Representative End User Clients
Representative Automation Clients
Representative Software Clients
When I consider the impact of mobility on Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) implementations, I’m struck at how much the definition of mobile technology has expanded in just the last 2 years. As a reminder to readers, mobile in today’s terms includes not just laptops, smartphones and tablets but also wearables such as smart watches, wearable bands, smart helmets, heads up displays (HUDs in vehicles) and smart glasses to name just a few examples. These devices bring together an entirely new, additive, connected set of rich mobile experiences across live video, audio, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR), all supported by a continuous real-time feedback cycle.
The mobile experience is revolutionizing the way we work – it liberates workers to be where they need to be. That could mean staying connected while physically being out in the field. It could also mean increasing collaboration possibilities by facilitating a remote connection between a back office subject matter expert with a field engineer looking at the same information at the same time.
Mobility in Action
Since connectivity and mobility have reached ubiquitous status, it has become an indispensable tool in all areas of the business. It isn’t hard to understand why – everyone has a job to do and everyone can do it better when they have access to not just more information, but actionable insights, faster and easier than ever. No matter what your job is, wouldn’t you want to be able to make better data driven decisions faster? And if this came through a tool that didn’t require a specialized skill set, all at a relatively low total cost, that solution would look even better.
One proof point is that the targeted development theme just last year for the most successful software companies in the world was to develop for a “mobile first, cloud first” audience. Think about the significance of that statement – mobile first, then whatever else second. It gives a new meaning to mobilizing your workforce. The standing expectation that any experience with any tool must have a mobile connected experience means that this de facto opportunity enables people who are disconnected to become connected. It enables assets that were offline to become online. It enables a process that was manual to become automated.
Once everything is connected and digital, it means that for all those common digital data streams, we can start to connect, collect, analyze and act and finally close the loop on those data streams yielding unprecedented process and asset efficiencies, extended asset lifecycles, reduction of waste and scrap, improved compliance and enhanced safety. All because the system, this new cyber-physical system, is connected and has become transformed into an active, dynamic system of continuous improvement.
Cybersecurity and Mobility
Early in the adoption of mobile technologies in an industrial context, there were concerns about potential cybersecurity risks – however, by now mobile is a proven technology that has been beat up enough and survived extensive scrutiny. By now the cybersecurity community has moved on from focusing on the technology. Billions of connected things are getting connected to our networks daily – it doesn’t make sense any more to be worried about mobile devices as a separate topic from cloud or from laptops or tablets or any of the other connected things mentioned above.
The focus from cyber security experts and security community at large has matured towards protecting the endpoints and identity of things as opposed to the physical perimeter of or physical access to the thing itself. The evaluation of risk is no longer static and absolute (see Role Based Access Control (RBAC) but rather it is dynamic and a function of environmental context (see Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC). The appropriate focus is no longer on a random set of [security] concerns (rooted in fear, fear of the unknown) that need to be addressed but rather on an explicit set of [security] requirements that must to be mitigated. Requirements that are being met by thousands of companies every day.
The bottom line is thus: Mobility and mobile, connected devices is a must have experience for any business that wants to remain relevant, competitive and differentiated in today’s world. Managing the security aspect of this is not an impossible task. There are a growing set of standards, best practices and trusted partners that meet the security and safety requirements of any business.
Smart small, start incremental but start today.
About your Guest Blogger:
Saadi Kermani is the technology evangelist and business development manager for the Monitoring and Control portfolio at Schneider Electric. He has 13 years of experience in industrial automation. Kermani can be reached at saadi.kermani@schneider-electric.com. Visit online.wonderware.com for more information and a 45 day free trial.