The IoT is the natural meeting place for operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT), and over the last year, the big IT and OT companies have been coming to that realization. Newest to join in is Hitachi, with its Hitachi Insight Group, the new global group responsible for driving Hitachi’s global unified IoT business and strategy, and its new IoT core platform, Lumada, designed to work at the meeting place of the two departments for Hitachi’s partners.
With $5.4 billion in IoT solutions and services revenue generated in 2015 and 33 solutions in-market today, Hitachi offers one of the broadest IoT solutions portfolios in the industry. By uniting its digital and IoT solutions and services businesses in the Insight Group, Hitachi is positioning itself to lead in this fast-growing market. The newly formed Hitachi Insight Group will be the ‘tip of the spear’ in Hitachi’s quest to capture market share in what IDC projects to be a $1.46 trillion market opportunity by 2020.
“Through the formation of Hitachi Insight Group and the Lumada IoT core platform we will provide Hitachi’s customers and partners with the fastest and simplest path to develop and deploy comprehensive digital solutions at scale,” said Keiji Kojima, SVP and Executive Officer, CEO, Services & Platforms Business Unit, Hitachi. “It is a profound honor to lead this elite team in accelerating Hitachi’s global IoT business through the creation of digital solutions and services.”
Lumada is designed to be a comprehensive, enterprise-grade IoT core platform with an open and adaptable architecture to simplify IoT solution creation and customization by integrating proven commercial technologies from across Hitachi’s portfolio. It links the company’s OT and IT expertise to blend data orchestration, streaming analytics, content intelligence and simulation models. The platform will serve as the core foundation upon which all of Hitachi’s IoT solutions are built and will enable the creation of IoT business ecosystems.
“IoT platforms unquestionably have an important role to play in the development and deployment of IoT solutions,” said Christian Renaud, research director, IoT, 451 Research. “While it is still very early days in the IoT platform market, the landscape is crowded, making it difficult for new vendors to differentiate themselves. Hitachi’s extensive expertise in OT and IT gives them a unique understanding of the fundamental requirements to build and deploy IoT solutions at scale.”
Integrating Hitachi’s decades of IT and OT expertise with proven technologies from across its portfolio, the company says Lumada provides three key qualities that set it apart from other IoT platforms in the market today. Lumada offers an open, flexible architecture and was specifically designed to encourage and support open innovation, co-creation and accelerated solution development with Hitachi’s partners, global system integrators (GSIs) and customers. It provides a flexible approach to IoT solution development through a heterogeneous architecture that allows it to support a range of IoT applications and partner technologies. And, in terms of security, Lumada is built with Hitachi’s established solutions like the Pentaho advanced data orchestration, visualization and analytics software and its Streaming Data Platform (HSDP).
“The greatest opportunity for IoT lies in the enterprise, industrial and public sector markets, which stand to benefit significantly from digital transformation,” said Vernon Turner, SVP, enterprise systems and IoT research fellow, IDC. “Few companies possess the expertise and breadth of resources required to deliver IoT solutions and services, and drive real business value at scale. With today’s announcements, Hitachi is making good progress toward positioning itself to be one of the few likely IoT powerhouses as the market shakes out.”
Hitachi has also established global Centers for Social Innovation globally, staffed by cross-disciplinary researchers, data scientists and solution architects to work closely with customers on solution development to solve unique challenges, ultimately verified through a proof-of-concept process. These labs will work closely with Hitachi Insight Group to apply the Hitachi’s market-in strategy and solve real world challenges in areas such as energy & natural resources, transportation, telecommunications, and healthcare. Hitachi Insight Group is collaborating with market leading innovators to co-develop digital and IoT-optimized solutions, including SAP, PTC, AT&T, Eurotech S.p.A., Intel, and Microsoft.
Edited by
Stefania Viscusi
