My last time in Barcelona at the IoT Solutions World Congress (#IOTSWG ) was in 2017, exhibiting with Microsoft some of the (then) new Azure IoT features. It was an eventful trip that by chance had coincided with the Catalan independence referendum. Apart from the general strike, and the million people protesting on the streets of Barcelona, we actually saw very little of the events reported in the media and we generated a lots of interest in Hitachi’s IoT solutions.
Fast-forward to this year’s conference, and it has its own interests for me, as I saw how the extent of growth and innovation in the industry has advanced in recent years. This time I was supporting my colleague Jeff Winter, our head of Industry for manufacturing and all-round sage of Industry 4.0. Jeff, based out of Chicago had been invited to speak at the event about “How to thrive in the era of Industry 4.0” and then on how new advances in AI were delivering new opportunities for IoT. “AIoT” as Jeff phrased it in his fireside chat on the second day, is really where much of the conference buzz and excitement was to be found.
From my perspective there was very much a dividing line between the trade show element of the IoT Solutions World Congress and the “conference” element of the event. The former with a heavy focus on intelligent devices, the latter with a more business focus on how to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by IoT.
For me IoT has always been about data collection and ingestion. Once you have that data the challenge is to deliver value from it.
In many of the sessions, much attention was given to how much data exists today and how quickly its volume is growing. We are most definitely in a “post big data” world – it has become the norm. Reflecting on the statistics mentioned at the recent GDSA summit in London, that over 80% of data collected is never actually used, the focus for IoT must be on what can be done with the data, to stop hording and start acting on its insight.
As an aside, on the subject of waste, I was pleased to see that in my new role of head of Sustainability, there were several tracks on sustainability at the conference. Walking between the conference area and the main trade hall I noticed that an attendee tracker had been set up and large signage promised to plant a tree for each journey between the two. I made it my mission to contribute to the planting of as many trees as possible.
But back to value from IoT data. IoT devices have moved on hugely in the six years between my visits. Technology that was cutting edge in 2017 is now mainstream. LoraWan case studies were very prevalent: LoraWan devices are installed everywhere from the rainforests of the Amazon (monitoring quarry activities) to the deserts of the Middle East (monitoring oil pipelines). However there were fewer solutions to process the data than I had expected. One speaker reflected that seeing IoT telemetry updating in real time on a chart is now fairly standard. So it’s encouraging to see the new functionality in Microsoft Fabric that will make streaming data easier to integrate with machine learning models and tackle some of the more complex IoT data challenges.
One of the takeaways from Jeff Winter’s talk was that defining data use-cases is the driver for innovation. Everything comes back to data. Digital twins are a great example of this. As Jeff noted “modelling and simulation aren’t new, but what makes digital twins different is the fact that the virtually recreated objects are fed real time information from the physical “twin”. This enables us to accurately and precisely imitate their actions and responses out in the field.” The digital twin provides clarity and insights that were not available before, by making use of data feedback loops to foster exponential learning and adaptability.
The real value in IoT is in the data that will allow businesses to optimise operations, validate design ideas, or even provide predictive feedback into real time processes.
My final reflection on the congress, after listening to the cutting-edge solutions that are possible right now, is that how organisations prepare for change is a vitally important success factor. Because change (and here I am referring to wholesale business change) is a natural output of using IoT and data effectively. In the manufacturing space, organisations are transitioning from making physical stuff to delivering digital services for their connected products. All this change is driven by data, collected using IoT, and being used effectively to deliver value.
I would sum up the conference simply as “inspiring”. From seeing how the new Spanish hydrogen grid is using IoT for predictive maintenance, to understanding how the French retailer Decathlon have revolutionised store check-outs and stocktake operations using RFID, the possibilities for innovation with IoT and data are limitless.
This article is cross posted from Hitachi Solutions website – it’s my original copy.
