Today, the term industrial Internet of Things has become more and more pervasive in the context of industry, as digitization is a business priority for a lot of organizations.

WHAT IS THE INDUSTRIAL INTERNET OF THINGS?

The industrial internet of things presents a considerable new risk paradigm. The IoT, also known as the Industrial Internet, brings together advanced analytics, brilliant machines, and people at work. It is the network of numerous devices connected by communications technologies, which results in systems that could monitor, exchange, collect, analyze and deliver new valuable insights like never before. The insights could help drive faster, smarter business decisions for industrial organizations.

TRANSFORMING THE INDUSTRY

The Industrial Internet of Things or IIoT is transforming industry, it’s changing how industries work. Whether it is enabling predictive analytics to detect corrosion within a refinery pipe, or providing production data in real-time to determine additional capacity in a plant, or drive visibility and control over the industrial control systems environment to prevent cyber-attacks, the IIot, as well as the software solutions powered by it, drive business outcomes.

By combining M2M or machine-to-machine communication, industrial big data, cyber security, technology and HMI and SCADA, the IIoT drives unprecedented levels of productivity, efficiency and performance. As a result, industrial organizations in oil and gas, power and energy, healthcare, manufacturing, aviation and many more are experiencing transformative financial and operational benefits.

There’s such great potential for the Industrial Internet to change how the industry works.

IMPORTANT ELEMENTS TO SECURE IIoT ENDPOINTS

First, developers should begin with a clear design of the security policies and models. They should define endpoint identity, authentication and authorization. The right data protection model should address integrity as well as confidentiality for shared data-in-rest and data-in-use. Secure hardware, and roots of trust must include the consideration of a hardware lifecycle, consistent root of trust and BIOS updates. Furthermore, developers should also plan for secure remote code updates and make sure of code integrity to prevent malicious remote code hijacking.

Beyond basic security considerations and definitions, developers must build-in security configuration and management to ascertain the right replacement of updating encryption keys as well as certificates and assignment of future authorizations and access rights. Finally, it’s imperative for a development team to be experienced in security implementations and has the latest development tools, Hypervisors, OS, and libraries at their disposal.

Recently, the IIC has presented an endpoint protection/security model as well as policy on its IISF or Industrial Internet Security Framework document. The technical report is an in-depth cross-industry-focused security framework, which reflect thousands of hours of experiences and knowledge from security experts, gathered, researched and evaluated for the benefit of all Industrial Internet of Things system deployments.

The key areas of focus include physical security, endpoint data protection, endpoint identity, root of trust, monitoring and analysis, access control, integrity protection, secure configuration and management.

WHO COINED THE INDUSTRIAL INTERNET TERM?

GE, as the premier digital industrial company, coined the term Industrial Internet in late 2012. It estimates that the Industrial Internet could be a $225 billion market by the year 2020, and made considerable investments in the Industrial Internet. It built GE Digital, it software business that is dedicated to making digital the central foundation of the operations of GE.

One of the companies that founded the Industrial Internet Consortium is GE, to accelerate development, adoption and widespread usage of interconnected devices and machines, intelligent analytics and people at work. Leveraging the promise of IIoT, GE is driving its own digital industrial transformation. Based on its experience and industry expertise and deep technology, the company is helping customers accelerate their digital transformation journeys with the digital software solutions.

HOW TO INVEST IN THE INDUSTRIAL INTERNET

Industrial Internet already is allowing digital industrial leaders to transform operations and deliver critical business outcomes. However, a research showed that only 5 percent of companies succeeded in digital transformation, due largely to the lack of a purpose-built industrial platform.

Thus, GE made Predix, to address the unique requirements of industrial companies on the road to digitization. Predix is the Industrial Internet platform, purpose-built for the digital industrial era. It captures as well as analyzes the unique velocity, volume, and variety of machine data in an industrial-strength, secure cloud environment. So, one could tap into data and apply it to achieve new business performance levels.

With the industrial space for digitization, GE Digital leverages the IIot power. The software connects machine data streams into powerful analytics and people, giving industrial firms valuable insights in managing assets and operations in a more efficient manner. For instance, consider using advanced analytics to predict events before they occur. Asset Performance Management helps move from being reactive to proactive maintenance to minimize unplanned downtime, lessen costs of maintenance, boost efficiency and extend asset life.

The IIot solutions help companies drive huge gains in availability, productivity and longevity, which make digital industrial transformation possible.

INDUSTRIAL INTERNET VERSUS THE INTERNET OF THINGS

One perspective is to consider the Industrial Internet as connecting devices and machines in industries like oil and gas, healthcare and power generation, where there’s more at stake or where system failures as well as unplanned downtime could result in high-risk or life-threatening situations.

The Internet of Things on the other hand tend to include consumer-level devices like heart monitoring fitness brands or smart home appliances. They’re functional and could provide conveniences, but typically don’t make energy instances if downtime were to happen.

For instance, the Industrial Internet envision machines that tell operators a way of optimizing productivity or detect failure before it happens, potentially saving organizations billions of dollars per year, while the IoT includes connected refrigerators, which could buy more milk and eggs online before they run out. As the Industrial Internet connects vital machines, it could deliver powerful operational and financial outcomes.

When it comes to the power of the Industrial Internet of Things, the sky is the limit. AS more and more data is made from increasingly connected systems, machines and devices, the volume of valuable and critical insights to be realized and acted upon is limitless.

No matter where an organization is on the Industrial Internet journey, the Digital Services of GE could help take the next step. Applying data science and design thinking to solution architecting and blueprinting, and everything in between and beyond, GE is ready to help maximize the IIoT investments.