When you think about IT’s future, you probably don’t think about factories. But the evolution of something called Industry 4.0 may be the model for IT’s future strategy
When you think about the digital future, you probably think about self-driving cars, disruptors like Uber and Airbnb, and artificial intelligence. What you probably do not think about, however, is factories.
Despite their outwardly staid appearance, the industrial and manufacturing industries have been at the forefront of the practical application of technology and automation for decades. This evolution has culminated in what is called Industry 4.0—a vision of the smart factory and the Industrial Internet of Things (IoT).
And, I believe, it may be a blueprint for the future of IT across all industries.
A software-defined world
I recently wrote a special report about the evolution of Industry 4.0 for Built.io entitled, “A Software-Defined Industrial World: Using APIs and Microservices to Enable Industry 4.0.” The report focused on the evolution of the Industry 4.0 movement and implications of emerging technologies on the space, but I think the underlying message is impactful to organizations across every industry.
In the report, I posited that there are two critical elements that will drive differentiation, technology adoption and business acceleration: data and integration. I believe this applies to all organizations.
As organizations continue to embrace the philosophies of the software-defined enterprise, it becomes apparent that the ability to create, capture and monetize proprietary data becomes a chief driver of competitive advantage. And in any large organization, it is impossible to do that without the ability to rapidly capture and integrate that data no matter where it resides within the enterprise.
Read the entire article at http://www.networkworld.com/article/3191764/internet-of-things/industry-40-is-the-blueprint-for-the-future-of-it.html.
As of the time of writing, Built.io, Maana and Iguazio are Intellyx customers. None of the other organizations mentioned in this article are Intellyx customers. Image credit: ThinkStock.
