started doing these services, the Internet of Things phrase had not even been invented. It now finds itself in front of the IoT parade in the Microsoft keynote. I guess the time has come.
Quoting from its blog, “Microsoft’s vision is to help companies thrive in this era of IoT, delivering open, scalable platforms and services that any company, whether startup or the most established global enterprises, can use to create new value, right now. Nadella mentioned our investments in the Windows 10 IoT operating system for devices, and equally with the Azure IoT Suite, we’re bringing together a variety of Azure services to help our customers accelerate their transformation to digital businesses.”
This reminds me of conversations with Microsoft people stretching as far back as 1999 where the topic was Microsoft as a platform company that provided a foundation for industrial applications. Looks like it is consistently fulfilling that vision.
Microsoft introduced a preview of the Azure Intelligent Systems Service last April. It is designed to securely connect, manage and capture machine-generated data from sensors and devices. “If the Intelligent Systems Service was a starting point, the Azure IoT Suite is its evolution and maturation – a reflection of what we learned from the feedback provided by our customers and partners throughout the preview.”
The Azure IoT Suite is an integrated offering that takes advantage of all the relevant Azure capabilities to connect devices and other assets (i.e. “things”), capture the diverse and voluminous data they generate, integrate and orchestrate the flow of that data, and manage, analyze and present it as usable information to the people who need it to make better decisions as well as intelligently automate operations. The offering, while customizable to fit the unique needs of organizations, will also provide finished applications to speed deployment of common scenarios we see across many industries, such as remote monitoring, asset management and predictive maintenance, while providing the ability to grow and scale solutions to millions of “things.”
Additionally, the Azure IoT Suite will provide a simple and predictable pricing model despite the rich set of capabilities and broad scenarios it delivers, so our customers can plan and budget appropriately. This approach is aimed at simplifying the complexities that often exist with implementing and costing IoT solutions.
The Azure IoT Suite will be released in preview later this year.
Nadella even talked manufacturing industry featuring Rockwell Automation, playing this video. One of my Twitter contacts pointed this out and asked how much was real and how much was hype. Well, I’ve actually seen similar applications at Rockwell, so it is just good marketing communication of a real service built on what is now known as Internet of Things.
I’m sad that I could not make it to the 2015 edition of Automation and Power World, ABB’s user group meeting in Houston. That there is a lot of energy and information, I have no doubt.
There has not been much news popping up in my news feeds this week. Control Global, as usual, has the official show daily. Most interesting would have been CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer’s keynote explaining the company’s position.
ABB has faced some financial difficulties over the past 18 months or so. It has shed a number of businesses. Several key executives were moved from the automation business to the power business in order to bolster its strength.
Here are two interesting stories from the conference compliments to my friends Jim Montague and Mike Baccidore.
This report from Accenture looking at technology trends that will affect manufacturing among other businesses shows how people outside of the depths of automation, manufacturing, production arena are amazed by many technologies that we take for granted.
Check out the list of five trends, though. We already do some, but there are others that we will be adopting. Do you have your plans, yet?
In its annual outlook of global technology trends, Accenture has identified a 180-degree shift to what it calls the “We Economy” that is re-shaping markets and changing the way we work and live. According to Accenture Technology Vision 2015, pioneering enterprises are tapping into a broad array of other digital businesses, digital customers and even digital devices at the edge of their networks to create new digital “ecosystems.”
These leading companies have already begun using technology to transform themselves into digital businesses and are now focusing on combining their industry expertise with the power of digital to reshape their markets. These businesses see great potential to make a difference – and a profit – by operating as ecosystems, not just as individual corporate entities, and driving the emergence of the “We Economy.”
This shift to the “We Economy” was confirmed in a related Accenture global survey of more than 2,000 IT and business executives, which found that four out of five respondents believe that in the future, industry boundaries will dramatically blur as platforms reshape industries into interconnected ecosystems. While 60 percent of those surveyed said they plan to engage new partners within their respective industries, 40 percent said they plan to leverage digital partners outside their industry and 48 percent said they plan to engage digital technology platform leaders.
“In last year’s Technology Vision report we noted how large enterprises were reasserting leadership in their markets by adopting digital to drive their processes more effectively and transform how they go to market, collaborate with partners, engage with customers and manage transactions,” said Paul Daugherty, chief technology officer, Accenture. “Now that digital has become part of the fabric of their operating DNA, they are stretching their boundaries to leverage a broader ecosystem of digital businesses as they shape the next generation of their products, services and business models to effect change on a much broader scale.”
The Accenture Technology Vision 2015 report offers examples of how, in the rapidly growing Industrial Internet of Things – i.e., the interconnection of embedded computing devices within the existing Internet infrastructure – companies are using digital ecosystems to offer new services, reshape experiences and enter new markets. This is supported by the Accenture survey, which found that 35 percent of respondents are already using partner APIs to integrate data and collaborate with business partners, with an additional 38 percent planning to do so. One example is Home Depot, which is working with manufacturers to ensure that all of the connected home products it sells are compatible with the Wink connected home system – thereby creating its own connected home ecosystem and developing potential new services and unique experiences for Wink customers.
Philips is taking a similar approach, teaming with Salesforce to build a platform to reshape and optimize the way healthcare is delivered. The envisioned platform will create an ecosystem of developers building healthcare applications to enable collaboration and workflow between doctors and patients across the entire spectrum of care. The ecosystem to achieve these improved outcomes is vast including electronic medical records as well as diagnostic and treatment information obtained through Philips’ imaging equipment, monitoring equipment, and personal devices and technologies.
Accenture Technology Vision2015 notes that by tapping into digital ecosystems, Home Depot, Philips and other companies have the ability to grow and generate new sources of revenue in ways they could not achieve alone. The report also highlights five emerging technology trends that reflect the shifts being seen among the digital power brokers of tomorrow:
The Internet of Me: Our highly personalized world. As everyday objects are going online, so too are experiences – creating an abundance of digital channels that reach deep into every aspect of individuals’ lives. The range of emerging channels that companies report they are using or experimenting with to engage customers includes wearables (cited by 62 percent of survey respondents), connected TVs (68 percent), connected cars (59 percent) and smart objects (64 percent). Forward-thinking businesses are changing the way they build new applications, products and services, and reaping benefits as a result. To gain control over these access points to individuals’ experiences, businesses are creating highly personalized experiences to both engage and exhilarate customers — but having to do it while making sure to not violate customer trust. The majority (60 percent) are seeing a positive return on their investment in personalization technologies. Companies that succeed in this new “Internet of Me” will become the next generation of household names.
Outcome Economy:Hardware producing hard results. Intelligent hardware is bridging the last mile between the digital enterprise and the physical world. As leading enterprises come face-to-face with the Industrial Internet of Things, they are uncovering opportunities to embed hardware and sensors in their digital toolboxes and using these highly connected hardware components to give customers what they really want: not more products or services, but more meaningful outcomes. In fact, 87 percent of survey respondents acknowledged a greater use of more intelligent hardware, sensors and devices on the edge of networks, leading organizations to increasingly shift from selling products or services to selling outcomes. And 84 percent of respondents touted a deeper level of understanding of how products are being used and outcomes customers want resulting from embedded intelligence in products. These “digital disrupters” know that getting ahead is no longer about selling things, but about selling results. This is the new “outcome economy.”
The Platform (R)evolution:Defining ecosystems, redefining industries. Digital industry platforms and ecosystems are fueling the next wave of breakthrough innovation and disruptive growth. Increasingly, platform-based companies are capturing more of the digital economy’s opportunities for growth and profitability. In fact, 75 percent of survey respondents believe the next generation of platforms will be led not by large tech companies but by industry players and leaders. And nearly three-quarters (74 percent) are using or experimenting with industry platforms to integrate data with digital business partners. Rapid advances in cloud and mobility are not only eliminating the cost and technology barriers associated with such platforms, but opening up this new playing field to enterprises across industries and geographies. In short, platform-based ecosystems are the new plane of competition.
Intelligent Enterprise: Huge data + smarter systems = better business. Until now, advanced software has been geared to help employees make better and faster decisions. But with an influx of big data – and advances in processing power, data science and cognitive technology – software intelligence is helping machines make even better-informed decisions. This is the era of software intelligence where applications and tools will take on more human-like intelligence, according to eighty percent of our respondents. And 78 percent of respondents believe software will soon be able to learn and adapt to our changing world and make decisions based on learned experiences. The next level of operational excellence and the next generation of software services will come out of the latest gains in software intelligence, which will drive new levels of evolution and discovery, propelling innovation throughout the enterprise.
Workforce Reimagined: Collaboration at the intersection of humans and machines. The push to go digital is amplifying the need for humans and machines to do more, together. The majority of survey respondent companies (57 percent) are adopting technologies that enable business users to complete tasks that previously required IT experts, such as data visualization. Advances in natural interfaces, wearable devices and smart machines are presenting new opportunities for companies to empower their workers through technology. This will also raise new challenges in managing a collaborative workforce of people and machines. Seventy-eight percent of the executives surveyed agree successful businesses will manage employees alongside intelligent machines – ensuring collaboration between the two. And 77 percent of respondents believe that within three years, companies will need to focus on training their machines as much as they do on training their employees (e.g., using intelligent software, algorithms and machine learning). Successful businesses will recognize the benefits of human talent and intelligent technology collaborating side by side – and will embrace both as critical members of the reimagined workforce.
“Rather than simply focusing internally, on improving their own operations, successful companies are looking externally to create and become part of digital ecosystems,” said Daugherty. “They’re beginning to see the importance of selling not just products and services, but outcomes — and that requires weaving their businesses into the broader digital fabric that extends to customers, partners, employees and industries.”
For nearly 15 years, Accenture has taken a systematic look across the enterprise landscape to identify emerging IT trends that hold the greatest potential to disrupt businesses and industries. For more information on this year’s report, visit www.accenture.com/technologyvision or follow the conversation on Twitter with #TechVision2015.
About the Methodology
Accenture’s Technology Vision is developed annually by the Accenture Technology Labs. For the 2015 report, the research process included gathering input from the Technology Vision External Advisory Board, a group comprising more than two dozen executives and entrepreneurs from the public and private sectors, academia, venture capitalists and startup companies. In addition, the Technology Vision team conducted nearly 100 interviews with technology luminaries, industry experts and Accenture business leaders. The team also tapped into the vast pool of knowledge and innovative ideas from professionals across Accenture, using Accenture’s collaboration technologies and a crowdsourcing approach to launch and run an online contest to uncover the most-interesting emerging technology themes. More than 1,700 Accenture professionals participated in the contest, contributing valuable ideas and voting on others’ input.
In parallel, Accenture Research conducted a global survey of 2,000 business and IT executives across nine countries and 10 industries to capture insights into the adoption of emerging technologies. The survey identified key issues and priorities for technology adoption and investment. Respondents were mostly C-level executives and directors, with some functional and line-of-business leads, at companies with annual revenues of at least US$500 million, with the majority of companies having annual revenues greater than US$6 billion.
Manufacturing output and manufacturing employment are important factors in our economy. They are also sources of endless speculation and angst.
Last week I ran across this graph from “FRED”, the St. Louis Fed. The graph combines year-over-year change in manufacturing production and employment curves.
Notice that usually employment tracks production although not varying as much as production. I also noticed that whereas most months from October 1998 to November 2010 showed growing production, employment lost every one of those months.
The blog writer from the Fed wrote, “The role of manufacturing in the U.S. economy is often discussed. As shown in the FRED graph above, as a year-over-year percent change, the level of manufacturing has generally grown. (One striking exception is during the recent recession.) The number of employees working in manufacturing is a different story, however. It has sometimes grown, but it has nearly always grown less than the growth in manufacturing. This suggests that growth in manufacturing does not equal growth in manufacturing jobs. What’s the explanation? A prime candidate is productivity growth. Another is that the sectoral mix has shifted toward industries with higher value added, such as computers and electronics.”
I think they are on the right track. Could we also add process industries (refining and chemicals fall into the manufacturing NAICS, but upstream does not)? I couldn’t find the numbers quickly, but I think those industries require fewer employees than, say, automobile and machinery manufacturing. There were huge shifts in the technology and market fundamentals in those subsectors.
What’s coming
I’ve been listening to reports from last week’s edition of the International CES (formerly Consumer Electronics Show). I draw your attention, for example to this video/podcast roundup from This Week in Tech (TWiT), a popular technology industry round table.
During the first 45 minutes or so there was a discussion of autonomous vehicles. Whereas the usual fare at the show includes TVs, mobile phones, electronic gadgets, this year’s news—even outstripping Internet of Things—was dominated by car manufacturers. This was to the extent that the Detroit Auto Show was pushed back one week so that the manufacturers could focus effort on CES.
Car designers have increasingly incorporated electronics into vehicles. First was control systems, then HVAC, then entertainment systems. Now we are seeing a rapid uptake of taking control to the next level—controlling not only the engine and transmission, but driving itself. Autonomous vehicles were front and center. And these are not only concept cars.
Let’s consider the economic impact of autonomous vehicles. There is every potential that widespread adoption of these vehicles could reduce vehicle demand. I live in a rural area where cars are pretty much a necessity for getting anywhere.
Even so, what if there were a model where I could click an app on my iPhone and summon a car to pick me up and take me down to Dayton (40 miles of rural interstate) for a meeting. On my way to the meeting, I could be preparing for the meeting. Or, perhaps just reading. Either way, I don’t have to concentrate on driving.
In my grandfather’s day, that would have been called the Trolley. There was a passenger light rail system that went from Sidney to Dayton (and through Piqua, Troy, Tipp City and Vandalia). We haven’t had that since before WWII.
Especially in cities. It could really cut down on need for cars in suburbs where cabs are infrequent and expensive. But if you don’t need a car full time, you could have an on-demand car.
If electric cars get added to this mix, many more jobs would be eliminated by eliminating engines, complex transmissions, and the like.
Yes, I can see where manufacturing production could continue to increase, but the need for employees would drop.
However, in that same time frame, we will be faced with a declining labor force. This could be something fortuitous for our grandkids.
Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) recently held a press conference to announce it has opened the Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security Lab to advance its development and testing of new technologies and software to defend industrial facilities and operations such as refineries and manufacturing plants from cyber attacks.
