Last week, I was at the CloudConnect Conference in Chicago, which is put on by UBM TechWeb, a sister company of Design News. The target audience is the people who manage and develop for the IT infrastructure. This is not the usual Design News audience, but there has been a lot of talk about support from CAD and CAE vendors for the cloud, so I thought this might be of interest. There were also some interesting presentations that meshed with the topics discussed here on Design News. One of them was from General Electric Intelligent Platforms. The other was from Google.
Bernie Anger, a general manager at GE Intelligent Platforms, spoke at one of the keynote sessions. His company makes automation control systems. As Anger points out, this industry has been very conservative, as it should be. These systems control large machines and generally are deployed for a long time. On the other hand, the imperatives of the Information Age are driving these systems toward a connected environment. As Anger said, if it can be measured, it will be connected. That connection will be through and to the cloud. GE's concept relies on high-performance computing in the edge devices. This requirement is driven by the need to collect data for use later.
He used the example of a water system integrator. Users engage in a community that allows sharing of information and expertise. Solutions can be tested through simulation before buying. The existence of large data stores -- big-data -- allows this simulation and opens up new ways to optimize systems. A common integrated development environment is used to create, configure, and manage systems. This is a good example of how control and industrial systems will be designed in the future. They will still need programming to perform specific functions, but putting together the elements of a system will be more integrated for the industrial designer.
Craig McLuckie, the lead product manager for Google Compute Engine, was also a keynote speaker. There was a lot of interest in what he had to say, so a specific breakout session on this material was held. I had a chance to talk to him after that additional session.
Google has had its App Engine, a platform for developing cloud-based applications, for a while. What is new is the Google Compute Engine, which is infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), as opposed to the App Engine platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering. With the Compute Engine, Google is making infrastructure available for customers to build very large and complex cloud applications. These are Linux virtual machines. You have persistent disk resources, local disks, and cloud storage available. There is access to the Internet and to private networks.
The Linux kernel is provided by Google, since it uses this to provide a number of very important services. Some of these services include business continuity, which is built in. Unlike some other IaaS vendors, Google does not let you upload your own. On the other hand, you provide your own business continuity solutions there. Google offers Centos and Ubuntu flavors. Of course, there is a lot you can customize around this, so it should be no problem. This service can be used to build very large parallel applications and can scale up to 10,000 cores, McLuckie said.
Since this is the infrastructure on which Google runs, the services it uses are available to Compute Engine customers.
What is probably of most interest to Design News readers is that McLuckie said his company already has users developing computational fluid dynamics codes in Compute Engine. I asked him if these were custom codes or if they were being done by ISVs. He indicated that they were generally custom codes, though there was interest from ISVs. This ties in with the many articles in which contributing editor Beth Stackpole mentions vendors moving toward cloud computing offerings.
We don't necessarily know what infrastructure a cloud-based application is on, but that's the point. It could be Google's. It could be Amazon, or it could be a private cloud solution. The idea is to put it into the cloud so that we don't have to set it up ourselves. Now that is progress.
Louis Giokas is an independent technology consultant with experience in a number of industries ranging from aerospace to database software and many points in between.
Great story, Louis. Which industries can we expect to accelerate their use of cloud connectivity to large, automated machines? Aerospace, automotive, medical?
Chuck, I expect that small and mid-sized suppliers in the industries you mention will be the first to really pick up on this. As the technology becomes more proven, even large enterprises will begin to use them.
As for industries, I think that automotive will be among the first, followed by aerospace. Medical device manufacturers are a lesser player, but look for them to begin to take up this approach as well.
I think a lot of the larger OEMs in core industries like aerospace and automotive are already building out their own private cloud infrastructures to support mainstream business applications. A cloud-based environment is perfect for global collaboration, since the services (the new terms for applications or software) are Web based, thus allowing people to tap in from wherever they are working as long as they have a browser-based connection. The question is will engineering departments hop on board the trend and let their core development platforms be migrated to the private cloud. I guess that depends on how involved enterprise IT is in overseeing engineering software--that isn't always the case. As for the cloud-based CAE capabilities that Lou mentioned, those will be a definite mainstay, mostly delivered by the vendors and potentially larger firms that will host their proprietary simulations applications in their private or hybrid clouds.
Louis, great summary of the thoughts that are driving where we are taking the GE Intelligent Platforms cloud offering. In response to a few of the blog posts regarding "who adopts" we are getting good response across industries. The "connected" concept resonates best with people that have geo-distributed applications. This could be in infrastructure (like the water example given) or OEMs that provide a combination of equipment & supplies as part of their offering. Digital content management & collaboration are seen as good supporting capabilities. Small/mid companies appear willing to jump on a public cloud first, as they have the need & typically don't have matching capabilities in house.
Is the "connected" concept you talk about referring to machine-2-machine (M2M) applications or the so-called "Internet of things?" Could you provide an example of an automation system based on the new GE platform and how it operates using the new cloud connected capabilities?
Beth, I think that M2M and the Internet of Things is basically the same thing. M2M really refers to the fact that the machines are not set up to communicate directly to humans. It is a term used when talking mostly about the protocols required. The Internet of Things also refers to machines talking to machines, but the idea is that of lots of devices connected through the Internet whether they talk to humans or not. While M2M does not require the Internet, for practical purposes the Internet will be the communication medium used.
When we refer to the "Industrial Internet" we like thinking of a system that encompases machines, users and the cloud. Machines have the ability to connect with each other, provide content to the cloud & consume content from the cloud + present relevant information to the user based on that user's profile.
To make this easier to achieve at the point of control we are adding new set of capabilities around connectivity & content management to the control system. Historically control system connectivity has required a fair amount of application knowledge at both ends of the connection to ensure the right information gets exchanged. We find that as people connect more control systems together into networks & expect to run new applications against those control systems the point-to-point model doesn't scale well
Protocols are certainly one aspect of this, as is security ... and we are embracing open standards whenever possible for both of these.
As for examples, we are a bit early in our delivery process for this technology to have meaningful deployed applications in customer hands ... would love an opportunity to answer your question again at the start of the new year.
Well, I think that Aerospace and Automotive industries should use cloud connectivity to accelerate their business. For question or flooring estimates see more at K&K.
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