There are rumbles happening in the seedy underbelly that a revolution is brewing. In fact, some folks say it is already underway. The IoT is going to be the heart of the next industrial revolution, and in the vanguard will be the Industrial IoT.
I think so, and so does Varun Nagaraj, President and CEO, Sierra Monitor. We sat down with him at IoT Evolution Editor’s Day in Silicon Valley, where we met with many of the Left Coast’s biggest brains in the IoT. (Editor’s note: We plan to do another one of these on the east coast sometime soon, but the next time to get face to face with me will be at the IoT Evolution Expo, January 25 to 28 in Ft. Lauderdale. See you in the sand.)
He said there are two main problems to be overcome before the Industrial Internet of Things revolution can come fully out of the underground. “We have to be able to bring all subsystems into one control panel,” he said. That will require a “…translator between platforms to make smart facilities possible.” The second part will be a mandate by end-users; otherwise, delivery of these systems, which will have to come from the OEMs, will never come about. Revolution (News - Alert) must start among the people.
“We’ve been increasingly seeing that lots of OEMs want to be continually connected to their products,” Nagaraj said. “These OEMs want to use the gateways to connect to their products in the field in order to learn about the way their products are used.” This information will help them develop ever more functional and targeted product lines, which will lead to ever greater functionality.
Viva la revolution.