It’s that time of the year to reflect back on 2015 and then look ahead to the future to see what advancements 2016 will bring.
One memorable highlight from last year was the IOT Solutions World Congress – the largest gathering for an industrial internet conference to date. This conference made IoT real. Business leaders, operational leaders and CIOs heard more than 120 speakers and 4,500 exhibit attendees from 40 countries discuss the opportunities and challenges of deploying the Industrial Internet of Things. So many major companies like Accenture, CERN, CISCO, Deloitte, EMC, General Electric, Hewlett Packard and Intel, had a presence at the event because of its importance and locale (you can watch this video to hear their reasons why). One of this event’s largest attractions was the testbeds area. In the middle of the exhibit floor were eleven different working IoT systems built by suppliers with the users of those testbeds. You don’t see this at any event anywhere else in the world. You can learn more what made IOT Solutions World Congress so unique by watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjXYR0lrIVs&feature=youtu.be
I’ve always believed that IoT technology is here and the social change we expect to see is already happening. But after attending IOT Solutions World Congress (and inaugurating this event during the Opening Session), I was even more convinced. Because I keynote all around the world, I tell people that if you’re not already looking at IoT technology, you’re already behind because the opportunity to apply “internet thinking” to industrial systems is already here. To learn more about that what took place at last year’s event, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjXYR0lrIVs&feature=youtu.be. To follow the conversations about the 2016 event on Twitter, use the hashtag #IoTSWC16.
As a keynote presenter, I visited many countries last year. Reflecting back, the one country that surprised me the most with its commitment to IIoT is Chile. The Chilean government is developing nationwide Centers of Excellence in the Industrial Internet. At the same time, CODELCO, http://www.codelco.cl/, Chile's largest company, and the largest copper miner in the world, joined the Industrial Internet Consortium and is developing a set of use cases for Industrial Internet testbeds in mining and to drive standards in that space.
Back in February, I blogged about Chile’s International Institute for Innovation Aysén-Patagonia, which is focused entirely on Industrial Internet technology for environmental issues. "Environmental issues" include a wide swath of technical problems, from fisheries and other aquaculture issues, to precision agriculture, to search & rescue and other communications problems to integration of alternative energy generation (like geothermal, wind, tidal and solar), to management of biodiversity. Interestingly, there are clear applications of IoT to tourism issues as well, ranging from tracking visits & preferences to preventing forest fires and developing the best deployments of tourism resources. The Institute will launch with an international, invitation-only workshop in March this year. Watch this space for more information, and keep an eye on http://www.iiiap.org/.
There were so many positive things to look back on in 2015, but on a personal note, it was a very difficult year. Last April, we lost Ken Berk, our Vice President of Business Development. Ken was not just a long-term staffer but a family member as well. Another shock was the loss of Tom Rutt, a founder-member of OMG's Architecture Board and an active contributor for more than 20 years. Other members and friends we will miss are: Cheryl (Bissonnette) Lobdell, Oliver Sims, Robert France, Tony Cox, Alexander Pasik, Jerry Hubbard and Eric Openshaw. I think it's been a harder year than most that way.
Last year, we achieved many milestones, but looking ahead to 2016, there’s still much to be done. For example, the Object Management Group is well positioned to set semantic interoperability standards for IIoT; FIBO® & FIGI™adoption are both going very well, and there are several other critically important projects underway (like threat modeling). The Industrial Internet Consortium’s testbed program goes from strength to strength. Its members have already developed nine testbeds including: smart grid (Communication & Control), manufacturing (Track & Trace and Factory Operations Visibility & Intelligence), emergency preparedness (INFINITE), predictive maintenance (Condition Monitoring & Predictive Maintenance), asset lifecycle improvement (Asset Efficiency), foundation for future IIC testbed development (Edge Intelligence), machine-to-machine communications (High Speed Network Infrastructure) and lifetime machine parts tracking with a digital "birth certificate" (Industrial Digital Thread). Results have already been achieved less than a year after the first testbed was announced! The center of the IoT landscape is cloud computing and the Cloud Standards Customer Council is an ecosystem of advocacy groups accelerating cloud adoption, while the Consortium for IT Software Quality is delivering software quality metrics (and driving them as standards through the Object Management Group®) while receiving more attention and attracting new members.
I foresee a great year in 2016 because we have built together a marvelous organization, never better than the team we have right now. I'm proud to say that the Object Management Group, Industrial Internet Consortium, Cloud Standards Customer Council and Consortium for IT Software Quality are all growing and vital, and providing more value to their members than ever before. We have a great team, a strong value proposition, and a glowing future!
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