AT&T, Cisco, GE, IBM and Intel recently announced the formation of the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC), an open membership group focused on breaking down the barriers of technology silos to support better access to big data with improved integration of the physical and digital worlds. The consortium will enable organizations to more easily connect and optimize assets, operations and data to drive agility and to unlock business value across all industrial sectors. The IIC’s charter will be to encourage innovation by:
- Utilizing existing and creating new industry use cases and test beds for real-world applications;
- Delivering best practices, reference architectures, case studies and standards requirements to ease deployment of connected technologies;
- Influencing the global standards development process for Internet and industrial systems;
- Facilitating open forums to share and exchange real-world ideas, practices, lessons and insights;
- Building confidence around new and innovative approaches to security.
Like the smart grid, the Industrial Internet is the next frontier. It merges the physical with the digital to predict, control and create systems that produce better outcomes. Through the Industrial Internet, companies will shift from responding to events and will instead use connected machines, big data and analytics to predict and plan, resulting in large gains in industrial productivity, bottom line results and societal outcomes. Stay tuned for a more detailed analysis on how the Industrial Internet will benefit the energy industry.