My Take: Connecting Your Enterprise — Leveraging the Internet of Things

By Jane Alexander, Managing Editor

This month’s cover asks “What’s Trending Now?” My take is that the “Internet of Things (IoT)” is one of the hottest topics out there, especially among the suppliers of technologies for consumer, commercial and industrial applications. Alas, among industrial end-users, the IoT may be one of the least understood trends. (According to LNS Research, almost half of industry executives still don’t understand it.) Troubled by this report, I turned to Opto 22 to sum up the IoT and its benefits for our readers.

In short, the term “Internet of Things” describes how more than just computers and phones can be connected to the Internet. Practically any electrical or mechanical device, sensor or system can be connected. These “smart devices” possess enough intelligence to connect to a network and exchange data with computers and other smart devices. Although, millions of such devices are estimated to currently be in place worldwide, that number is expected to swell to billions as many more come online within the next 10 to 15 years.

As most of us have seen, IoT benefits are often promoted in terms of consumer applications (i.e., monitoring and controlling household lighting, heating, cooling and security, or tracking personal health and fitness parameters, including monitoring vital signs with devices worn on the body). But the big news is really about the substantial data that connected smart devices can generate, regardless of application—and the valuable, actionable information this data can yield.

According to Opto 22 Vice President Benson Hougland, while consumer IoT applications have attracted significant attention, the majority of growth in connected devices is occurring in industrial and commercial applications. That, in turn, has sparked the term “Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).”

But, then, what’s so new about monitoring and controlling equipment in commercial and industrial settings? Automation is a long-established discipline. SCADA and other control systems have existed for decades, right? How do IIoT technologies differ from control and remote monitoring systems already in use across plants and facilities?

As Hougland explains, one difference is the devices themselves. “Smart devices can connect to enterprise networks using Internet Protocol (IP), which is not usually the case for machines connected on a fieldbus or other proprietary network,” he notes. Furthermore, these devices also exchange data using widely adopted protocols from the IT world without an intermediary system required to translate between different protocols. IIoT sensors are small, low-power and often wireless, so an existing automation system can be instrumented and data-collected without affecting its operation or putting production at risk.

“We declared IP the ‘dial tone’ of the Internet when we launched industrial Ethernet-based products 14 years ago,” Hougland continues. “In other words, communication can’t occur without it, and that’s the same for the Internet of Things today.”

The IIoT clearly presents end-users with opportunities to improve production efficiency and operational performance. As a maintenance and reliability pro, you’re no doubt familiar with IIoT applications in the areas of predictive/preventive maintenance. Still, Hougland says, as more smart devices emerge, the IIoT will augment more complex applications like integrated automation, condition-monitoring and asset-management systems.

All this begs yet another question: What’s your take on the IoT/IIoT? (Leveraging this phenomenon involves more than technology: What about the human element, for example?) We’ve already heard from almost 300 readers through a recent survey. Please turn to page 20 to see what we learned.

For now, we at Maintenance Technology thank you for your support in 2014, and look forward to serving you in a very Happy, Prosperous New Year and beyond! MT

jalexander@maintenancetechnology.com