Church & Dwight (C&W), the company behind the brand Arm & Hammer, plans to strengthen the consumer goods company’s cybersecurity program. The goal was to gain a deeper understanding of its manufacturing risk profile by identifying critical assets, vulnerabilities, and security gaps.

It has chosen Rockwell to help build resiliency and minimise risks in its operational technology (OT) manufacturing security practices. The two collaborated to develop a remediation roadmap, new security policies, and other measures to minimize risks.

With several global consumer brands under its umbrella, C&W recognised the critical impact and importance of a strong OT security posture and enlisted Rockwell.

“We selected Rockwell Automation because we were looking for a new partner to help us uplevel our OT and manufacturing security posture. We knew we needed the best of the best who understood our vision,” said David Ortiz, chief information security officer (CISO) at Church & Dwight. “Throughout our work with Rockwell Automation on our OT cybersecurity program, we’ve gained a thorough understanding of our cybersecurity landscape and the tools needed.”

Commenting on the collaboration, Mark Cristiano, global commercial director at Rockwell, says: “We have implemented new security controls and processes and have already seen a dramatic shift in the company's OT practices. We are proud to leverage our best-in-class partnerships to help Church & Dwight achieve its cybersecurity goals.”

As a longtime Rockwell Industrial Solutions customer, C&W expanded its partnership in 2020 to advance their Manufacturing Cybersecurity Program initiative. Since then, Church & Dwight has achieved its cybersecurity objectives in mitigating risks and understanding its OT landscape.

Once threat detection capabilities were in place, Church & Dwight implemented continuous monitoring through managed OT services from Rockwell.

These managed services integrate and support Church & Dwight’s current IT Security Operations Centre, bridging the gap between IT and OT networks, and mitigating cyber risks across the enterprise.

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IDC defines edge as the information and communications technology (ICT) related actions that are performed outside of the centralized data centre, where edge is the intermediary between the connected endpoints and the core IT environment.

Characteristically, edge is distributed, software-defined, and flexible. Edge is the movement of computing resources to the physical location where data is created, transacted or stored, thereby increasing the enablement of business processes, decisions, and intelligence outside of the core IT environment.

"Edge computing will play a pivotal role in the deployment of AI applications," said Dave McCarthy, research vice president, Cloud and Edge Services at IDC. He added that to meet scalability and performance requirements, organisations will need to adopt the distributed approach to architecture that edge computing provides. OEMs, ISVs, and service providers are taking advantage of this market opportunity by extending feature sets to enable AI in edge locations.

Across 19 enterprise industries, IDC segments edge ICT spending for more than 500 named enterprise use cases in six domains. In the service provider industry, investments for edge services delivery are built on infrastructure spending for multi-access edge computing (MEC), content delivery networks, and virtual network functions. Combined, these three use cases will account for nearly 22% of all edge spending this year.

For enterprise adopters, including the public sector, examples of edge-named use cases with large investments and rapid growth through 2027 include augmented maintenance (augmented reality), production asset management, AI-augmented supply and logistics, augmented diagnosis and treatment systems, supply chain resilience, in-home remote patient monitoring, and in-store contextualized marketing.

Examples of emerging edge use cases that are forecast to have the fastest spending growth over the 2022-2027 period include autonomous mining operations, site design and management (construction), pipeline inspection (utilities), augmented training (multiple industries), and expert shopping advisors & product recommendations (retail).

"Enterprise investments have continued to shift the past 24 months toward infrastructure expansion and greenfield deployments. Companies are acting on plans to build more robust local computing infrastructure capabilities. And through it all, customer-facing new services and products and enabling new business processes are top enterprise drivers," said Marcus Torchia, research vice president, Data & Analytics at IDC.

"Over the next two years, the share of planned investments moderately favours MEC offerings. Yet on balance, enterprises are looking to rationalize total service provider outlays. This sets up a dynamic market of capex and opex-based edge offerings competing for investment dollars through 2027."

Marcus Torchia

Across enterprise end-user industries, the sheer size of discrete and process manufacturing will account for the largest portion of investments in edge solutions this year, followed by the retail and professional services industries.

IDC expects all 19 enterprise industries profiled in the spending guide will see five-year compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) in the low-to-mid teens over the forecast period. The service provider segment will see the greatest CAGR of 19.1%.

The largest investment share will continue to be led by hardware, at close to 40% of total spending, to build out edge capabilities especially driven by service provider infrastructure. Hardware spending will be driven by investments in edge gateways, servers, and network equipment.

Over the forecast period, adoption of provisioned services by enterprises will surge, surpassing hardware share by 2026 for the first time. Within provisioned services, connectivity and IaaS will represent the greatest share and fastest growth categories, respectively. On-premise software will be a critical component of edge infrastructure but remain the smallest category in terms of overall spending.

IDC predicts that China will experience the fastest spending growth over the five-year forecast with CAGRs of 16.2% and 15.3%, respectively.

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In the report, 2023 Strategic Roadmap For Digital Workplace Infrastructure and IT Operations (I&O), the analyst suggested that a successful digital workplace strategy strikes a cost-effective balance between hardware, employee support and cybersecurity while focusing on improving the digital employee experience.

Key findings of the report

Digital employee experience (DEX) is a major component of overall employee experience. This necessitates a greater focus on continually measuring and improving employee sentiment, technology adoption and solution performance.

Gartner posits that many digital workplace leaders are increasing investments in endpoint analytics and self-healing.

Traditional, siloed operating models are prone to gaps in DEX and are ill-equipped to support increased cybersecurity and operational demands, yet many organisations fail to adjust their structure.

Over 80% of digital workplace leaders have increased prioritisation on environmental sustainability. Success requires modern operations, selecting sustainable vendors, adopting new tooling and developing comprehensive reporting.

Gartner says I&O plays a crucial role in enabling and supporting the digital workplace and must improve its business acumen and ability to:

• Adapt to ever-evolving employee, HR and line-of-business demands
• Upskill team members
• Evolve operating models
• Keep pace with and prepare for the future
• Free up resources to focus on employee enablement
• Improve DEX
• Eliminate technical debt

The post What the digital workplace will look like in 2024 appeared first on FutureIoT.

Source: Exploring the industrial metaverse, Deloitte 2023

Others are also investing in digital twins, 3D modelling, and 3D scanning, all serving as building blocks for the immersive 3D environments of the industrial metaverse.

The industrial metaverse (IMV) is set to greatly enhance manufacturing engineering, training, safety, and production. ABI Research forecasts spending on industrial metaverse solutions and services to grow at 22.8% to reach US$6.3 billion by 2030 as immersive and collaborative capabilities come to the forefront of industry 4.0 software development efforts.

IMV solutions use immersive technologies and digital twin initiatives, integrating data virtualization, Artificial Intelligence (AI) simulation, business operations systems, and external data sources to enable connectivity between digital twins and other systems.

“Top IMV use cases for 2024 will be in training, collaboration, and production planning, with a strong emphasis on solutions that drive positive business outcomes in a short timeframe,” explains Ryan Martin, senior research director for Industrial & Manufacturing at ABI Research. “Large deployments that are costly or take a long time to demonstrate value will be avoided in favour of smaller projects that drive incremental results that scale.”

Examples include Norwegian clean battery producer FREYR equipping its gigafactories in Norway and in the U.S., Siemens Industrial Operations X, AWS IoT TwinMaker, and NVIDIA Omniverse are creating immersive metaverse experiences.

Danone is using Matterport Pro3 cameras to capture 3D imagery of its facilities so authorized users can virtually visit and explore the production site using a computer or mobile device. Burckhardt Compression uses PTC’s spatial computing services for remote assistance and automated report-generation scenarios involving a supertanker in the middle of the ocean. Other notable providers include AVEVA, Dassault Systèmes, Ericsson, Microsoft, and Nokia.

Martin opines that the dream to enable full factory metaverse experiences is far from realized, but the work has begun. He concludes that initial implementations will start with a portion of a factory or production line, likely on an as-needed basis. The broader environment is well-suited to partnerships that ease points of integration and enable marketplaces in the long run.

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ABI Research predicts the global installed base of autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) in warehouses will surpass 500,000 by 2030.

“There are now many options to automate a warehouse. Both stationary and mobile automation solutions have continued to expand to new form factors and are becoming more effective as Artificial Intelligence (AI) processing grows,” explains Ryan Wiggin, supply chain management & logistics industry analyst at ABI Research.

He estimates that new warehouse buildings dropped by as much as 35% in 2023 compared to 2022 because of economic headwinds and demand shifts, with the reduction expected to continue into the first half of 2024.

However, he believes that as construction picks up later this year, incorporating automation into new builds will be top of mind for organisations.

“While automation is of key interest, companies should continue to invest heavily in augmenting their manual workers with digital devices and wearables to boost worker experience while introducing automation for basic movement tasks. The most efficient warehouses are those that focus on both areas,” concludes Wiggin.

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Generative AI emerges as a game-changer for organisational advancement, weaving a seamless tapestry across three key fronts: intelligent document processing (IDP), generative automation, and knowledge sharing.

• Smarter Document Handling: By 2026, businesses that link GenAI to smart document handling will discover 20% more ways to use it, boosting productivity, scalability, and delivering better customer experiences.

• Generative Automation: Business teams using code generation copilots will achieve 70% success rate in streamlining jobs with task/workflow automation, replacing low-code and IT-supported development by 2024.

• Efficient Knowledge Sharing: In 2025, GenAI tools will enable senior leaders to double the productive use of unstructured data by discovering untapped insights and knowledge, driving 20% growth in sustainable business benefits.

Expanding its influence

As GenAI takes centre stage, its adaptive capabilities are set to streamline processes, automate tasks, and redefine the skillsets required for various roles. While this evolution brings forth unprecedented opportunities for upskilling and reskilling, it also underscores the imperative for organisations to adapt to this paradigm shift, ensuring the alignment of talent with the dynamic demands of the future workplace.

This prediction not only foretells a redefined professional landscape but also emphasizes the pivotal role of GenAI in driving organisational agility and competitiveness. In this dynamic environment, the significance of skill development cannot be overstated, as it becomes the essence of staying competitive and relevant.

GenAI is not just a technological advancement but a catalyst for change in the skill landscape. The imperative for skill development is no longer a choice but a necessity in a landscape where GenAI is reshaping how we work.

• Job evolution: By 2027, 40% of current job roles will be redefined or eliminated across A2000 organisations accelerated by GenAI adoption.

• Tailored skills boost: Enterprises will leverage personalized technology skills development to drive $1 trillion in productivity gains by 2027, enabled by GenAI and automation everywhere.

• Tech skill support: By 2027, 80% of A1000 organisations will mitigate technical skills shortages using digital adoption platforms.

• AR/VR engineering and training: By 2028, half of large businesses will use prompt engineering to prototype AR/VR simulations, reducing development time from weeks to hours and creating precision training.

Simultaneously, digital twins and sustainable office design are capturing attention, reflecting a growing focus on environmental consciousness in the region. Organisations are recalibrating priorities to balance technological innovation with a commitment to sustainability, showcasing a harmonious approach where cutting-edge technology aligns with ecological stewardship in APEJ's business narrative.

• Digital twin maturity: By 2028, digital twin technologies will enhance virtual and physical office user experiences, driving a 30%+ improvement in retention of workers in A1000 companies.

• Green offices: By 2028, half of the biggest companies are set to invest in what we call "Climate Heavens" for their offices. This means using things like assets and renewable energy to cover 30% of their ongoing operating costs, making workplaces more eco-friendly.

"As the benefits and applicable use cases of GenAI unfold, organisations are exploring the outcomes that GenAI can potentially bring to business operations and innovation. The focus on skill development becomes a necessity and a strategic imperative, as GenAI enables personalized development. Simultaneously, the reimagination of workplaces, with digital twins and sustainability stand out as key foci for companies," says Dr Lily Phan, research director for Future of Work at IDC Asia/Pacific.

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For organisations to reap the benefits of automation via AI/ML workflows and capabilities, there is an entrenched need to modernise and renew their legacy software applications with new intelligent ones.

These intelligent AI and GenAI infused applications will pave the way for enhanced user interface thus user experience; and boost data-driven insights, timely decisions, and better business outcomes.

IDC predicts that AI will create an organisational cultural shift and new technology frames will augment 50% of APEJ workforce by mid-2025, slowly reshaping the enterprise toward more technology usage, and enhancing performance.

IDC expects this transformation to reshape organisations towards higher technology usage with greater human-machine collaboration, which will generate demand for strategic and value-added roles which are not able to be fulfilled by AI and GenAI.

IDC predicts a substantial surge in technology buyers' investments in AI and GenAI-driven enterprise software applications to transform their business operations.

Top AI-driven predictions for APEJ for the next five years

• Human-like interfaces fast-track decision velocity. By end-2025, 30% of APEJ organisations will take advantage of humanlike interfaces in their enterprise applications to gain more insights quickly, improving decision velocity.

• Self-healing enterprise applications. By 2025, 15% of A2000 will gravitate to autonomous tech with self-healing code to improve processes; 30% will evolve for seamless integration in 2026, and 50% will evolve to self-healing apps by 2027.

• Enterprises applications modernisation. By early 2025, 60% of APEJ organisations still on legacy systems will need to modernise their applications immediately to survive and adapt to the digital world already surpassing them.

• Human-machine collaboration. GenAI/AI will close 15% of enterprise talent shortage gaps by 2025, but the practice and usage of GenAI/AI will create a surplus of talent across all lines of business by 2027.

• The time gap to decision-making narrows. By late 2024, 40% of the A2000 will focus on technology and the process time between the event that occurs and the point of decision-making to gain a competitive advantage.

Estelle Quek, senior research manager for software applications and channels strategies at IDC Asia/Pacific, says to expect a multi-phased adoption of intelligent enterprise applications by APEJ organisations between 2024 to 2028.

She opined that from 2024 to 2025, Asia's top 2,000 organisations will focus on changing internal perception and receptivity towards human-machine collaboration.

“By 2026, they will progress to integrate data and enterprise applications seamlessly and evolve to run as autonomous organisations by 2028. IDC outlines the deliberate strategies for tech buyer organisations to navigate this era of AI everywhere in this research," she concluded.

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Nozomi Networks and NetWitness are partnering to deliver what they claim is unified security and visibility across OT and IT solutions. Integrating operational technology (OT) data greatly improves the effectiveness of the security operations centre (SOC).

“A key differentiator for NetWitness is its radical visibility into an organisation’s data, no matter what type – logs, network, or endpoints -- or where it resides – on-premises, in the cloud, or hybrid,” said

From a security perspective, Tod Ewasko, chief product officer for NetWitness, says integrating critical OT and IoT data into the threat detection, investigation, and response functions increases the effectiveness of the SOC and protects an increasingly important avenue for attacks.

The post Advancing OT security with smart IoT appeared first on FutureIoT.

IDC’s 2023 Future Enterprise Resiliency and Spending (FERS) Survey, Wave 6, highlights that almost half (43%) of organisations surveyed are currently exploring potential GenAI use cases, with 55% of financial organisations and telecom firms investing in GenAI technology in 2023.

"Generative AI can increase the overall productivity of ITOps teams by streamlining ITOps workflows, lowering operational expenses, and increasing system dependability. However, GenAI systems must be properly implemented to ensure that they correspond with enterprise goals and that adequate guardrails are in place to manage unanticipated events," says Dhiraj Badgujar, senior research manager for digital innovation practice and xOps program, IDC Asia/Pacific.

With the digital-first mindset gaining momentum in Asia/Pacific, businesses are seeking innovative solutions to enhance operations. GenAI stands out as a pivotal technology, offering companies the means to mitigate risks, boost efficiency, and improve overall productivity.

Generative AI is gaining popularity in IT operations and IT service management, particularly in cost-sensitive Asia/Pacific environments. This technology offers automation of ITOps tasks, reducing operational costs and optimizing resources.

The region, which includes mature economies like Australia, Japan, and Singapore, and rapidly growing markets like India and China, has diverse IT requirements and issues. In growing economies, generative AI plays a vital role in facilitating scalable ITOps.

ITOps trends influenced by GenAI

Rise of AIOps: AIOps solutions are becoming more popular in Asia/Pacific. ML and AI algorithms are being used by enterprises across the region to automate IT processes, monitor performance, and forecast and avoid IT disasters.

Predictive analytics: AI-driven predictive analytics in ITOps helps enterprises anticipate IT issues and prevent disruptions.

Hybrid cloud and multi-cloud management: As enterprises in the region embrace hybrid cloud and multi-cloud settings, GenAI will be used to manage these complex infrastructures.

Continuous improvement: GenAI models will evolve in complexity and quality, likely integrating with IoT and edge computing to enhance data collection and analysis.

The post GenAI expands impact on operations appeared first on FutureIoT.

“I&O leaders have little time, skills and budget to track emerging trends and the full impact of those on I&O,” said Jeffrey Hewitt, vice president analyst at Gartner. “I&O leaders should use the top trends impacting I&O for 2024 to identify which are most likely to impact their organisation and implement effective tactics to respond.”

Top trends impacting I&O in 2024

Trend No. 1: Machine customers

Machine customers are nonhuman economic actors that obtain goods or services in exchange for payment, such as virtual personal assistants, smart appliances and connected cars. Gartner expects the number of machine customers to rise over time and that by 2027, 50% of people in advanced economies will have AI personal assistants working for them every day.

Hewitt posits that there are strong upsides to machine customers that are driving interest and adoption in them, however, they come with challenges such as requiring a reworking of operating and business models.

“I&O leaders should identify appropriate machine customer use cases, the technology processes and skills required, and build capabilities around digital commerce and generative AI to align optimally,” he continued.

Trend No. 2: AI trust, risk and security management (AI TRiSM)

AI TRiSM supports AI model governance, trustworthiness, fairness, reliability, robustness, efficacy and data protection. I&O must implement and support the new forms of risk and security management that AI require. Gartner predicts that by 2026, organisations that operationalize AI TRiSM will see their AI models achieve a 50% improvement in terms of adoption, business goals and user acceptance.

“AI TRiSM improves AI implementation efficiencies and helps prevent the financial, regulatory, societal and ethical consequences of potential issues with AI,” said Hewitt.

Trend No. 3: Augmented-connected workforce

Augmented-connected workforce is the intentional management, deployment, and customization of technology services and applications to support the workforce’s experience, well-being and ability to develop their skills. It accelerates onboarding and drives business results which has a positive impact on key stakeholders.

Hewitt opines that this is a relatively new way of thinking for I&O which requires new skills and workflow views. “It also requires collaboration outside of I&O and IT which takes specific focus, and sometimes executive involvement, outside of IT to achieve that engagement,” he added.

Trend No. 4: Continuous Threat Exposure Management (CTEM)

A CTEM program is an integrated, iterative approach to prioritising potential threats and continually refining security posture improvements. Technology growth requires a new approach to dealing with potential threats.

This expands the attack surface and broadens exposure beyond the average IT environment. CTEM is a new approach that prioritizes exposures rather than centring on fixing all vulnerabilities.

According to Hewitt, CTEM produces a shift from a preventative-only approach to more mature, strategy-augmenting-preventative controls with detection and response capabilities. He recommends organisations establish a CTEM team within I&O to cover on-premises infrastructure as well as cloud and edge vulnerabilities.

Trend No. 5: Democratized generative AI (GenAI)

GenAI enables the democratization of knowledge and skills by enabling the use of conversation and natural language. A Gartner poll of 1,400 executive leaders in September 2023 found that 55% of organisations are in piloting or production mode with GenAI.

GenAI products are democratizing due to the confluence of cloud and open source. GenAI for I&O has two main aspects – the use of GenAI within I&O and the impact of GenAI on I&O.

Hewitt says democratized GenAI offers a new working paradigm and can present agility, adaptability and composability improvements for I&O. “If it is overused or used unnecessarily, it can generate unacceptable costs and negative environmental impacts,” he added.

Trend No. 6: Nationalism versus globalism

Nationalism versus globalism consists of country-led initiatives to reduce dependencies on foreign products, talent and services. International conflicts create a focus on more nationalistic views that push a more domestic approach to technologies which will put pressure on I&O teams to seek solutions that keep more technologies, resources and talent in their own country.

“There are many initiatives in place today that impact the focus of IT resources from a more global view to a more nationalist approach. Shifts in these initiatives can produce new risks for countries that are currently using providers outside their country,” said Hewitt.

He suggests that I&O leaders should identify dependencies and their risks and lead in the creation of action plans to deal with the potential impactful shifts that may occur in national regulations and policies that affect I&O.

The post Gartner outlines the top trends impacting I&O for 2024 appeared first on FutureIoT.

Red Hat Device Edge aggregates an enterprise-ready and supported distribution of the Red Hat-led open source community project MicroShift (a lightweight Kubernetes project derived from the edge capabilities of Red Hat OpenShift) along with an edge-optimized operating system built from Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

With general availability, Red Hat Device Edge now also includes Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform for more consistent Day 1 and Day 2 management of hundreds to thousands of sites and devices.

As edge computing adoption grows across nearly every industry, Red Hat Device Edge offers customers and partners:

A minimal footprint that supports the deployment of workloads in small, resource-constrained devices in challenging environments by preserving system resources for workloads rather than using them for device operation itself;

One edge platform, two tailored deployment options based on specific edge needs. Red Hat Device Edge with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Podman is well-suited for very small deployments with static applications. Optionally, MicroShift can be added during or after deployment to bring Kubernetes for more dynamic environments that require advanced container orchestration and Kubernetes integration;

A more consistent operational experience at the edge using the same tools and processes used in centralized environments. Whether apps are deployed on Red Hat Device Edge for the smallest edge devices or Red Hat OpenShift for large systems in the datacentre and cloud - it’s all one environment;

Greater workload flexibility with support for deploying and managing bare-metal, virtual or containerized applications;

Simplified deployment at scale with automation, meaning it's easier to oversee hundreds or thousands of devices across heterogeneous hardware and software environments.

Red Hat is working with partners and customers including ABB, DSO National Laboratories, Dynatrace, Guise AI, Intel, Lockheed Martin and more to deploy, test and validate that Red Hat Device Edge can extend operational consistency across edge and hybrid cloud environments. Devices can be deployed in a remote desert, at sea or even in space, all while maintaining a consistent deployment and management experience, while using familiar processes and tools.

Delivering automation at the far edge

Effectively managing workloads at the edge increases the importance of consistent and reliable automation. The general availability of Red Hat Device Edge adds the power of Ansible Automation Platform to Red Hat Device Edge, adding the power of industry-leading IT automation.

What’s included?

• More predictability and repeatability in automating edge workloads;
• Standardized and repeatable connectivity configurations, policies and deployments to help maintain system health and integrity;
• Enhanced security and compliance posture at the edge with automated management and maintenance, including patches, updates and upgrades;
• Lowered barriers to entry for IT and OT (operational technology) teams, with automation tooling making it possible to manage edge workloads and devices with little to no IT specialty skills;
• The ability to configure and audit the devices and services needed like networking, Wi-Fi, DNS, SSL certificates and the applications running on the devices.

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“80% of organizations have begun, but have not yet finished, their IT/OT convergence journey. These findings matched polling from a 2023 Stratus and Frost & Sullivan webinar where 77% of live attendees reported that their organizations were only partially converged.” Sebastián Trolli, analyst, Frost and Sullivan

By leveraging reliable and scalable Edge Computing platforms, many organizations have found success addressing these complexities while converging IT and OT operations, especially with the following:

• Managing and integrating vast amounts of data
• Improving cybersecurity measures
• Providing an IT landing zone in the OT environment
• Improving uptime and fault tolerance
• Enhancing manageability and serviceability

Click on the link to download the paper.

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The Gartner CEO Survey shows that business growth remains the CEO's highest priority. Simon Bailey, VP analyst at Gartner reveals the first trend as showing leading chief supply chain officers playing their part by identifying where the supply chain can seize opportunities to support growth while mastering the risk that could undermine business performance.

Click on the video to watch Bailey elaborates on three points:

1. Identify and seize new opportunities for growth while mitigating risks

2. Transform how organisations work by reshaping skills, roles and relationships

3. Drive collective progress, leaving a lasting impact on industries and societies through ecosystem partnerships

“Leading supply chains drive customer retention through increased customer satisfaction and reduced customer effort,” said Bailey. “Those with a deep understanding of their customer needs also unlock new opportunities through customer enablement.”

By mastering risks through supply chain agility and resilience during times of disruption, they (supply chain) are also able to exploit emerging opportunities quicker than their competitors.”

The second trend sees leading supply chains transform how their organisations work by redefining the skills roles, relationships, and structures within them.

Bailey noted that to accelerate cultural transformation and enable innovation, the leaders are focusing on creating a new intersection between people and technology. “They enable employee autonomy and flexibility with enhanced employee value propositions and use digital tools to reduce fatigue whilst increasing productivity,” he added.

Gatner’s third trend is about driving collective progress. The analyst says leading chief supply chain officers (CSCOs) are delivering valued business outcomes like innovation, sustainability, and resilience through the power of ecosystem partnerships.

“By leading their supply chains to shift from independent networks to interconnected ecosystem, they're delivering in ways that no one company could do on its own,” said Bailey. “Take the learnings from our top 25 and master supply chains and use them as a resource to show you the way to solve problems and unlock opportunities in today's disrupted environment.”

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Schneider Electric will integrate Hailo Technologies’ advanced processors within Schneider Electric solutions. By integrating the Hailo-8 AI processor within its industrial automation solutions, Schneider Electric will unlock new intelligence at the edge and drive innovation for its customers, with significant and immediate improvements across several common manufacturing tasks.

Anticipated benefits because of the integration

• Pick and place: achieving object detection tasks six times faster than central processing units (CPUs)
• Quality control: running classification processes 20 times faster than a CPU
• Yield optimization: improving output and throughput, reducing waste by 15% on average

Hailo Technologies is leading the AI chip industry for edge devices, with

Hailo makes technology that enables new computing possibilities for sectors like automotive, security, retail, and manufacturing. Its Hailo-8 processor is an efficient and compact AI processor with low power consumption, enabling real-time, high-accuracy data analysis at the edge.

“We are always looking to partner with companies that can help us deliver the most cutting-edge solution available on the market,” said Aurelien LeSant, senior vice president of innovation & technology and chief technology officer for industrial automation at Schneider Electric.

He explained that the Hailo collaboration reinforces our commitment to innovation and next-generation technology. It signifies an important step in delivering intelligent, energy-efficient solutions that will shape the future of industries.

“We are proud to work with Schneider Electric, an industry pioneer that has recognized the transformative potential of integrating AI capabilities into its industrial automation solutions,” said Eyal Barnea, VP of business development at Hailo Technologies. “Our technology will empower its customers to create new powerful, cost-efficient, and smart AI-based solutions quickly and easily.”

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A Gartner survey of 164 supply chain professionals in June 2023 revealed that 28% of supply chains expected no gain or loss in revenue, while 63% of respondents expected a loss of revenue due to exposure to uncertainty (see Figure 1).

“An antifragile supply chain starts with the Chief Supply Chain Officer’s mindset,” said Tim Payne, vice president analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain Practice.

“Rather than trying to keep uncertainty out of the supply chain, antifragile supply chains embrace uncertainty with the objective of learning, evolving and adapting their capabilities based on their improved knowledge of it.”

Tim Payne

Gartner’s analysis identified a select group of antifragile capabilities for Chief Supply Chain Officers (CSCOs) to deploy that are 2.1 to 4.9 times more likely to gain revenue for their organisations when confronted with uncertainty.

Figure 1: Supply chain professionals’ estimated impact of uncertainty exposure on revenue

Payne opines that the inability to cope with uncertainty is driven by a misallocation of initiatives to the wrong strategy. He noted that in the survey nearly half of respondents said that more than 50% of their supply chains’ key capabilities are set up to attempt to keep uncertainty outside the supply chain. “This overinvestment in a barrier to keep uncertainty out stifles the ability to learn from it, keeping most supply chains today in a fragile state,” he added.

Antifragile capabilities to cope with uncertainty 

CSCOs must assess their current ability to cope with uncertainty so that appropriate strategies can be applied to evolve towards the antifragile supply chain state. Gartner’s research shows that supply chains can be in either a fragile, resilient or antifragile state. While resilient supply chains may not lose during periods of uncertainty, the focus remains on keeping most uncertainty out, reducing the ability of organisations to learn from it often leading to “resiliency fatigue.”

“An antifragile mindset changes how CSCOs approach and shape their capabilities, including in areas such as integrated planning, ROI calculations, supply chain redundancy and assessing uncertainty,” said Payne. “Our research shows that a select group of antifragile capabilities are especially effective in moving a supply chain into the antifragile state.” 

Gartner’s analysis of the survey data revealed the top six antifragile capabilities that are highly significant in driving a supply chain towards gains during uncertainty. These antifragile capabilities lead to a significantly greater likelihood of positive revenue gains when exposed to uncertainty, compared with the fragile or resilient versions of these capabilities.

Most impactful antifragile supply chain capabilities

Decision processes and collaboration: Enabling dynamic decision processes during uncertainty (4.9x more likely to have a positive revenue impact).

Calculating ROI for supply chain investments: Assessing the value of investing at different times due to uncertainty (4.5x).

Managing the assessment of uncertainty: Performing a high degree of experimentation on the supply chain to stress test it (3.7x).

Supply chain redundancy: Viewing redundancy (e.g., inventory, capacity, multiple suppliers) as an investment opportunity (3.6x).

Supply chain planning: A focus on end-to-end (E2E) planning policies (probabilities, options, thresholds) in the midterm and accurate functional short-term planning (2.5x).

Monitoring, adjustments and responsiveness: Monitoring at “arm’s length” to intervene only if policies are breached and empower local stakeholders to adjust within policies (2.1x).

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Market potential remains strong as the user penetration in the meal delivery market will only reach 16.7% in 2023. In 2021, foodpanda led the online meal delivery market in the Philippines with a market share by revenue of 58%.

Since 2007, foodpanda has partnered with PLDT Enterprise to enable its business. More recently foodpanda upped its technology investment with the adoption of IoT solutions from PLDT.

The IoT SIMs provide devices with reliable connectivity. These allow businesses to transmit data and communicate with other devices, making them an essential component in building and deploying IoT applications and solutions.

IoT SIMs are also more secure and flexible, making them a perfect digital tool for today’s evolution in delivery and logistics businesses.

Significance of IoT SIMs

IoT SIMs enable foodpanda to optimise operations and access real-time data gathering.

This level of data localisation and connectivity enhances the food delivery company services in ways that result in improved efficiencies and a better overall experience for both merchants and customers.

According to Robert Jay Sumulong, Smart IoT category head at PLDT Enterprise, IoT enables businesses to manage multiple devices seamlessly in an integrated platform. “With full control over connectivity, companies can drive operational efficiency and unlock their true potential,” opined Sumulong.

Partnership to power innovation

According to Luis Antonio Yanga, commercial director at foodpanda Philippines, the company’s partnership with PLDT Enterprise reflects the organisation’s commitment to delivering top-notch services and tailored solutions for our partner vendors.

“With IoT solutions, we are at the forefront of innovation, enabling our restaurant and merchant partners to optimise their business operations while providing a seamless experience for our customers,” he continued.

PLDT global president and CEO and PLDT enterprise revenue group head, Albert Villa-Real, emphasised the strategic role of IoT in driving business transformation and improving customer operations, saying, “PLDT Enterprise understands how innovation is essential for success in today's dynamic market. Our collaboration with foodpanda showcases the power of technology to reshape industries, and IoT is a key enabler of this transformation,” he elaborated.

More sustainable food delivery industry

Reflecting on its partnership with PLDT Enterprise, Leopoldo De Castro Jr, foodpanda Philippines' Finance Director, says: “Our partnership with PLDT Enterprise and the adoption of cutting-edge solutions like IoT position us at the forefront of digital transformation. Together, we are poised to revolutionise the delivery business sector and create a sustainable future for our customers and stakeholders.”

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ABI Research forecasts a steady increase in uptake for cloud-driven digital twin solutions, driven by advancements in AI/ ML, edge computing, multi and hybrid cloud deployments, 5G networks, and smart connectivity.

“We are seeing the emergence of cloud computing in operational technology (OT). The deployment and integration of cloud solutions with OT solutions in areas such as asset performance monitoring and product lifecycle management provide compelling benefits such as performance reliability, increase in computational power, and seamless AI/ ML processing,” explains Yih-Khai Wong, distributed and edge computing senior analyst at ABI Research.

Cloud hyperscalers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud provide tools and packaged solutions to build digital twin solutions. Customers can also leverage contextual data from public datasets and funnel this information to optimize their digital twin platforms.

Benefits of cloud-driven digital twin solutions

Scalability: Provides flexibility for businesses to scale up or down according to current business needs, ensuring optimal performance of the digital twin solution.

Computational Power: Complex simulations can be processed on the cloud using solutions such as Virtual Machines (VMs) and containers. The availability of various cloud computational components ensures that businesses can match resources according to specific digital twin platforms.

AI/ML Processing: Cloud computing platforms often provide data analytics tools to help process AI/ML workloads. These tools range from the infrastructure compute power components such as the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to industry-specific application software that can analyse, predict, and make recommendations based on data processed by a digital twin.

“The convergence of IT and OT is gathering pace, and digital twin is a great example of how this convergence can elevate existing scenarios into achieving greater possibilities and ultimately increase the value, productivity, and competitive advantage of enterprises,” Wong concludes.

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Warehousing today, of course, is much more convenient with innovations around track and trace, robot automation, wearables and warehouse management systems (WMS) coming together under hybrid, multi-cloud to facilitate improved optimisation of assets.

The Zebra Technologies paper, Warehousing Vision Study 2023, reports that warehouse leaders are investing in technology and intelligent automation to increase inventory visibility and resiliency.

State of warehousing in ASEAN

Vivien Tay, vertical solutions marketing lead with Zebra Technologies Asia Pacific, observes that while warehouses in the ASEAN market are growing, growth rates have slowed when compared to during the COVID-19 pandemic.

She recalls that during the pandemic when people stayed home, there was a sharp increase in online shopping. Businesses responded by stocking up on inventory and building more warehouses. Post-pandemic, fewer new warehouses are being built.

“The ASEAN market is very diverse. On one hand, we have the developed markets like Singapore, which are more advanced in their modernisation plans, compared to a less developed market like Vietnam, where most businesses we speak to have a general understanding of modernisation but are unclear of where and how to begin,” said Tay.

She cited the example of Alpro Pharmacy, a diversified community pharmacy chain in Malaysia, that saw the limits of pen and paper to manage inventory movements. Increased demand promoted the chain to deploy mobile computers and RFID. The modernisation increased the operational efficiency of order fulfilment in the e-commerce division by 80% and allowed them to meet the increase in orders without additional workers.

Challenges to modernising

The path to modernisation is not going to be easy. Tay noted that even in mature markets like Singapore, there remain industries that hold on to their legacy warehouse management systems. These do not integrate well with modern devices in the warehouse.

She opined that employees are the most important asset of a warehouse. “For many warehouses, associates have often been working for a long time and are used to manual operations, which may cause them to be averse towards adopting new technology on short notice,” she continued.

“The barriers to entry are often not as high as they’d think, as there are some devices in the warehouse that are specifically designed to be user-friendly, such as the Android devices which use the same operating system as many smartphones out there.”

Vivien Tay

She posits that adopting a phased approach is the key to implementing modernisation plans smoothly. “Warehouses that want to kickstart the digitalisation process can start with basic scanners before moving on to sensor-based technologies like RFID,” she suggested.

Automation and robotics in ASEAN

Mordor Intelligence estimates the warehouse robotics market at US$6.74 billion in 2023 and forecasts this to more than double to US$15.22 billion by 2028.

The analyst cites the emergence of industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the advent of a network of connected systems as helping industries perform a multitude of tasks, such as material batching, picking, ordering, packaging, warehouse security, and inspection, as well as improve the operational efficiency by huge margins.

Tay says for operators who have not begun their automation journey, the main challenge they might face is the integration of hardware devices and software solutions.

She opined that empowering employees is also a key aspect to consider. She adds that once operators receive the buy-in of their associates and begin upskilling them with smart devices, associates can move on to engage in higher-value tasks in the warehouse.

“The other challenge I foresee is related to the e-commerce boom. While the e-commerce boom is slowing down due to growing competition in the space, many businesses are struggling with returns management. Efficient handling of returns management is key to managing evolving consumer demands,” she continues.

In terms of robotics, she comments that while markets like China are ahead of the curve and deploying robots beyond the warehouse, such as in consumer-facing roles in shopping malls and restaurants, it is not as prevalent in ASEAN yet.

“The main obstacle to the widespread adoption of robotics in ASEAN is typically the cost in investment and lack of knowledge in the implementation and integration with existing systems,” says Tay.

Sustainability and warehouse modernisation

According to Tay, sustainability has emerged as one of the top priorities for warehouse decision-makers in the upcoming years, led by recent government regulations and sustainability directives, such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and Net Zero by 2050 commitments.

Southeast Asia is beginning to catch up on sustainable warehouse operations, says Tay, deploying technologies like solar panels, efficient lighting, and connecting to energy monitoring software to maximise efficiency.

Warehousing in 2024 and beyond

A central theme of Zebra’s 2023 Warehousing Vision Study is supply chain agility and resilience. The study found that decision-makers are accelerating modernisation projects to meet evolving consumer demands and reduce operational challenges.

Tay explains that returns management is one of the top challenges that businesses face, especially for e-commerce. “Interestingly, research has shown that return rates for e-commerce sales are between 15 and 20%, more than twice the median return rate for all sales categories,” she comments. “Decision-makers recognise they are under pressure to improve performance in returns management, inventory management, and warehouse productivity and output while adjusting to shifting consumer e-commerce demands.”

According to Tay, the warehousing landscape will continue to expand over the next five years. A slowing e-commerce boom notwithstanding warehousing will continue to experience an upward trend.

She predicts that businesses will build more warehouses closer to the consumers, moving away from a large, centralised warehouse system to multiple smaller distribution centres. “Another trend we see in last-mile delivery is the availability of drop-off options for consumers,” she continued.

On the topic of automation, businesses are beginning to empower their employees with automation and technology. The study concurs with this – as it found that employees are happier when they are equipped with technology.

RFID will continue to be a key technology in the warehouse, helping to increase inventory visibility and reduce out-of-stocks. Robots will also increasingly have a larger role to play in the warehouse alongside humans, taking over simple tasks in the picking process to free up associate’s time to move up the value chain.

The post Modernising warehousing in 2024 appeared first on FutureIoT.

Adding to the observation, Gartner distinguished VP analyst and chief of research Chris Howard says CIOs and other executives must evaluate the impacts and benefits of strategic technology trends, but this is no small task given the increasing rate of technological innovation.

“For example, generative and other types of AI offer new opportunities and drive several trends. But deriving business value from the durable use of AI requires a disciplined approach to widespread adoption along with attention to the risks.” Chris Howard

The top strategic technology trends for 2024 are:

Democratised Generative AI

Generative AI (GenAI) is becoming democratised by the confluence of massively pretrained models, cloud computing and open source, making these models accessible to workers worldwide. By 2026, Gartner predicts that over 80% of enterprises will have used GenAI APIs and models and/or deployed GenAI-enabled applications in production environments, up from less than 5% in early 2023.

GenAI applications can make vast sources of information — internal and external — accessible and available to business users. This means the rapid adoption of GenAI will significantly democratise knowledge and skills in the enterprise. Large language models enable enterprises to connect their workers with knowledge in a conversational style with rich semantic understanding.

AI Trust, Risk and Security Management

The democratisation of access to AI has made the need for AI Trust, Risk and Security Management (TRiSM) even more urgent and clear. Without guardrails, AI models can rapidly generate compounding negative effects that spin out of control, overshadowing any positive performance and societal gains that AI enables. AI TRiSM provides tooling for ModelOps, proactive data protection, AI-specific security, model monitoring (including monitoring for data drift, model drift, and/or unintended outcomes) and risk controls for inputs and outputs to third-party models and applications.

Gartner predicts that by 2026, enterprises that apply AI TRiSM controls will increase the accuracy of their decision-making by eliminating up to 80% of faulty and illegitimate information.

AI-augmented development

AI-augmented development is the use of AI technologies, such as GenAI and machine learning, to aid software engineers in designing, coding and testing applications. AI-assisted software engineering improves developer productivity and enables development teams to address the increasing demand for software to run the business.

These AI-infused development tools allow software engineers to spend less time writing code, so they can spend more time on more strategic activities such as the design and composition of compelling business applications.

Intelligent applications

Intelligent applications include intelligence — which Gartner defines as learned adaptation to respond appropriately and autonomously — as a capability. This intelligence can be utilised in many use cases to better augment or automate work.

As a foundational capability, intelligence in applications comprises various AI-based services, such as machine learning, vector stores and connected data. Consequently, intelligent applications deliver experiences that dynamically adapt to the user.

A clear need and demand for intelligent applications exist. In the 2023 Gartner CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey, 26% cited the talent shortage as the most damaging risk for their organisation. Attracting and retaining talent is CEOs’ top workforce priority, while AI was named the technology that will most significantly impact their industries over the next three years.

Augmented-connected workforce

The augmented-connected workforce (ACWF) is a strategy for optimising the value derived from human workers. The need to accelerate and scale talent is driving the ACWF trend. The ACWF uses intelligent applications and workforce analytics to provide everyday context and guidance to support the workforce’s experience, well-being, and ability to develop its skills. At the same time, the ACWF drives business results and positive impact on key stakeholders.

Through 2027, 25% of CIOs will use augmented-connected workforce initiatives to reduce time to competency by 50% for key roles.

Continuous threat exposure management

Continuous threat exposure management (CTEM) is a pragmatic and systemic approach that allows organisations to evaluate the accessibility, exposure and exploitability of an enterprise’s digital and physical assets continually and consistently.

Aligning CTEM assessment and remediation scopes with threat vectors or business projects, rather than an infrastructure component, surfaces not only the vulnerabilities but also unpatchable threats.

By 2026, Gartner predicts that organisations prioritising their security investments based on a CTEM program will realise a two-thirds reduction in breaches.

Machine customers

Machine customers (also called 'custobots') are nonhuman economic actors that can autonomously negotiate and purchase goods and services in exchange for payment. By 2028, 15 billion connected products will exist with the potential to behave as customers, with billions more to follow in the coming years.

This growth trend will be the source of trillions of dollars in revenues by 2030 and eventually become more significant than the arrival of digital commerce. Strategic considerations should include opportunities to either facilitate these algorithms and devices or even create new custobots.

Sustainable Technology

Sustainable technology is a framework of digital solutions used to enable environmental, social and governance (ESG) outcomes that support long-term ecological balance and human rights. The use of technologies such as AI, cryptocurrency, the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing is driving concern about the related energy consumption and environmental impacts.

This makes it more critical to ensure that the use of IT becomes more efficient, circular and sustainable. Gartner predicts that by 2027, 25% of CIOs will see their compensation linked to their sustainable technology impact.

Platform Engineering

Platform engineering is the discipline of building and operating self-service internal development platforms. Each platform is a layer, created and maintained by a dedicated product team, designed to support the needs of its users by interfacing with tools and processes. The goal of platform engineering is to optimise productivity, and the user experience and accelerate delivery of business value.

Industry Cloud Platforms

By 2027, Gartner predicts more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms (ICPs) to accelerate their business initiatives, up from less than 15% in 2023.

ICPs address industry-relevant business outcomes by combining underlying SaaS, PaaS and IaaS services into a whole product offering with composable capabilities.

These typically include an industry data fabric, a library of packaged business capabilities, composition tools and other platform innovations. ICPs are tailored to cloud proposals specific to an industry and can further be tailored to an organisation’s needs.

The post Gartner reveals its top 10 strategic technology trends for 2024 appeared first on FutureIoT.

“Though metaverse is undeniably overhyped and steeped in vagueness, the urban context offers interesting value-generating use cases and applications, ranging from seamless interaction of citizens with eGovernment services, virtual tourism, smart infrastructure design, planning and development, and urban workforce enablement and enhancement. ,” explains Dominique Bonte, vice president, verticals & end markets at ABI Research. “This is especially important in complex urban environments which are challenging to design, maintain, explore, and engage with.”

Benefits for city governments include gaining political capital through enhanced citizen engagement and participation and significant cost savings related to smarter and more effective urban infrastructure design, operations, and maintenance. The urban metaverse will also play a critical role in making cities net zero and circular.

Early urban metaverse case studies and examples include:

Metaverse Seoul – Government services (tax assistance); 3D environments; User-based avatars; Virtual multi-office communication tools; Urban gaming; Virtual tour programs

Tampere Metaverse Vision 2040 – Urban development and planning; Workforce management; Citizen wellbeing, equality, education, and healthcare; Climate actions and sustainability; Urban governance; Virtual City Exploration

Rome Advanced District (ROAD) project – Development of new energy supply chains; energy district modeling (Eni, Acea, Autostrade per l’Italia, Bridgestone, Cisco, Gruppo FS, NextChem)

Maxar Technologies (SYNTH3D) – Digital twin enabling seamless simulation, visualization, and AR/VR experiences of hyper-realistic satellite imagery-based 3D environments for smart cities 

Urban metaverse technologies are centred around generating immersive 3D experiences combining digital twins, AR/VR/XR, avatars, AI, cloud, compute, and mobile devices.

The urban metaverse ecosystem will be heavily dominated by urban digital/virtual twin providers such as Dassault Systèmes, Siradel (Engie), Greehill, and Autodesk in combination with mainstream XR hardware and software metaverse vendors, including NVIDIA, Google, Microsoft (HoloLens 2), Magic Leap (Magic Leap 2), HTC (XR Elite), Apple (Vision Pro), and Meta (Quest 3).

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This growth may be attributed to multiple factors, such as the increasing focus on addressing the digital divide in SE Asia, the rise of 5G activities in the region, and additional service revenue streams for Communication Service Providers (CSPs). By the end of 2028, the service revenue market for FWA is estimated to be valued at US$2.23 billion.

“Fixed Wireless Access is an ideal technology to bridge the digital gap in the South-East Asian region. Serving as a holistic solution to connect the underserved populations, FWA stands out due to its rapid deployment, cost-effectiveness, and coverage adaptability by leveraging wireless technologies like 4G and 5G to provide internet access to the underserved and unserved,” says Sarah Yong, South-East Asia digital transformation research analyst at ABI Research.

The rising necessity of digital connectivity in South-East Asia accelerates the demand for broadband connectivity across the region. With countries within SE Asia such as Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia having low Fixed Broadband (FBB) penetration rates of below 50%, FWA has emerged as the preferred solution.

In addition, the geographical challenges of archipelagic countries make it difficult to deploy fibre consistently across the islands. Thus, countries such as Indonesia have witnessed a growing interest in FWA services. Aside from this, CSPs such as Telkomsel and Globe Telecom have launched 5G FWA as the next generation of FWA connectivity.

5G FWA boasts fibre-like connectivity speeds and can offer ultra-high throughput and ultra-low latency for broadband. In contrast, countries such as Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam have widespread fibre availability, and therefore, there is less demand for FWA services.

Jake Saunders, VP for Asia Pacific, notes, “The next stage of 5G FWA in South-East Asia is using extended range mmWave. Trials between Qualcomm and Ericsson with Telkomsel in Indonesia will be key to closing the digital divide in the region.” He posits that given the mix of urban centres and hard-to-reach rural areas, extending higher-performing connectivity to those in unserved areas will be vital. “However, it is important to consider other factors such as spectrum availability, regulatory environments, and collaborations between the private and public sector when implementing FWA initiatives,” he concluded.

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The Nokia 20203 Threat Intelligence Report claims that 60% of attacks against telecom mobile networks are linked to IoT bots scanning for vulnerable hosts for use in distributed denial of service attacks.

Impact of unmonitored technology on security

Many say the weakest link is humans. I'd argue that the IoT devices that have been quietly sitting in the business perimeter present just as big a clear and present danger to consumers and enterprises. This has been repeatedly highlighted in cyberattacks against critical infrastructure.

Steven Scheurmann, regional vice president for ASEAN at Palo Alto Networks, says the escalation of cyberattacks on IoT and OT devices is a significant concern in ASEAN, with 60% of organisations acknowledging increased security risks associated with IoT. He pointed out that Unit 42's IoT Threat Report highlights that 57% of IoT devices are susceptible to medium to high-severity attacks.

He opined that the primary reason behind this trend is the expansion of the attack surface, as hackers exploit unsecured IoT and OT devices newly connected to networks.

“These devices often lack security updates and configurations, making them easy targets. Also, they may store sensitive personal data, making them attractive to hackers, particularly in sectors like healthcare. This evolving threat landscape is deeply concerning.”

Steven Scheurmann

The sum of the parts is better

It is widely known that IT teams and those with operational technology oversight have not, traditionally, seen the need to work together. However, recent attacks against critical infrastructure and supply chains suggest that threat actors are looking at multiple channels to penetrate an organisation.

“Across ASEAN and globally, organisations possess a multitude of diverse devices, including traditional endpoints like PCs and smartphones, cloud-based applications, and a mix of on-premises and hybrid cloud systems,” said Scheurmann. “In recent years, this fragmentation has become prevalent, resulting in varied configurations, standards, and compliance measures. This lack of uniformity creates vulnerabilities that attackers exploit.”

He suggested that by integrating IoT and OT under the shared responsibility of IT and security departments, enterprises can establish consistency, standardisation, and compliance, making it more challenging for hackers to breach systems.

“While this transition is positive, there is a learning curve involved, and our role is to educate the market on achieving this level of standardisation,” continued Scheurmann.

Factors driving a convergence of oversight

A report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the USA noted that hackers targeted government, military, and civilian networks across the Asia Pacific leveraging malware to obtain confidential information. The malware targeted both the data on victim machines as well as audio captured by infected machines’ microphones.

Scheurmann says securing critical infrastructure, like airports and telecommunications, at the national level is paramount to safeguard citizens in countries like the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand.

He pointed out that protecting these vital assets is essential to prevent catastrophic disruptions and ensure public safety.

“The supply chain is another critical aspect, with many organisations reliant on interconnected third-party systems. Disrupting the supply chain can affect the delivery of goods and services, impacting everyone,” he added.

He explained that legacy systems pose unique challenges; identifying and managing them is a fundamental step in cybersecurity. “Without visibility, it's impossible to secure these systems effectively. Addressing these issues is complex but essential for comprehensive security,” he elaborated.

Protecting an expanding attack surface

The pandemic has accelerated organisations’ use of connectivity solutions. As enterprises start to connect IoT devices, sensors and instrumentations into the corporate network to acquire real-time visibility of assets or processes may have had the unintended consequence of exposing an organisation to threats previously not thought of by both security and IT teams.

“5G technology presents an incredible opportunity for organisations to scale services dramatically, impacting various sectors such as manufacturing and healthcare. It enables real-time decision-making on production lines and allows doctors to provide remote guidance in critical medical situations,” said Scheurmann.

He pointed out that the challenge lies in the speed at which data is transferred and shared – a breach could result in data being disseminated and compromised within seconds.

“Moreover, the connectivity of critical infrastructure through 5G raises concerns about potential attacks disrupting vital services like transportation and financial markets,” he posited. Despite these risks, he opined, the focus should be on harnessing 5G's benefits through education, preparation, and expert support, ensuring responsible and transformative use.

Expanding the protection envelope

Asked what steps should organisations then take to mitigate cybersecurity risk related to operational technology and IoT? And, more importantly, who should get involved?

Scheurmann believes that bringing OT and IoT devices into the realm of security and business units offers an opportunity to establish standards, governance, and policies. He added that this includes clear procedures, ongoing training and awareness, and a risk mitigation framework to anticipate and respond to incidents effectively.

He explained that visibility and tracking become crucial as more devices connect, ensuring a swift response to potential attacks. Resilience plays a critical role, ensuring systems can recover swiftly in the event of an attack.

“Delays in system restoration can have a significant impact, such as prolonged ATM network outages affecting everyday transactions for millions of people, emphasising the importance of quick recovery in a robust governance framework,” warned Scheurmann.

Predictions and advice for 2024

Recognising that Asia will continue to experience a shortage in skills and expertise, particularly in the areas of cybersecurity, Scheurmann believes that automation is pivotal for IT departments. He explains that automation ensures consistency in compliance, policy enforcement, and standardisation, allowing IT teams to focus on higher-priority tasks.

“For IT leadership, rationalising and consolidating the security stack is essential, given the proliferation of disparate products in response to recent challenges like COVID-19. Streamlining security measures simplifies administration and enhances effectiveness.

“Beyond IT, cybersecurity discussions must become a central boardroom topic, with every organisation recognizing the risk of potential cyberattacks. Leaders should prioritise cybersecurity strategy, investment, and integration into their overall business framework for successful digitisation,” concluded Scheurmann.

Click on the PodChat player to hear in detail Scheurmann’s take on how enterprises in Asia can mitigate OT and IoT cyber risks.

1. What is the impact of unmonitored and unsecured IoT devices on a system’s cybersecurity, and why is it one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges across ASEAN?
2. Why do the majority of ASEAN organisations (82%) see value in having a common team that looks after IT and OT infrastructure and systems? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?
3. What factors are driving organisations’ focus on securing IoT/OT in their future cybersecurity strategies?
4. What are the specific cybersecurity concerns related to 5G-connected IoT devices, and how do organisations plan to address them?
5. What steps should organisations take to mitigate cybersecurity risks related to OT? Who should get involved?
6. Coming into 2024, more devices and sensors will be added to the enterprises. What is your advice for operations, IT and leadership to improve the overall organisational security posture?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Mitigating OT and IoT cyber risks appeared first on FutureIoT.

While these pillars are developing asymmetrically from a metaverse perspective, changes to regulations, standardisation, technological advancements, and new business models will synergistically impact all these areas to keep the metaverse buildup moving forward. This progress is expected to push core (high metaverse engagement) metaverse user growth to 1 billion users by 2030.

ABI Research expects key inflexion points within the next three to four years as developments within the three pillars accelerate the pace of metaverse adoption. This is primarily within the consumer segment that developmentally lags the industrial market. In the consumer space, this growth is expected to push metaverse revenue close to US$50 billion by 2030.

Michael Inouye, principal analyst, metaverse markets and technologies at ABI Research, explains, “While we refer to the metaverse, we shouldn’t place too much value on this term – it is not a market in of itself, and it certainly didn’t start when Facebook changed its name.”

He suggests that the metaverse should be viewed as a useful way to codify ongoing market transitions and industry trends rather than positioning it as a new phenomenon – this is why we remain confident progress toward this future metaverse is still ongoing.

“Artificial Intelligence (AI) has taken the spotlight, but it’s not replacing metaverse it is a critical enabling technology and a catalyst toward this future,” he continued.

New XR devices like Apple’s Vision Pro highlight the potential for spatial computing, which creates a stronger bridge between pre-existing workflows and applications in more immersive environments. Updates to technologies like Wi-Fi (e.g., Wi-Fi 7) will improve wireless tethering between mobile devices and XR viewers – making these devices more accessible to a broader audience.

New business models tied to digital asset ownership will come out of gaming and social media markets (beyond what is happening in Web3), spurring content development akin to what was seen with streaming video.

All these key developments will impact the demands and needs of networks and computational resources, creating new opportunities across value chain players, from operators to hyperscalers, retailers/brands, and industrial companies.

Inouye concludes, “Look at the trends around privacy, shifting power and control to the consumer, industry 4.0, network convergence, live service gaming, etc., and you start to see the clear parallels and pathway toward a future metaverse – even if the future isn’t referred to the metaverse, a similar future is still very much in the cards.”

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The analysis reveals key insights about the OT cybersecurity threat landscape, outlines high-level security architecture for OT, critical infrastructure systems (CIS) and industrial control systems (ICS), and evaluates key requirements of security regulations and frameworks. 

OT environments experience the same kinds of threats as enterprise IT – including ransomware, account takeovers, APTs, and supply chains as vectors – while experiencing expanded OT-specific threats.

While traditional IT security tools may be adapted, developing robust security architectures for OT environments is inherently complex compared to their IT counterparts. Its unique nature, from equipment and software to communication protocols requires dedicated OT security solutions.

Key insights

OT threat landscape. Heightened geopolitical factors have intensified attacks on OT and ICS, posing significant consequences ranging from operational disruptions and service denial to financial repercussions and potential harm to human well-being.

Core cybersecurity regulations. The risks and consequences of cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure advanced regulations globally mandating secure architectures and technical controls. KRITIS and the follow-on IT Security Act 2.0 are related examples of such regulations, as well as the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

OT security architectures and key functionalities. There are eight areas of functionality that are central to effective OT security architectures. Cybersecurity architectures for OT must address asset discovery, access control, IT security tool integration, detection and response capabilities, and OT protocol-level threats.

As the analysis breaks down, within critical infrastructure interruptions and downtime are not an option. To address the increasing need for secure access in OT environments, Cyolo introduced Cyolo 4.3, which expands key capabilities with more layers of security and makes the product easier than ever to use for both administrators and end users in the industrial space.  

With Cyolo 4.3, industrial organisations will be able to extend their multi-factor authentication (MFA) across environments through integration with Duo Security to support their physical tokens as required.

Cyolo has implemented another layer of security for file transfer within the OT/ICS environment, through query anti-virus software to scan files before they are delivered to their destination. The company is also adapting for further usability, allowing teams to securely invite external users by generating a secure one-time password; and import groups from existing IdPs, using System for Cross-domain Identity Management (SCIM).

“Ensuring the security of critical infrastructure and industrial processes has become increasingly critical as organisations unite their IT and OT systems. This convergence has expanded the OT threat landscape and introduced significant cybersecurity challenges, as the once-isolated OT networks are now vulnerable to the same threats that have targeted IT networks for years” said Joe O'Donnell, vice president ICS/OT of Cyolo.

“With Cyolo 4.3, industrial entities can confidently navigate the complexities of the modern threat landscape and fortify their defences against evolving cyber threats,” he added.

The post Zero trust and remote access analysis for OT environments appeared first on FutureIoT.

While cellular connectivity by far remains the preferred option for global "low power wide area" (LPWAN) wireless connectivity, the diversity of real-world commercial applications often requires hybrid solutions that also encompass technologies such as Wi-Fi and LoRa.

The ability of communications products to readily adapt to multiple radio access technologies such as cellular, Wi-Fi, and LoRa is referred to as wireless harmonization.

IIoT vendor Blues announced a series of enhanced offerings based on its flagship product, Notecard. The expanded Notecard offerings include Notecard Cell+WiFi, Notecard WiFi, Notecard LoRa, and Notecard Chips Edition options that enable additional reliable and hybrid connectivity, positioning accuracy, and scalable development.

Jim Hassman, Blues' president and chief revenue officer, says multiple connectivity options are necessary to empower businesses to transform physical products into data-driven intelligent services.

The expanded Notecard offerings give Blues customers the flexibility to optimize their connection method for sending and receiving information between devices anywhere, at any time.

"Whether our customers are developing ten devices or vastly scaling operations, or have devices located in fixed, remote, or mobile locations, our expanded Notecard offerings are affordable, accessible, and customizable," said Hassman.

Blues' industry-first Notecard Cell+WiFi offering integrates cellular and Wi-Fi connectivity options into one device. Its dynamic fallback modes deliver a more resilient and reliable network, enhanced geolocation, and expanded coverage and provide the flexibility to combine or switch between connectivity options. Blues' Notecard LoRa provides enhanced wireless penetration, as well as an inexpensive way to deploy large fleets of devices.

All Notecards seamlessly integrate with Notehub, Blues' software service designed to securely route Notecard data to the customer's cloud application of choice. Additionally, Notecards are plug-compatible and field upgradeable, enabling even non-technical users to easily swap between connectivity options or 'generations' of radio access technologies, such as from 2G to 5G.

Blues is introducing three new Notecard options beyond its existing Notecard Cellular offering:

Notecard Cell+WiFi – The new Notecard Cell+WiFi incorporates both cellular and WiFi support out of the box. Customers can default to cellular and turn off Wi-Fi, vice versa, or enable both to ensure highly reliable connectivity despite location. The offering also provides expanded international and domestic coverage with enhanced carrier support.

Notecard WiFi – The new Notecard Wi-Fi addresses customer demand for a simple, low-cost way to connect localized clusters of indoor devices securely to the cloud.

Notecard LoRa – The new Notecard LoRa offering addresses customer demand for connecting potentially large clusters of outdoor devices to the cloud. Packaging low-power LoRaWAN technology in a novel form, the offering shares the same ease of use and just works provisioning as its Notecard counterparts.

The Notecard Cell+WiFi offering is available for purchase immediately. The Notecard WiFi and Notecard LoRa offerings are available for beta testing by interested customers and will be available for purchase later this year.

A challenge facing organisations when they scale to hundreds of thousands of devices is the need to reduce costs by whatever means possible. One approach to reducing costs is a process known as chip-down design.

Blues is introducing a new Notecard design option for customers who reach that level of scale:

Notecard WiFi and LoRa Chips Editions – Blues' new chip-down design option for Notecard allows customers to scale their solutions more economically without the need to compromise security or modify firmware designed for the system-on-a-module (SOM) Notecard versions.

These new, easy-to-implement Notecard offerings enable organisations of all sizes to create intelligent, data-driven devices in industries including manufacturing, clean energy, and healthcare.

"After years of connectivity struggles, we found Blues and adopted the Notecard/Notehub solution. The Blues cellular solution solved connectivity, security, and scalability issues," said True Manufacturing Company. "Now, with this announcement of the expanded family of Notecards, Blues has really listened to customers and delivered a solution that leads industry trends. This is the kind of innovative partnership that allows OEMs to succeed in the IoT space."

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Budget constraints, skills shortages and increasing complexity continue to drive the need for automated data centre operations. The Juniper Apstra automates and validates the design, deployment and operation of multi-vendor data centre networks. It also provides a single source of truth for predicting, analysing, and troubleshooting ongoing operations.

Value proposition includes:

Simple data collection and visualization. Using Apstra’s graph database, users can now easily customize intent-based analytics probes for telemetry and visibility into network operations, then easily explore and visualize the data using the new database query interface included in Apstra 4.2.0. The easy-to-use, no-code user interface enables new users to easily query and explore the database while allowing experienced users to write customized graph queries.

Complete network visibility with integrated flow data. Multivendor flow data through Apstra provides granular visibility for in-depth analysis and insights into the application traffic flows traversing the network without the complexity and cost of a separate monitoring system.

When paired with Apstra’s telemetry and analytics features, these capabilities simplify and speed troubleshooting, enable better performance management, capacity planning and cost control, and improve security and compliance - regardless of vendor.

Automated and streamlined network provisioning with Terraform. Companies currently using the Terraform infrastructure-as-code (IaC) platform to automate their public cloud deployments can now use the Terraform provider for Apstra to automatically push configurations to the data centre through Apstra without any API programming.

By simplifying network operations, Terraform and Apstra accelerate the delivery of new services, giving organisations a data centre solution modelled after the simplicity and agility of the cloud.

The combination of Apstra’s intent-based networking capabilities and Juniper Validated Designs enables organisations to simplify and standardise data centre architectures to achieve hyperscaler-like efficiencies.

“As business demands intensify, organisations need accessible and intuitive solutions that enable IT professionals to manage data centres with the utmost reliability by taking away the complexity,” said Mansour Karam, VP of product management at Juniper Networks.

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DPC is supporting the integration of sensors into Enturi’s portable and decentralised wind turbines. The turbines can then connect to DPC’s cloud platform to manage the secure communication and management of data.

Benefits of integration

• A customer application to control the turbines remotely and access live and historical data, a current challenge for the industry.
• Preventative maintenance via real-time data analysis.
• Data analysis to monitor and understand the impact of decisions on journeys to net zero.
• Transparency of data to, for example, open up data access for carbon accounting as part of companies’ decarbonization journeys.

Referring to the partnership as a perfect example of how a standardised approach to connectivity and trusted data is enhancing strategies across industries, Brian Bishop, CEO of DPC and OCF president commented that as the renewable energy industry innovates, both organisations and consumers must have complete confidence that their data is safe.

"By using the OCF framework, DPC is able to not only comply with UK green energy metering requirements but with ISO/IEC standards to ensure the secure communication of wind energy data."

Brian Bishop

In February 2023, Enturi was awarded £98,000 of Innovate UK funding to accelerate system development through advanced computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and rapid prototyping.

Alex Shakeshaft, CEO and Co-Founder of Enturi, says monitoring and reporting on decarbonization in a secure yet transparent way is a huge challenge for the renewable energy industry.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with DPC to ensure both organisations and individuals can easily monitor and report on their sustainability goals. Our vision is to diversify clean technologies to enable businesses and communities to access renewable energy solutions to make significant contributions towards net zero goals, energy security, and energy costs.”

Alex Shakeshaft

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The trend is driving the adoption of technologies to help track, allocate, and optimise assets in the yard. ABI Research forecasts that the installed base of artificial intelligence (AI) enabled cameras in the yard will reach 11.2 million globally by 2030, and the uptake of autonomous yard trucks will rise significantly at a global CAGR of 52.7% from 2022 to 2030.

Trending

“Yards surrounding warehouses, distribution centres, and manufacturing facilities are becoming the new stomping ground for established supply chain solution providers as they diversify into Yard Management Systems (YMS) and join a growing number of emerging companies focusing on automating yard trailer movements and live asset tracking.

In a bid to digitalise and update yard operations, instalments of yard systems, enabling tracking technologies, and autonomous tractors are expected to rise considerably in the short to medium term,” explains Ryan Wiggin, industry analyst at ABI Research.

Competitive landscape

Blue Yonder, Körber, and FourKites are adding YMSs to their extensive software portfolio, joining more focused yard solution vendors such as Kaleris and C3 Solutions.

To enable tracking and visibility of assets and workers in the yard, handheld devices and AI-enabled yard cameras will see increasing deployments in yards globally, growing at a CAGR of 13.0% and 14.8%, respectively, from 2022 to 2030.

Established providers Advantech, Honeywell, and Zebra will lead the rise in handheld devices, while Blue Yonder, Peripass, and Robovision are pioneering AI-enabled yard camera systems.

Outrider, Phantom Auto, EasyMile, and Fernride are some of the few companies doubling down on yard automation, with small-scale deployments paving the way for wider commercial uptake in the coming years.

Wiggins says advancements in AI are breaking down many of the limitations faced by technologies in outdoor environments.

"Advanced computing power helps to process data from camera feeds, identify trailers and equipment, and guide autonomous vehicles safely. Where certain technologies couldn’t operate before, AI has helped unlock new use cases and will continue to drive solution adoption within yards."

Ryan Wiggin

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However, many of these consumer IoT devices prioritise features and affordability, often sidelining essential cybersecurity provisions. This oversight makes them susceptible to digital threats, jeopardising user privacy and data. The 2016 Mirai botnet attack, which exploited IoT gadgets, underscores the looming dangers of poorly secured IoT systems.

Government intervention

Thankfully, governments globally are recognising these risks and acting on the security concerns raised, empowering consumers with the knowledge to make safer choices. The US has recently introduced the Cyber Trust Mark, a discretionary labelling system that promotes the understanding of a smart device's security provisions before a purchase is made.

This initiative mirrors others that have emerged prior, like the EU's Cyber Resilience Act. Closer to home, Australia has also implemented a similar cybersecurity label scheme for IoT devices. Notably, Singapore took the lead in the APAC region with their Cybersecurity Labelling Scheme (CLS) presented by the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA).

Given the collaborative efforts of businesses and governments worldwide to fortify IoT devices and develop universal IoT security benchmarks, we sit down with Kelvin Lim, director of security engineering, Asia Pacific, at Synopsys Software Integrity Group to understand more about how the CLS IoT labelling scheme has been doing in Singapore so far, and the lessons other organisations can take away in the space of security.

Given the rise of similar regulations in various regions, how has Singapore's Cybersecurity Labelling Scheme (CLS) fared locally?

Kelvin Lim: The CLS has garnered positive feedback from both industry experts and manufacturers. A mix of international, regional, and local IoT product manufacturers are getting their products assessed in Singapore. As of 14 August, this year, there are over 200 products endorsed under the CLS initiative.

"This track record speaks volumes, and the subsequent introduction of another scheme that has since been rolled out specifically for medical devices — the Cybersecurity Labelling Scheme for Medical Devices (CLS(MD)) — underlines Singapore's proactive approach to ensuring a digitally secure and advanced nation."

Kelvin Lim

The CLS initiative will bolster Singapore's cybersecurity standards, positioning it as a preferred hub for smart device production. From consumers, intuitive labels will help even those without technical expertise to navigate their decision process when purchasing IoT devices.

How has this influenced the medical device industry?

Kelvin Lim: More medical device manufacturers will adopt the standard as it gains recognition and traction in Singapore. By extending the CLS to medical devices, Singapore has emphasised the importance of cybersecurity in healthcare technologies.

This will compel medical device manufacturers to prioritise the security of their devices, ensuring the safety and privacy of patients.

How has the introduction of these labelling schemes impacted consumer preference?

Kelvin Lim: Today’s consumers are judicious. Increasingly so, they are invested in how their personal data is being used and stored, and how businesses are handling their private information. Consequently, consumers are more likely to buy a smart product sporting the CLS label.

It serves as a reassuring quality seal that the smart products they purchase and use have gone through stringent checks and are perceived as more secure, compared to one without.

However, those unfamiliar with CLS might gravitate towards renowned brands or manufacturers with a global footprint.

These renowned brands have built trust in consumers over many years, and are automatically associated with offering secure devices, regardless if they have the CLS certification or are on par with the security benchmark in Singapore.

Since its inception, how has the mutual recognition with Germany’s labelling scheme fared, and did it bring any value since it was finalised in October last year?

Kelvin Lim: The joint effort between Singapore and Germany epitomises the significance of global alliances in fortifying IoT security. This mutual acknowledgement has been warmly received by the industry and manufacturers. Beyond saving resources and avoiding repetitive tests, this accord also grants entry to new markets.

The path ahead for IoT

The horizon looks bright for IoT labelling. Such labels serve as badges of trust, assuring consumers of a device's compliance with rigorous cybersecurity norms. They also prompt manufacturers to prioritise cybersecurity in their product development process.

As the IoT landscape continues to evolve, it is imperative that consumers, manufacturers, and government work together to build a secure and resilient IoT ecosystem. By understanding the emerging risks in IoT security and implementing robust application protection measures, we can harness the full potential of IoT.

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Organisations are now aware that state-sponsored actors and cybercriminals are capable of exploiting security gaps in key infrastructure to cause serious harm and supply chain issues.

According to Frost & Sullivan, major corporations throughout the world want to increase their spending on OT security.

The growing need for OT security

Vinay Biradar, associate director at Frost & Sullivan, says OT systems become significantly more vulnerable to cyber threats as they integrate with IT infrastructure. Biradar points to market data which reveals that 90% of firms experienced at least one OT system intrusion incident in the previous calendar year.

He opines that worries are worsened by the expansion of zero-day threat vectors in this field and the inadequate security features built into Internet of Things (IoT) and OT equipment.

He explains that security is compromised by problems such as system-level attacks, lax device management, and inefficient authentication.

"Risks are exacerbated by poor patch management and program updates. Non-compliance by IoT manufacturers, inadequate network segmentation between IT and OT, public OT network access, and weak identity management further increase vulnerability," he elaborates.

According to Biradar, weak encryption, insecure data transfer, misconfigurations, firmware glitches, and a lack of secure update mechanisms add to the security woes of these systems leading to a variety of different attacks:

Unauthorised Access to SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems – where attackers infiltrate them to manipulate machinery, potentially causing safety risks or equipment damage.

Device Hijacking – where attackers gain control of OT devices, enabling eavesdropping, data theft, and operational disruption.

Data Manipulation – where cybercriminals target SCADA or Industrial Control Systems (ICS) devices to tamper with or delete stored data, leading to misinformation and compromised decision-making.

Man-in-the-Middle Attacks – where attackers intercept and modify communication between devices, altering device instructions and causing malfunctions.

Permanent Denial-of-Service – where attackers destroy firmware, rendering devices or systems inoperable and requiring extensive recovery efforts.

Fraudulent Identity and Control Panel Access – where attackers use fake identities to access control panels, compromising system settings and operational integrity.

Biradar opines that addressing these challenges demands a multi-pronged approach involving collaboration among manufacturers, regulatory bodies, and end-users to build industry standards.

"Consistent adherence to security, establishment of guidelines, conformance enforcement, and widespread adoption of best practices are essential throughout the lifecycle of OT devices," he suggested.

Growth areas in OT security

According to Frost, infrastructure security and smart buildings are quickly becoming important growth areas for OT security for businesses. Building Management Systems (BMS) security is seeing a noticeable increase in spending and budgetary allocation from organisations, in our market studies.

Biradar argues that BMS security is no longer the sole responsibility of the facility and operations teams; instead, CISOs are taking a more active role in harmonising the security stack as a whole and in developing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

"While the traditional BMS Providers have started to invest in expanding their portfolio into smart buildings cybersecurity services, IT security vendors have started to perceive smart buildings cybersecurity as a new growth area and a vital component of their OT security offerings," he continued.

How organisations can prepare themselves

Biradar says the growth of the OT security market provides opportunities for both security vendors as well as end customers alike.

He posits that as an end client, "you can choose from the best-of-the-breed solutions and approaches as providers significantly increase their R&D in this area."

He acknowledges grey areas in comprehensively understanding the market opportunities and the key areas of investment.

"By embracing comprehensive market landscape analysis – which can feed into the organisation’s business as well as the technology roadmap, fostering industry collaboration, and prioritising security throughout the lifecycle of OT devices – organisations can stay prepared for the future," he concluded.

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“The video surveillance market is experiencing a transformation as more cloud video surveillance systems emerge, diversifying a market that capital expenditure costs have historically dominated,” says Lizzie Stokes, IoT networks & services analyst at ABI Research.

“Enterprise companies, lines of business, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are looking to take advantage of surveillance insights and are searching for new storage and analytics service models to ease implementation, drive faster time to market, lower costs, and improve ROI.”

Lizzie Stokes

According to ABI Research, high upfront on-premises installation and integration costs traditionally drove video surveillance market service revenue. Professional services revenue dominated the market, facilitated by System Integrators (SIs) who often design and install customers’ surveillance systems.

Market trends

However, two prominent market trends have led video surveillance users to divert investments away from new camera deployments to cloud data services.

Stokes explains that as video resolutions have improved, data loads have become heavier and more costly to store. At the same time, regulation is driving more firms to save their video footage.

Stokes says these market dynamics have created a demand for scalable and cost-effective cloud data storage solutions.

The other trend she observes has to do with video surveillance users increasingly viewing video data as untapped business intelligence.

"Video surveillance cameras are already tracking employee behaviour, observing customer actions, and monitoring goods as they journey through the supply chain and the factory floor. Many video surveillance users—enterprises and SMEs—are searching for streamlined cloud video analytics services to mine raw video data for operational insights,” she adds.

Video Surveillance-as-a-Service (VSaaS) companies are responding to these market trends, offering cloud data storage, cloud video analytics, and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications that produce vertical-specific insights.

New customer demand will eventually diversify the market’s revenue structures, with more customers paying for video surveillance services through recurring fees. Traditional video surveillance companies providing on-premises and cloud offerings include Honeywell, Milestone Systems, and Bosch. Newer companies featuring cloud video surveillance services include Verkada, Eagle Eye Networks, and Wasabi Technologies.

“VSaaS vendors are redefining how video surveillance can be offered and deployed,” Stokes concludes. “As video analytics applications expand and video data in the market explodes, new video surveillance companies have the opportunity to disrupt the market’s traditional revenue structure.”

Early stages

Sunny Chua, Wasabi Technologies' general manager for Singapore, acknowledges that the transition to the cloud for video surveillance is still in the early stages but certainly picking up speed. He points to the 5G deployment across the region as facilitating the use of intelligent video surveillance devices as well as advanced analytics at the edge.

"The ability for these smart cameras to relay information back in real-time is contributing to innovative use cases in digitally advanced markets like Singapore, such as live footage used complementarily with 3D mapping technology to provide live insights on crowd management and weapon detection via virtual patrols," he elaborated.

Another area where he sees an opportunity for VSaaS is smart cities where spending in the region is expected to more than double between 2023 and 2028 to reach US$42 billion.

"Intelligent video surveillance is an especially important part of the puzzle in smart city development - enabling everything from smart traffic management to furthering sustainability ambitions by providing predictive insights on facilities utilisation in buildings," added Chua.

He believes these ongoing digital developments will ultimately drive workflow modernisation and transformation. "This makes Asia a ripe ground for VSaaS providers that can offer domain-specific services for the deep and reliable automation that a digital era demands while expediting the transition and minimising risks," he concluded.

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A few data points from Gartner’s 2022 Supply Chain Technology User Wants and Needs Survey back up our findings. Before looking at some of the data, a key point to note is this study is cross-industry, cross-company size and cross-geography.

When asked if they were investing, or were planning to invest, in any form of cyber-physical automation, 97% of respondents said they were.

Of the respondents, 30% said that labour and talent issues were one of their top two internal challenges and 59% said that labour availability issues were leading them to consider automation.

When specifically asked about robotics, a staggering 96% said they were investing or were planning to invest, in robotics over the next two years, with 36% either fully deployed (7%) or actively deploying currently (29%).

Also, 93% of current robot users said that they planned to expand the fleet size of their existing robot platforms, with 94% saying they were pursuing additional use cases for robotics in their operations.

All this combined is why we believe the ISR market will continue to grow so rapidly. Because of this rapid growth, we also believe that 40% of large enterprises will have heterogeneous fleets of ISRs in their warehouse operations within the next five years.

So, the good news is lots of companies will begin to leverage ISRs in their operations. But this creates challenges for companies. Namely, how do they integrate with, and orchestrate the work of, a heterogeneous fleet of robots?

As companies deploy heterogeneous fleets of robots from different vendors performing various tasks, integrating with, and orchestrating the work of, this varied fleet of robots will require standardised software that can easily unite a variety of agents and robot platforms. Gartner refers to this emerging software as multiagent orchestration platforms.

These solutions act like intelligent middleware that integrates and orchestrates work between various business applications, heterogenous fleets of operational robots and other automated agents like doors or elevators.

These solutions will assign work to the right robots based on the characteristics of immediate tasks and will orchestrate communication between different robot platforms and other types of automation agents.

When companies invest in their first ISR platform, they will typically just create a one-off connection between their business applications — such as a warehouse management system — and their robot provider’s fleet management system.

This, while not optimal, works for one robot. However, as a company’s fleet of robots grows, simple point-to-point API integration will not be enough. Companies will need an orchestration capability that can assign work to the right robots based on near-real-time information that takes into consideration the characteristics of the activity and the capabilities of various automation agents.

This will reduce the time, effort and cost to onboard new robots and will reduce support costs, ultimately making organisations more efficient because work will be assigned to the robot best suited for the task.

Consequently, companies will need a platform that can help integrate with and orchestrate the work across their fleets of robots. Because of this, we believe that by 2026, more than 50% of companies deploying intralogistics robots will adopt a multiagent orchestration platform.

To achieve this, companies should start by analysing the integration requirements as the robot fleet expands beyond a single vendor. Along with that, they should study how work will be assigned to the various robots and other automation agents, like doors or elevators, and determine what orchestration logic will be needed to support this simultaneously.

First published on Gartner Blog Network

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By combining the advantages of blockchain and IoT, these dApps introduce innovative solutions that significantly improve security, transparency, and operational efficiency across various industries. These emerging trends are anticipated to stimulate the expansion of the market.

In addition, the integration of blockchain and IoT is revolutionising data sharing, transactional trust, and process automation, leading to the emergence of innovative business models and lucrative growth opportunities.

Key industry insights & findings from the report:

• The software & platform component segment accounted for the largest market share of 51.6% in 2022 owing to the increasing adoption of blockchain IoT solutions
• The smart contracts application segment accounted for the largest revenue share of 30.7% in 2022
• The self-execution and automation capabilities of smart contracts in the market are expected to drive the segment growth
• The transportation & logistics vertical segment accounted for the largest revenue share of 21.8% in 2022 due to its properties in creating transparent and immutable records of transactions
• The SMEs segment accounted for the largest revenue share of 60.2% in 2022 due to the increased implementation of the technology to help SMEs meet regulatory compliance requirements

Blockchain IoT market growth & trends

The growing awareness about the vast potential of this technology in numerous areas, such as supply chain management, asset tracking, smart cities, healthcare, and energy management, is also expected to augment the market growth.

Several companies focus on launching new products and partnering with key players to cater to the larger customer base and strengthen their foothold in the industry. For instance, in March 2022, IoTex, a modular Web3 infrastructure platform, partnered with Google Cloud.

The collaboration leads to the global expansion of MachineFi, a decentralised finance (DeFi) platform designed specifically for the IoT ecosystem. The Google Cloud-based infrastructure will help the company to make MachineFi's services and apps more secure, scalable, and reliable. Such partnerships by key players are expected to propel the market growth.

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Drivers of growth

With few alterations to the market structure, factory automation has developed gradually. However, due to technological disruptions, macro trends including reshoring, a worldwide shortage of trained workers, and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives, the rate of change is quickening.

Over the course of the projection period, it is predicted that the factory automation market will grow significantly because of the increased need for automation for reliable and high-quality production.

Additionally, industry participants are focusing on improving the manufacturing process efficiency to produce goods that are both affordable and of high quality, which has a big impact on the size of the factory automation market.

Factors influencing factory automation

The demand for factory automation solutions is driven by the development of 5G wireless technology and the adoption of Industry 4.0 in several industries, including fibre & textiles, infrastructure, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and others.

Industrial IoT, digital twin, and digitization The rise of teach-less robots, soft programmable logic controllers (PLCs), and digital twins are predicted to be the three major trends in the factory automation sector. This factor is expected to drive the Factory Automation Market.

Factories with fully functional automation systems will unquestionably outperform businesses with fewer or no robotics. Theoretically, those with the most advanced automation systems may generate more than three times as much as their rivals.

Systems that automate tasks can also operate for longer periods of time. Even if factories with fully developed automation systems must produce more complex items, this helps to boost the volume of output.

Additionally, since machines are programmed to operate with extreme precision and exceptional efficiency, automation systems guarantee that there is little room for human error throughout manufacturing. It is also known that one robot can produce at a rate comparable to three to five workers. This factor is expected to drive the Factory Automation Market.

Modern automation makes it possible for factories to run considerably more cheaply. Nowadays, a few individuals and a few robots produce goods instead of hundreds of workers on an assembly line.

Gaining a profit and a return on investment (ROI) will be simpler for businesses. Payroll, benefits, insurance, and sick leave costs can all be decreased by using more robots and fewer workers. This factor is expected to drive the Factory Automation Market.

The automation systems in factories can now be upgraded continuously to work in a more environmentally responsible manner. Modern systems are known to have a smaller environmental impact.

Modern machinery is more accurate and controlled, uses less power, and produces less waste heat. Machines can also be mounted on walls, which are typically underused in traditional factories and can be placed in tight corners to save even more floor space.

Additionally, it permits businesses to add more machines inside the plant. Additionally, robotics' accuracy reduces the amount of scrap produced during production. This factor is expected to drive the Factory Automation Market.

Not only will manufacturing be more affordable because of robots, but it will also be much safer. The days of factory workers accidentally hurting themselves while the product was being made are long gone. Humans are still required, but only to manage and supervise production, apply the finishing touches, and check and guarantee the quality of the final items. This factor is expected to drive the Factory Automation Market.

Market segmentation

The factory automation market is segmented by component (sensors, controllers, switches and relays, industrial robots, drives, others), control and safety system (distributed control system (DCS), supervisory control and data acquisition system (SCADA), manufacturing execution system (MES), systems instrumented system (SIS), programmable logic controller (PLC), human-machine interface (HMI)), and by industry verticals (automotive manufacturing, food and beverage, oil and gas processing, mining, others).

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Ghirardelli Square is largely considered to be the first successful real estate adaptive reuse project in the US. With its more than 100-year history, this specialty retail and dining complex today houses shops and restaurants. It was originally a chocolate factory established by Italian immigrant Domenico “Domingo” Ghirardelli.

“Water detection systems for commercial and multifamily properties must be affordable, require minimal maintenance, and consume little energy to provide a good return on investment and environmental benefits."

Dean Fung-A-Wing, chief executive officer and founder, Kairos Water

Kairos Water specialises in operational risk management solutions for commercial and residential properties. For the project, the company’s leak detection strip sensors and gateways based on Semtech’s LoRa technology operate on a LoRaWAN network and connect to the cloud to enable real-time monitoring.

If any water leaks are detected, these LoRa-enabled sensors send an instantaneous alert to facilities management so that any potential damage to the property can be greatly reduced or eliminated with quick action.

Previously, rainfall led to water intrusion into one of the main switchgear rooms at Ghirardelli Square, resulting in temporary interruptions for the building and neighboring businesses. With the application of Noah Multifunction Leak Sensors, based on LoRa technology and running on a LoRaWAN network, the site team addressed this challenge comprehensively. The patented asset protection system detected multiple leaks within the first month itself, successfully preventing substantial damage.

“With Semtech’s LoRa technology, our discrete Kairos sensor solutions significantly impact even the most challenging real estate assets. Our sensors install in seconds while providing data, coverage, and protection for up to 10 years,” said Fung-A-Wing.

Non-intrusive facility management systems

Integrating state-of-the-art leak protection systems without disrupting the tenant and customer experience, or critical infrastructure, is a typical challenge that acquirers and restoration teams encounter across the United States.

“Having built a real estate home service business and witnessed the aftermath of over 3,000 water damage incidents made me realise the size of this problem that plagues about 14,000 homes a day in the US,” said Fung-A-Wing.

Putting modern, non-intrusive facility management systems at the heart of all risk mitigation efforts is critical to preserving these iconic assets.

“The United States spends upwards of one billion dollars annually on restoration projects, promoting economic, environmental, and educational benefits for businesses and consumers,” said Tom Mueller, executive vice president and general manager, IoT System Products Group at Semtech.

“As we modernise and preserve more historical locations, we must use minimally invasive, low-power and long-range risk mitigation solutions that do not disrupt the cultural experience."

Tom Mueller, Semtech

"From water leaks to smoke detection, to air quality, to power management, and more, LoRa is the answer. And, in the case of Ghirardelli Square, who doesn’t like a wonderful piece of chocolate?” Mueller said.

Semtech’s LoRa technology continues to be the de facto LPWAN wireless platform of IoT devices with more than 300 million LoRa end nodes deployed across the globe. Semtech's LoRa chipsets connect sensors to the cloud and enable real-time communication of data and analytics. This prompt management helps to enhance the efficiency and productivity of sustainable IoT use cases such as agriculture, industrial, transportation, and more.

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For this reason, I lean on a combination of quantitative and qualitative insights to build out a use-case heat map by industry. Some of you might be familiar with my last iterations of this; if so, I urge you to look at the latest version that just published. For those of you not familiar, here’s some background.

Enterprise stakeholders have three scenarios at their disposal to incorporate IoT into their business strategy: 1) Designers embed IoT sensors into products; 2) process owners use IoT-enabled assets to improve operations; and 3) business leaders incorporate data from IoT sensors and from their ecosystem to improve operations and offerings.

To help you evaluate IoT use cases relevant to your firm, we’ve developed a set of IoT use-case heat maps spanning many operational processes. You can use these heat maps to help evaluate the applicability of each IoT use case to your firm’s unique strategic business priorities and operational initiatives. Start your firm’s evaluation process by:

• Considering key elements to prioritise relevant IoT use cases for your organisation. Start by assessing the number and value of physical assets and structures (e.g., cars, equipment, machinery, land, buildings) used across your firm. It is also important to evaluate specific use cases that are relevant in your vertical industry or to your firm’s strategic priorities.
  For example, massive government funding and regulatory requirements are spurring companies to make sustainability a strategic imperative. IoT-enabled environmental monitoring solutions can help firms address their sustainability initiatives.
• Assessing broadly applicable horizontal IoT use cases that apply to many vertical markets. Examples of horizontal IoT use cases include facility management to monitor the design, construction, and operation of structures and building systems or energy management to monitor, manage, and report usage of water, electricity, and other energy resources.
  Security and surveillance use cases manage and monitor security and public safety. These horizontal use cases are broadly applicable and deliver incremental value but generally don’t provide a strategic advantage.
• Evaluating functional IoT use cases that create value for many firms. Use cases for specific operational processes boost efficiency and sometimes provide significant value, although they don’t have universal appeal.
  Examples of functional IoT use cases include supply chain management solutions to optimise the supply chain process by tracking materials, forecasting availability, and managing inventory and warehouse processes to ensure that the right products are available for immediate delivery to customers who make online purchases.
  Other functional use cases include predictive maintenance and asset performance management that are particularly relevant in the manufacturing, production, chemical, and oil and gas sectors.

Identifying specialised IoT use cases to address specific situations at a narrow set of firms. The heterogeneity and diversity of the IoT use-case landscape provide enterprise stakeholders in every vertical market with opportunities to differentiate operations, processes, and customer experience. Examples of these specific use cases include remote diagnostics and monitoring of patient status in healthcare, self-optimising production in manufacturing, and cold chain monitoring in perishable pharmaceuticals and consumer products.

First published on Forrester

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ABI Research forecasts that automated storage & retrieval system (AS/RS) revenues are expected to surpass US$15 billion globally by 2030, and warehouse management system (WMS) revenues are expected to exceed US$10 billion by the same period.

"Global supply chain challenges over the last three years have highlighted the need for digitalisation and a deeper restructuring of inventory management. Labour constraints, geopolitical trade shifts, and inventory gluts continue to pressure warehouse operations, and the most impacted organisations continue to be those with lower focus on digital transformations," states Ryan Wiggin, supply chain management & logistics industry analyst at ABI Research.

The present and future competitive landscape

AS/RS vendors, including AutoStore, Ocado, and Swisslog, as well as autonomous mobile robot (AMR) vendors such as inVia Robotics, Locus Robotics, and Vecna Robotics, are leading the structural automation charge.

Established and emerging WMS vendors such as Blue Yonder, Manhattan Associates, and Snapfulfil continue to add new functionalities to orchestrate and optimise both manual and automated workflows.

In addition to the growth in automation and management systems, high investment in hardware and devices is expected to increase worker productivity, as manual worker involvement remains necessary alongside the adoption of automated equipment. Global shipments of handheld devices for warehouse workers will grow at a CAGR of 20% to 2030, led by market leaders such as Zebra and Honeywell.

The new warehouse building is expected to drop by as much as 35% in 2023 compared to 2022. It is creating an even greater incentive to invest in the automation of current facilities to ease operational constraints.

Disruption to new developments will be short-lived, with steady growth in warehouse construction expected to 2030, led by a much greater CAGR in global e-commerce fulfilment centre development at 18%.

"Successful deployments by Tier One organisations continue to spur the adoption of technologies within small-medium enterprises. Solutions providers must continue to offer accessible adoption through as-a-service models and scalable structures, and exploring partnerships with complementary technology will be key to deploying market-leading end-to-end solutions," concludes Wiggin.

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IoT connectivity plays a crucial role in the efficient functioning of smart homes, smart cities, and various industry verticals, including healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation. ResearchandMarkets forecasts the IoT connectivity market to reach US$720.37 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 20.6% between 2023 and 2028.

With the continued deployment of IoT devices and sensors, bandwidth will become a major challenge for organisations. IDC estimates that total data generated by IoT will reach 175 zettabytes (ZB) by 2025, potentially straining networks that serve consumers, businesses and governments, and now machines.

Soracom launched three new services designed to help IoT deployments take advantage of the power and promise of generative AI (GenAI). The three services can work together or separately to analyse IoT device data on the fly or connect devices to the powerful AI/ML capabilities now available through leading hyperscale platforms.

Soracom Relay lets customers use any existing RTSP/RTP-compatible camera to acquire and securely transmit audio and video data to Soracom’s Harvest Files for storage or to a cloud destination, such as AWS S3 or Amazon Kinesis Video Streams, for computer vision and video analytics.

Soracom Query lets customers use SQL queries from BI tools or CLI to mine IoT device data with no need to set up their own servers or storage. This managed data warehouse capability with automatic data loading makes it easy to run complex analytical queries on large IoT datasets and feed the results to machine learning (ML) projects.

Soracom Harvest Data Intelligence enhances Soracom’s existing serverless data storage and visualization capability with the ability to apply GenAI to analyse time series data and identify trends, patterns, outliers, and abnormalities. It can also use the data provided to perform further analysis.

For example, a municipality can use Soracom Relay to monitor road traffic while Harvest Data Intelligence analyses the data stored and Soracom Query can guide decisions on the best times to schedule road repairs, or to predict how changes in traffic patterns will impact existing infrastructure.

Soracom has also established an IoT x GenAI Lab with Matsuo Institute, which conducts research and development projects in AI sharing the vision of Matsuo Lab, University of Tokyo. The IoT x GenAI Lab will explore the potential to gain new insights from diverse IoT data using Gen AI, develop new products, and provide professional services specialising in the area of Generative AI, including IoT and Large Language Models (LLMs).

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The top 5 smart cities ranked by Juniper Research are:

1. Shanghai
2. Seoul
3. Shenzhen
4. Sydney
5. Beijing

Juniper Research’s ranking of 50 world cities is based on an evaluation of many different smart city aspects, covering transportation and infrastructure, energy and lighting, city management and technology, and urban connectivity.

The research analysed Shanghai as leading due to its strong data platform, comprehensive deployment of 5G, and use of innovative technologies, including digital twins. This comprehensive approach reflects a well-considered and progressive smart city design, which can be seen as an example for other cities to emulate.

Research co-author Nick Maynard says creating an effective smart city strategy means more than just looking at a technical design – it means developing a comprehensive approach that actively solves challenges that citizens face in their lives.

"Congestion is a major challenge, and we will see more focus on smart mobility, adapting urban environments for better traffic flow, as environmental concerns become increasingly prominent.” Nick Maynard

Asian smart city spend growing by 120%

Hardware and software spending on smart city deployments in Asia is forecast to reach $42 billion by 2028, from $19 billion in 2023.

Spend is growing much faster in the rest of Asia Pacific, at 303% over the next 5 years, compared to Indian Subcontinent at 231% and Far East & China at 76%, over the same period.

Growth in the Far East & China is slowing, with smart city projects being more mature in countries like China, Japan and South Korea. However, emerging markets such as Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam will boast much stronger growth, as smart city initiatives get underway, and cities build the comprehensive data systems needed for success.   

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Keysight Technologies says its PathWave Design 2024 gives design engineers new software automation, design data and intellectual property (IP) management, team collaboration, and development lifecycle transformation capabilities.

PathWave Design 2024 EDA features

Software automation

Keysight's new Python API for EDA (electronic design automation) workflows establishes an open ecosystem to connect and control best-in-class simulators, platforms, data exchange, and report generation to meet specific development project needs.

The Python API enables Keysight's EDA software tools to interoperate with third-party partner tools in custom-tailored automation workflows. It supports more efficient design verification and provides greater confidence for attaining first-pass success.

Keysight also speeds up the development of automated workflows by offering professional consulting and customization services for PathWave Design 2024 customers.

The Python API addresses customer requirements to use the tools in a larger ecosystem environment and control Keysight EDA software programmatically. It includes documentation and examples on how to tackle common automation challenges making Keysight tools a component of larger enterprise workflows.

Using the Python API for EDA workflows, engineers can streamline processes to reduce repetitive, tedious work and avoid mistakes due to human error. An example use-case is the repeated electromagnetic (EM) extraction of a printed circuit board or package for high-speed digital signals, performing channel simulation on the resulting EM model, and invoking digital standard compliance tests, in one automated process.

IP and design data management

Keysight has integrated the former Cliosoft products into the PathWave Design 2024 software suite. Keysight remains committed to broad support of its IP and data management products for all major EDA tools with data originating from third-party vendors' tools and continued support for the full Cliosoft ecosystem.

Keysight Design Data Management (formerly Cliosoft SOS) empowers engineers with robust features and benefits such as optimal file archiving, advanced revision control, disk storage optimization, tight EDA vendor integration, and seamless software configuration connectivity.

With Keysight IP Management (formerly Cliosoft HUB) IP and system designers can streamline their IP processes and maximize productivity. It empowers engineers to seamlessly organise, catalogue, and track valuable IPs, ensuring easy access and efficient reuse across design projects. It provides unparalleled traceability, enabling engineers and managers to monitor the entire lifecycle of their IPs and make informed decisions.

Simulation acceleration

Using Keysight's Design Cloud for parallel simulation dramatically improves designer productivity, reducing simulation time by up to 80% for circuit simulation and EM simulation and enabling faster design cycles with better simulation coverage to reduce design risk.

Keysight's Design Cloud uses parallel computing across hardware deployments ranging from on-premises clusters to private, public, and hybrid clouds, and through a turnkey cloud solution.

PathWave Design 2024 enables a new Design Cloud use-case for parallel simulation supporting electrothermal (ETH) simulation for radio frequency (RF) power amplifier design. ETH parallelization increases the accuracy of typical RF circuit simulations with dynamic large-signal stimulus, which is important for 5G and 6G applications. Parallel simulation enables coverage of more temperature corners in a shorter simulation time.

The post Reduce time-to-market for complex circuits and systems appeared first on FutureIoT.

Since the early days of industrial automation, manufacturers have adopted a variety of purpose-built protocols and systems for highly specialised control applications, instead of using standard Ethernet technologies.

As the IIoT continues to expand, industrial networks in the future will be required to transmit much larger volumes of data between interconnected devices and to collect information from remote devices for both OT and IT engineers to access. With these growing demands on the horizon, network preparedness may determine an enterprise's success.

Moxa offers three tips to prepare IIoT networks for the future. These include:

Achieve greater integration with a unified infrastructure

Over the years, various devices using different protocols have been deployed on industrial networks to provide diverse services. Under these circumstances, network integration usually costs more than expected or becomes more difficult to achieve.

Manufacturers can either choose the status quo, that is, maintain their pre-existing isolated automation networks with numerous purpose-built protocols of the past, or seek solutions to deterministic services and that can integrate these “islands of automation” into one unified network.

If the goal is to be ready for future demands, the choice is obviously the latter. The rule of thumb is to take potential industrial protocols into consideration and ensure you can redesign networks in case any new demands arise in the market.

One approach is Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), a set of new standards introduced by the IEEE 802.1 TSN Task Group as an advanced toolbox. With TSN, you can build open, unified networks with standard Ethernet technologies that reserve flexibility for the future.

Enable anywhere access with hassle-free cloud services

Cloud-based remote access offers many benefits to IIoT customers, such as reducing the travel time and expenses of sending maintenance engineers to multiple remote sites. Furthermore, cloud-based secure remote access can offer flexible and scalable connections to meet dynamic, fast-changing requirements.

However, operational technology (OT) engineers may find it cumbersome to set up and maintain their own cloud servers for new services and applications. Indeed, there is considerable effort associated with setting up new infrastructure, even in the cloud.

Fortunately, OEMs and machine builders can now deliver secure cloud-based services and remote access to their customers, therefore eliminating the need to maintain in-house cloud servers.

One key issue that demands scrutiny is the cloud server license scheme. Often, upfront costs may seem low for limited server hosts. Yet these apparent cost savings on server hosts may actually make a project uneconomical due to a limited scale of connections.

Second, you may also need to consider central management capabilities in order to flexibly expand remote connections as your needs change. With this said, carefully weigh the costs and benefits of incorporating secure remote access to industrial networks. Always select solutions that minimise hassles and will help deliver more value to customers.

Get better visibility of network status

When complexity increases due to greater connectivity on industrial networks, it can become very difficult to identify the root cause of problems and maintain sufficient network visibility.

Control engineers often must revert to trial and error to get the system back to normal, which is time-consuming and troublesome.

To facilitate and manage growing industrial networks, network operators need integrated network management software to make informed decisions throughout network deployment, maintenance, and diagnostics.

In addition, as systems continue to grow, it is important that you pay attention to several network integration concerns. First, only managing industrial networks in local control centres may not be feasible three or five years from now, especially when existing systems need to be integrated with new ones.

It is therefore important to use network management software with integration interfaces, such as OPC DA tags for SCADA system integration or RESTful APIs for external web services. Furthermore, an interface to facilitate third-party software integration is also a key criterion for ensuring future flexibility.

For many industries, the IIoT presents as many challenges as opportunities. It is this new frontier where traditional OT and IT silos converge is clearly the way of the future. Successfully deploying an IIoT application requires careful planning and attention to detail from the moment you decide to begin the journey.

The post Getting IIoT networks ready for the future appeared first on FutureIoT.

But with this broader connectivity comes more entry points for potential attackers, and capital decision-makers depend on up-to-date cybersecurity threat information to properly prioritise asset replacement and manage asset requests.

Yet many still lack a comprehensive strategy for incorporating medical device risk reduction into capital planning, which is increasingly concerning as cyber threats—and healthcare-industry data breaches that now average more than US$10 million per incident—continue to rise.

Hospitals must consider cyber risk when evaluating equipment purchases, maintenance, and device lifecycle management—including risk assessment, monitoring, and remediation.

“As security threats against healthcare systems continue to escalate, understanding and prioritising the current risk profile of each piece of connected equipment is critical for healthcare systems to avoid the kind of attacks that are costly to budgets and reputation,” said Peter Hancock, VP of global partnerships at Asimily.

Asimily announced plans to integrate its Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) risk management platform, with the CCM (Capital Cycle Management) solution from HANDLE Global to provide a single platform where healthcare system supply chain, security, and IT teams gain a holistic and always-current view of their organisation’s internet-connected assets.

This equipment visibility enables healthcare organisations to determine which assets or manufacturers are at risk of cybersecurity issues, and to track the status of cyber-related warnings and recalls.

Asimily uses AI-fuelled analysis to prioritise exploitable vulnerabilities and prescribe targeted, clinically-viable remediations—and identify when remediations are not possible and which assets may need to be replaced.

This critical information is dispatched to CCM to ensure that it is considered a key priority during the capital planning process and can empower a shift from reactive to proactive cybersecurity risk management.

CCM allows health systems to tailor priorities based on customisable risk thresholds for threats to cybersecurity, patient safety, product standardisation, and other factors provided by Asimily’s IoMT risk remediation platform.

“This integration with Asimily gives HANDLE’s CCM customers the ability to understand cybersecurity risks and precisely measure utilisation so they feel confident that they are making well-informed decisions about where to focus their capital spend,” said Kyle Green, CEO, HANDLE Global. "This is especially crucial as health system budgets continue to tighten and healthcare leaders are forced to make difficult budgeting decisions."

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This alliance will bring together Paessler’s expertise in IT network monitoring and PATLITE’s capability in operational technology (OT) to help enterprises across Southeast Asia accelerate digital transformation in OT.

“The convergence of IT and OT is proving to be a boon for enterprises, whether it is optimizing operations or gaining a competitive edge. However, siloed stacks of IT and OT can result in challenges that prevent organisations from reaping the full benefits of digital transformation at scale," said Jim Lee, business development manager of Paessler for Asia Pacific

He claimed that tje partnership with PATLITE is designed to help customers take a comprehensive and coordinated approach to monitor both IT and OT systems which will enable organisations to better understand their infrastructure, increase business agility and ultimately drive business growth.

The partnership will enable Paessler to combine its PRTG network monitoring solution with its extensive experience in OT to provide its customers with comprehensive visibility into their entire infrastructure.

Paessler's PRTG network monitoring solution is designed to help organisations monitor their IT infrastructure, which includes servers, switches, routers, and other devices, while PATLITE’s expertise in OT includes signalling devices, industrial network devices, and other products that can help organisations gain visibility into their operational infrastructure.

“We fully comprehend the significance of technology and expertise in driving successful transformation journeys for industrial businesses,” said Edmund Gan, general manager of PATLITE Singapore.

He added that the collaboration between PATLITE and Paessler will benefit all its customers with the simplified joint solutions, namely the PATLITE Network Tower Light and Paessler PRTG monitoring software.

He further noted that these solutions are easy to understand and facilitate improved productivity and comprehensive process understanding for our customers.

The alliance is said to help organisations across the Southeast Asia region achieve a holistic view of their entire infrastructure, enabling them to make better decisions and improve operational efficiency.

The post Partnership to accelerate digital transformation in OT appeared first on FutureIoT.

Radix IoT's chief product officer, Michael Skurla, claims Radix IoT’s Mango 5 is the future of effortless scalability for global commercial portfolio asset monitoring. "Without compromising flexibility, enterprises can now scale remote management and triage in half the time legacy monitoring solutions require. No other comparable product in today’s market offers this level of intuitive monitoring scalability and stability for critical facilities’ owners and operators,” he added.

Mango 5’s streamlined, automated workflow features include:

The Portfolio Manager Configuration Tool–transforms enterprise owners and operators into data experts,­ with instant set-up and views of globally distributed property portfolios with access to site-level metrics and device-level data without dashboards or complex tagging structures.

Integrators and end-users can instantly access KPI overviews and site-level historical graphs and maps with a drag-and-drop interface, create information tabs personalised to roles and needs, and make changes instantaneously without touching a line of code.

Pi-Link–expands on the highly popular TCP Publisher by simultaneously enabling events operations at the edge and in the cloud using gRPC. Scheduled events and logging at the edge are unhindered with lost connectivity to the cloud, and instantly re-synchronise with the cloud when reconnected.

This unparalleled resilience level, critical in environments with unstable or highly constrained cloud connectivity (e.g., over cellular, LoRaWAN, and satellite), increases Edge to Cloud security with mTLS certificates. Mango administration panel allows connection authentication with integrated setup and management–and the TCP Publisher is fully backwards compatible.

Pi-Mesh–this revolutionary database, designed specifically for storing and querying IoT data at scale–with 100 times faster query processing speed than the traditional database technology–is fully optimised for time-based data critical to most distributed SCADA and BMS (building management systems) solutions.

Whether Mango runs at the edge or in the cloud, it can handle tens of millions of data points in real-time and historical context. Compatible with Pi-Link, its rapid, small-size data and events transfer between locations reduces traffic while assuring constancy amidst outages.

Optimised for Mango data and long-term storage, Pi-Mesh takes up a fraction of the typical storage space required by traditional database solutions.

Pi-Flow–the reimagined Mango UI accommodates a highly intuitive workflow for commissioning and setup by integrators, contractors, and end-users. The redesign allows systems deployments to scale and change instantly–whether onboarding 100 or two million points of data–across one to tens of thousands of locations.

CSV Toolbox–brings new tools to streamline and automate with an escalated systems’ configuration ability. In addition to the JSON store, Mango 5 supports tooling for CSV importing/exporting from devices, tags, and events–enabling automated, at-scale operations with conversant tools contractors and enterprise customers are fully accustomed to.

Mango 5 enhances all Mango 4 features including alarming, event management, full HTML (desktop and mobile) compliance, native cloud capability (or cloud of choice)–scaling to tens of thousands of sites–with simple device integration across 40+ protocols without vendor lock. Best of all, upgrades from Mango 4 are simple to deploy.

The post Radix IoT Mango 5 optimises IoT scalability for mission-critical monitoring appeared first on FutureIoT.

The company has partnered with Lassila & Tikanoja and Connected Inventions’ to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emissions, allowing Technopolis to advance its sustainability reporting and ESG (environmental, social, and governance) goals.

By combining L&T Smartti Automation, which optimises heating, cooling, and ventilation in buildings, with real-time indoor air quality data collected with Connected Invention’s IoT devices, significant savings were already achieved within the first several months of deployment at Technopolis’ properties.

Bringing precision demand-controlled ventilation

L&T Smartti Automation is the building properties’ energy optimisation digital service. Smartti guides and drives the existing building management system and adjusts the ventilation accordingly. Smartti optimises ventilation, and energy consumption based on real-time data, allowing it to consider factors such as changing weather conditions and the thermal mass of the building.

The indoor conditions in the building remained optimal, with no energy unnecessarily wasted. Smartti has been using in Technopolis’ properties in Ruoholahti 3 since the start of 2021.

Additionally, Smartti AI’s integration with Connected Inventions’ AirWits Insight, an indoor air quality monitoring software solution powered by Sigfox 0G technology brings even greater benefits from the building automation system.

The low-power and cost-efficient sensor solutions accurately monitor various parameters such as CO2 levels, temperature, and relative humidity of the building. Ultimately, allowing for better precision control over the building management system and its indoor conditions.

In addition to the devices measuring indoor air quality, Connected Inventions also provides the 0G network communication infrastructure and software solution for data integration and visualisation through FoxerIoT and AirWits Insight.

Lassila & Tikanoja customer relations manager, Vantte Kenttä, says the IoT sensor solutions offer more precise indoor air conditions within buildings, whilst L&T Smartti automation AI can optimise conditions and energy consumption even more effectively than before.

He adds that this combination not only do we get energy savings, but also consistent indoor air and optimal conditions for building occupants.

DCV brings significant energy savings

Demand-controlled ventilation (DCV) Brought significant energy savings to Technopolis

In Finland, Technopolis Ruoholahti 3’s property deployed Smartti Automation and AirWits Insight in winter 2022. Within the first few months, the building management witnessed profound results – an overall savings of over 30% in heating energy and 50% in ventilation energy consumption.

“L&T Smartti Automation and Connected Inventions’ IoT sensors’ pilot project results have been so good, so much so we’ve decided to implement it in other commercial buildings around Finland. In addition to energy efficiency, we were able to also confirm improved indoor air quality in the building property,” says Ismo Myllymäki, head of property management for Technopolis.

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About 12.4% of telecom carrier respondents in Asia/Pacific consider Industrial Internet-of-Things (IIoT) as one of the important reasons for rolling out 5G services according to IDC’s 2022 Telecom Carrier Transformation Survey.

According to the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, sustainability is the fundamental business strategy for the future. These involve supporting initiatives, such as smart manufacturing, energy-efficient construction, and low-impact industrialisation. Industry 4.0 fills this gap by fusing traditional manufacturing processes with digital technology, AI, and IoT.

IDC forecasts that Asia/Pacific 5G connections, both mobile subscriber and IoT connections, will grow from 574 million in 2021 to 3,234 million in 2025, growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 87.9%. According to the IDC Carrier Transformation Survey 2022, most telecom carrier companies saw vital industries, including manufacturing, Smart Cities with smart mobility, and smart buildings, as the most critical use cases for the introduction of 5G.

"The shift to a greener, lower carbon future will be made possible through digitisation and connectivity," says Piyush Singh, IDC senior market analyst for telecommunications and IoT in Asia Pacific. "One of the concepts in Industry 4.0 is efficiency equals energy saving. Anything and everything organisations do to save energy ultimately increase efficiency,” Singh ends.

5G plays a key role in bringing a whole set of new ecosystems for organisations, which can help in achieving their sustainability goals in much easier and more robust ways. Manufacturing facilities all throughout Asia/Pacific have implemented private or dedicated networks for controlling various pieces of equipment on-premises. Unstable wireless communication and latency are the barriers for the adoption of digital transformation in any firm which can be solved with the help of 5G. IoT devices require very dependable communication, which may also be provided via private 5G network easily.

The post Industrial IoT is driving 5G deployment by telcos in APAC appeared first on FutureIoT.

“Global robot installations grew tremendously throughout 2021 and have continued to do so in 2022, reaching record levels for industrial and collaborative robots,” explains ABI research director Lian Jye Su. He concedes that this recent boom is expected to fade a bit in 2023 due to the ongoing war in Ukraine and inflation.

In this PodChats for FutureIoT, Su discusses the latest trends in industrial automation, artificial intelligence and robotics in Asia.

1. Describe the state of industrial automation in Asia in 2023?
2. How has robotics technology evolved in recent years? (types and applications)
3. Beyond Korea and Japan, how are other markets in Asia adopting/deploying robotics?
4. Most “hardware” robotics use cases are designed to perform a single specific task (for example moving goods or welding components). As AI and machine learning matures, do you ever see robotics taking on more sophisticated functions?
5. Are cobots a sign of things to come?
6. In IT, we’ve seen the rise of “as-a-service”, what will robotics-as-a-service look like?
7. The terms industrial IoT, industry 4.0 and robotics – how are all these connected?
8. Where are the hurdles in the evolution of robots or robotics in industrial applications?
9. What is your advice for organisations looking to integrate advances in robotics into operations further?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Industrial automation trends in Asia appeared first on FutureIoT.

As retailers deploy Micro-Fulfilment Centres (MFCs) to augment their distribution networks, automated picking solutions provide the speed and space maximization necessary for e-commerce efficiency and profitability.

ABI Research says Automated Storage & Retrieval System (AS/RS) revenue within MFCs is expected to reach US$1.2 billion by 2027, with uptake primarily seen in the grocery and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) industries.

“The need for high-density storage and fast fulfilment capabilities allows technologies to scale down and enable a flexible, bespoke frontline distribution network,” said Ryan Wiggin, supply chain management & logistics industry analyst at ABI Research.

He added that in addition to automated high-density storage systems, retailers are also looking to enhance manual picking operations to deliver micro-fulfilment solutions using handheld devices and Goods-to-Person (G2P) mobile robots.

"With over 2/3 of MFCs currently deployed in or alongside existing stores, micro-fulfilment solutions are helping retailers re-imagine how they utilize their current infrastructure to support online delivery."

Ryan Wiggin

Delivery times are getting faster, down to a matter of hours for certain products. As demand for alternative shopping experiences like click-and-collect increases, customer attraction and retention rests heavily on effective inventory management and localized delivery capabilities.

A few critical solutions vendors have emerged offering dedicated micro-fulfilment packages, including Alert Innovation, Dematic, Swisslog, and Takeoff Technologies, while companies like Ocado Group are offering MFCs as an additional arm to their existing warehouse automation solutions. Most solutions are underpinned by cube or shuttle-based AS/RS, orchestrated by management systems increasingly incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

Store and warehouse workers are being equipped with more sophisticated handheld devices from companies like Zebra as retailers look to deploy manually operated MFCs within existing stores or facilities and help optimize online order picking. And Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) inVia Robotics, 6 River Systems, and Locus Robotics are seeing deployment in MFCs as an alternative to stationary G2P automation.

Wiggin commented that in industries where online delivery has notoriously been an unprofitable venture, localised, automated MFCs are greatly helping to reduce both cost and picking time.

U.S.-based industry giants like Nordstrom, H-E-B, and Walgreens are leading in MFC solutions adoption. In Asia-Pacific and Europe, MFC solutions vendors are gaining traction signalling wider implementation of automated micro-fulfilment.

"End users must assess current network requirements and understand where micro-fulfilment solutions could offer significant value. Technology vendors must ensure that solutions can be scaled and be adaptable to retailer’s requirements,” concluded Wiggin.

* Editor's note: Comments and stats provided by ABI Research.

The post Retailers deploying micro-fulfilment centres to meet customer demand appeared first on FutureIoT.

The report concludes that with IoT-enabled solutions being introduced in various verticals and applications ranging from transportation and logistics to energy and utilities; digitalisation and IoT have become the only path towards a connected future.

SPTel provides unique connectivity and digital services for customers to become the digital services provider of choice.

Titus Yong, chief executive officer for SPTel, says most businesses want to collect as much sensible data as possible. The aim is to derive insights to automate processes, improve efficiency in an operation, and improve customer experience.

"The challenges many businesses face today is the large amount of information generated on the ground and the lack of a homogeneous platform to harmonise this information to derive insight easily, which can be applied regularly into operational decision making," he elaborated.

Beyond the awareness challenge

In its Worldwide Internet of Things Spending Guide, IDC forecasts the global IoT market to reach US$1.1 trillion in 2023. Just as important identified 18 technology categories, 70 use cases and 19 industries that have a potential real-world use for IoT.

In addition to the broad list of possible applications of the technology, there are at least three competing protocols: MQTT, CoAP, and HTTP; and at least three standards: IEEE, IETF, and ISO. The lack of unified standards and protocols continues to limit IoT from seeing wider adoption.

"Across multiple domains, there is no standard expectation of what IoT can really do for businesses and that is an opportunity for industries to level up on the knowledge of what basic IoT to more complex IoT, e.g., video analytics as IoT, can do for businesses."

Titus Yong

He reckoned businesses should start by embracing basic IoT, to collect information in a simple format to benefit from the insight. "The state of knowledge is not as deep as we would like it to be," he opined.

Connecting the dots

Digital transformation initiatives have opened the imagination of leadership, and users of technology, to the possibilities to change or transform the way work is conducted. IoT extends the spectrum of possibilities provided organisations are able to connect the dots.

Yong acknowledged that even internally at SPTel, there are many moving parts as he called them – from the network to the applications.

"Despite being probably the most digitalised telco in Singapore today, we have to leverage many pieces of information on the ground to determine whether the network is stable for customers.

"To connect the dots will require the operational technology (OT) player, from our engineers running the network, to our application guys using the information to produce a capability for customers to get their services in a digital manner. It's a long chain," he conceded.

Where are the disconnects

According to Yong, there are different appreciations of IoT depends on the industry. He cited, as an example within the power industry, OT has been collecting data for a long time, albeit in a very proprietary environment.

"Today, the power industry has realised that if they deployed the latest generation of sensors, they could get insights that will upstream, allowing them to automate the process of pre-emptive meetings. There are people who have played with IoT, and today translate the OT capability insight into a more automated upstream to the application, which can speed up the whole automation end to end," he continued.

With climate change awareness at an all-time high, it is natural to see an increase in the launch of innovative ideas that merge new emerging technologies while supporting social causes such as sustainable initiatives.

SPTel announced Singapore’s first Sensor Network powered by LoRaWAN Gateways which runs on solar energy, a first-of-its-kind network built for national scale, to increase the accessibility of IoT technologies and sensors for business applications, government projects, and Smart Nation initiatives, supporting Singapore’s digitalisation and sustainability ambitions.

Considerations for fuelling IoT Adoption

Yong believes that harmonising information from IoT to fit into an automation process requires a huge investment. He understands that infrastructure costs will deter many businesses.

"In Singapore, we built a common platform to collect data from different types of sensors, because we don't worry about the communication protocol. We can rationalise this on a common platform, which provides a common dashboard that can be easily customised to different verticals, lowering the cost to serve and deliver.

Arguably, setting common standards and platforms is important but that is just the first step. The ability to talk to the different technologies in the network is important.

"Most importantly, sensors have to talk to the backend, which is why we invested in the islandwide LoRaWAN network in Singapore, which allows sensors to easily turn on, plug and play, to talk to a common network," concluded Yong.

Click on the PodChat player and listen to Yong elaborate on how markets in Asia may be poised to accelerate IoT in the years post-pandemic.

1. What are the main obstacles faced by organisations when it comes to enabling technology and innovation in their processes?
2. Focusing our attention on IoT – what do most businesses know about IoT as it relates to their business operations?
3. When it comes to digital transformation and IoT, are our business, operations and technologies connecting the dots?
4. Can you highlight where the disconnects are?
5. What is your general view of IoT adoption in Asia? Where is it more mature and where are there significant opportunities ahead for those willing to adopt IoT?
6. As we start to hear more leaders commit to and call on their organisations, to sustainable practices, how do you see IoT supporting such efforts in the near and long term?
7. What will be critical considerations for organisations undergoing digital transformation, as it relates to the use of IoT?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Accelerating IoT in Asia appeared first on FutureIoT.

“The top spending manufacturing markets on SCADA/HMI software are computer and electronic manufacturing, machinery manufacturing, and other transport manufacturing (which includes aerospace, ship, and railroad manufacturing),” said James Prestwood, industrial and manufacturing technologies research analyst at ABI Research.

SCADA/HMI competitive landscape

The SCADA/HMI software market is not incredibly expansive, with prominent vendors holding a significant proportion of the market share. While there are pure-play software vendors, they have less market impact than those within the MES market.

The most significant market shares are held by Emerson, Siemens, and Mitsubishi Electric, with 17.3%, 12.1%, and 11.6%, respectively. Other notable players within the market are Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, and Honeywell.

Modularity and integration are the two main design elements being championed by technology vendors for their SCADA/HMI offerings. Software is designed with open standards that allow for easy operability with the manufacturer’s pre-existing production processes.

“These vendors are designing their solutions to meet both modular and holistic frameworks, designing end-to-end portfolios that can be deployed holistically or used to fill gaps in pre-existing systems. Siemens' Xcelerator, GE Digital’s Proficy, and Mitsubishi Electronics’ ICONICS suite are primary examples,” concluded Prestwood.

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Designed with the well-being of warehouse operators in mind, FusionPort maximises employee performance by presenting two tilted order-picking Bin openings and visual picking aids. These features reduce the repetitive movements operators face as they manually transfer inventory from one location to another while streamlining order picking by providing visual cues with a pick-to-light system for easy item identification. The station additionally includes an enhanced safety hatch that makes the Bins accessible only when the Port is ready for picking.

"Businesses today need to optimise their picking process if they are to meet evolving customer demands, but in order to achieve this, warehouses must be equipped with the tools that will enable their employees to work productively and safely," said Carlos Fernandez, chief product officer at AutoStore.

Fernandez says the two solutions will enable businesses to best serve their staff while leveraging the world-class technology that AutoStore is known for.

AutoStore developed FusionPort Staging based on an in-depth understanding of the space constraints that warehouses face by storing inventory in staging areas. The workstation consolidates order picking and staging to a single Port, allowing businesses to streamline operations and reduce real estate and costs by decreasing the space required for staging. The FusionPort also features visual picking aids and a safety hatch. FusionPort Staging comes pre-assembled for easy installation and allows organisations to store consolidated orders dust-free.

Both workstations feature a compact exterior design for greater flexibility when integrating with additional automation technology, with FusionPort Staging offering up to four times more storage capacity for existing warehouse footprints.

The post AutoStore introduces enhanced workstations appeared first on FutureIoT.

ABI Research says as a new tool in the IoT toolbox, these devices promise a significant expansion in the use cases and corresponding value that can be generated – initially in the supply chain market but with substantial opportunities beyond.

“Over the past 15 years, the printed electronics market for asset tracking has been driven by RFID. This will continue to remain a dominant technology. Still, the evolution of low-power IoT technologies from Bluetooth through to cellular and non-cellular LPWAN technologies is making possible the creation of RF labels with enhanced capabilities,” explains Tancred Taylor, industry analyst at ABI Research.

“The cost, simplicity, and enhanced features of these devices – including range, lifespan, and data throughput – will enable enterprises to address entirely new use cases which have previously not been possible.” Tancrid Taylor

Bluetooth labels like Wiliot and Reelables have driven awareness around the emerging possibilities from printed IoT. These are already seeing substantial adoption volumes thanks to the technology's maturity using very low-power chip designs.

In contrast, the market for WAN labels has been more complicated due to a higher engineering burden. The alignment of printable batteries, connectivity protocols, reel-to-reel printing, and device provisioning has proven a significant obstacle in the past three years.

While some impressive initiatives have been successful, particularly in China, it is only in the second half of 2022 that significant progress has been made on major LPWAN protocols. Announcements by Sigfox operators and partners, SODAQ (most recently with Qualcomm), NNNCo, and many others have shown that products are nearing readiness for major adoption. Behind the scenes, numerous vendors across the value chain are working on bringing to market their own designs.

Cost is only one of the many aspects of smart labels that make them attractive. Taylor says smart labels are already evolving in numerous directions from features and form-factor perspectives, which will entirely change how enterprises gather data on their assets, which will be the greatest driver of value.

"Initially, the use cases that present themselves most clearly are in the supply chain. Still, opportunities exist in retail and industrial management markets, and even in B2C markets in the not-so-distant future,” he added.

“The key is for companies to target the right use cases, understand how smart labels will function alongside the rest of IoT, and position themselves actively within the value chain to take advantage of this fast-developing market.”

Tancred Taylor

The post 581 million labels get smart with IoT appeared first on FutureIoT.

Meanwhile, intensifying community issues such as an ageing population and declining birth rates further widened the local workforce gap, there is thus an urgency for society to proactively explore alternative approaches in maximising the potential of robots, which in turn elevates our quality of life, especially for those with a lower self-care ability such as the elderly and the sick.

On the other hand, as environment, society and governance (ESG) subjects become more prominent, organisations increased their investment in sustainability and environmental research, in order to look for solutions that can boost energy efficiency through robotic technologies.

Hong Kong-based robotic applications and systems developer, RV Technology demonstrated a self-developed Agnostic Robotic Control System (ARCS).

During a press conference at the Hong Kong Science Park, RV Technology introduced how ARCS can manage and control different robots from multiple brands and provided a platform for ARCS-managed robots to demonstrate tasks in different scenarios.

Today, ARCS is adopted in the fields of rehabilitation and healthcare, providing more autonomous and refined care services, as well as easing the burden of healthcare professionals with the help of smart technologies.

Rio Chau, CEO of RV Technology says, “Leveraging on the ARCS’ centralised control system, we expect shorter lead times for programming and integration of different robots, alongside higher flexibility in synchronisation, bringing efficiency and convenience benefits to a wider spectrum in our everyday lives. We strive to create a more livable and promising future and keep looking into comprehensive environmental solutions through systematic data mining in support of the city’s sustainable development.”

Not only can ARCS help enterprises and organisations to improve efficiency and save cost, but its distinctive feature of centralised management also smoothens the process of data management and analysis, by resolving the isolation deadlock of different types of robots.

In the foreseeable future, ARCS will be able to integrate artificial intelligence to cater to different scenarios, create the most suitable application plans, and provide tailor-made suggestions derived through analysis of environmental data collected by robots, bringing sustainable performance of corporations and organisations to the next level.

The post Cloud-based agnostic robotic control system comes to Hong Kong appeared first on FutureIoT.

Connected buttons are sometimes described as "smart buttons," but what makes the LTE-M IoT button so effective is its simplicity. A single click or press sends an event over the built-in LTE-M connection to the Soracom or UnaBiz platform endpoints, where the real intelligence resides. From there, the possibilities are nearly limitless.

Users can configure the button to trigger serverless functions on popular cloud services such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. After registering the device, a user can simply select a cloud service, apply a piece of code and associate a button click to trigger any logic deployed in the cloud.

Developers looking to quickly understand and apply Soracom or UnaBiz platform capabilities can use the LTE-M button as a standalone device or with sensors and other devices (like a flood sensor or magnet relay) for more industrial applications.

Based on the code that users choose to deploy to their cloud of choice, the button can be used for any purpose. With the push of a button, users can order products and services (like ride-hailing or meal ordering), start or stop a task (as in a home automation context), generate an alert, provide feedback, and more.

Industries such as eCommerce, call centres, hospitality, maintenance, and transportation can use the IoT button to automate operations, streamline workflows, and improve customer service.

“The magic of the LTE-M Button is that it's a very simple device, but its applications are limited only by the user's imagination. Because it includes both connectivity and cloud integration, users can incorporate it into their own IoT use cases immediately on registration,” said Kenta Yasukawa, CTO and co-founder of Soracom.

He claimed that it's a very effective reference device for getting started in IoT, but it can also serve more sophisticated use cases, like connecting sensors and relays.

"Adding Soracom's platform capabilities lets the LTE-M button serve advanced cloud-based IoT systems using serverless cloud functions, data lakes, machine learning services and more,” he added.

With Soracom, UnaBiz is now pursuing LTE-M devices that allow enterprises and developers to easily integrate with existing business workflows and systems.

“Building on our deep knowledge of Sigfox-based low-power devices design, it was only natural for UnaBiz to partner with Soracom team expertise in LTE-M integrations,” said Alexis Susset, CTO of UnaBiz.

According to Susset, the collaboration has enabled both parties to jointly deliver a simple, evolutive and elegant IoT button which will last years on a single battery charge and benefit from the growing LTE-M networks coverage.

Features of the LTE-M button include Soracom’s eSIM technology, a three-colour LED status indicator, FOTA (or firm over the air) support, replaceable AA batteries, IP54 grade, and a recycled plastic casing. The button is pre-configured to send events to the companies’ cloud endpoints.

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Expanded SD-WAN offering

By building a unique virtual overlay network on top of an underlying transport(s), VMware SD-WAN enhances application reliability by responding to wireless or wired network issues in milliseconds – a requirement for Over The Top (OTT) applications.

VMware SD-WAN and SASE support a wide range of transport services including LTE/3G, satellite transport and wired transport options like MPLS and broadband allowing for greater flexibility in WAN connectivity.

With VMware SD-WAN, customers can use any of these transport services as real-world tests have shown VMware SD-WAN can provide more than 40% improvement in quality of experience (QoE) for voice and video applications when using satellite and cellular, per VMware internal testing.

The platform enables higher network utilisation through adaptive thresholds designed from real-world learnings from more than 100,000 cellular and satellite connections used today by VMware customers.

These enhancements set the direction for management plane APIs and AIOps integration with 5G carrier platforms to support advanced service customizations using network slicing and RIC integration, allowing service providers to better address the WAN demands of enterprises.

The combination of APIs, AIOps, and network slicing will enable enterprises to benefit from better economics, service provisioning, and service management.

VMware SD-WAN and SASE will enhance connectivity, compute, and intelligence in rapidly evolving edge use cases with the help of VMware Private Mobile Network.

The post VMware client extends SD‑WAN to Operational Tech appeared first on FutureIoT.

To help companies keep their OT environments secure, Palo Alto Networks launched what it claims is the most comprehensive Zero Trust OT Security solution.

A key component of the solution is the new cloud-delivered Industrial OT Security service, which can be easily enabled — without the need to install additional sensors — by any of the 61,000+ active customers of Palo Alto Networks network security products: hardware and software Next-Generation Firewalls (NGFW) and Prisma SASE. Built on an AI-powered foundation with ease of deployment in mind, the new solution enables customers to secure their OT environments from the most sophisticated threats while simplifying their operations.

The challenges around security OT

OT devices can be hard to secure because many lack built-in security and were not designed to be patched. In addition, high uptime requirements limit the ability to do regular security maintenance. OT environments are also at risk as organisations adopt new technologies like 5G, which enable mass connectivity, and open up remote access.

“Most OT security solutions in the market fall short because they can’t identify all the assets and can only alert but don’t prevent threats. This leads to a patchwork of siloed security technologies, which can lead to security gaps,” said Anand Oswal, SVP for network security at Palo Alto Networks. “Our OT Security solution is designed to help organisations stay secure through granular visibility and effective inline security while meeting their availability and uptime requirements.”

Implementation

Using the industry’s first ML-powered OT visibility engine, the Industrial OT Security service recognises hundreds of unique OT device profiles, and over 1,000 OT/Industrial Control System (ICS) applications, and has hundreds of distinct OT threat signatures to help protect these hard-to-secure assets.

“As industrial OT systems and IT systems become more interconnected, so does the size of the attack surface available to the adversary. Defending against increasingly sophisticated threats requires expanded security strategies that can provide visibility, context, and Zero Trust capabilities across both OT and IT networks, devices, applications, and users,” said Dave Gruber, principal analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “The Palo Alto Networks solution embraces this unified security model, promising to help protect complex OT environments.”

A notable feature of the service is its ability to help security teams proactively understand risk and apply controls. It continuously observes, categorises, and visualizes asset behaviour so anomalies can be discovered immediately and addressed with a firewall policy.

“Manufacturing has come into the crosshairs of many recent cyberattacks. Palo Alto Networks Industrial OT Security is a must-have to ensure security best practices are in place,” said Jared Mendenhall, director of information security at Impossible Foods. “We look forward to Palo Alto Networks’ dedicated OT Security solution to help us further secure our manufacturing plant, and remote operations, and realise our broader Zero Trust vision.”

Palo Alto Networks’ Zero Trust OT Security solution secures multiple OT use cases with consistent Zero Trust policies, all managed centrally:

• OT assets and networks using Palo Alto Networks NGFWs, along with the new Industrial OT Security service.
• Remote access using Prisma SASE.
• 5G-connected devices using NGFWs with Palo Alto Networks 5G-Native Security.

The post Palo Alto Networks simplifies OT security appeared first on FutureIoT.

Although the new normal may have a slight mix of paranoia over the possibility of a new COVID variant, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and the threat of runaway inflation, other issues remain table stakes for those in the supply chain ecosystem, including appropriately stocked inventory, manpower needed to move things around. And in cases where robots move inventory, manpower is to oversee the accuracy of such movements.

FutureIoT spoke to Oscar Lindberg, CIO at AutoStore, to cover some of the current trends impacting the office of the chief information officer as organisations look to deploy smart warehousing strategies.

We hear about the smart warehouse. What exactly does a typical smart warehouse look like?

Oscar Lindberg: First and foremost, to have smart order-fulfilment solutions in place, you need to implement some sort of automation technology. Today, more than 80% of warehouses globally have no automation whatsoever. Besides the automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) solutions, it is important to have a reliable warehouse management system to optimise and streamline your processes.

Businesses should apply both data and analytics capabilities that provide real-time inventory insights, and real-time locating systems that monitor the position of material and vehicles in the warehouse. In summary, a smart order-fulfilment solution helps you reduce costs and become more efficient.

Looking at the technologies involved in smart warehousing, where does the CIO get involved and typically who does he or she work with at the start of a warehouse modernizing effort going all the way to day-to-day operations?

Oscar Lindberg: I believe a CIO should work side-by-side with logistics, operations, and finance from the very start. A natural responsibility is a system installation, configuration, and integration of the warehouse systems, but also ensuring product security throughout the process.

Smart order-fulfilment solutions are increasingly system-dependent and business continuity requirements increase. After deployment, the CIO is responsible for day-to-day operations such as maintenance and security.

What IT technologies need to be integrated into the smart warehouse to achieve optimum benefits?

Oscar Lindberg: Your data is synchronised across all systems. Technologies such as AS/RS, WMS, WCS (Warehouse Control System) and RTLS (Real-Time Locating System) should be integrated with your ERP system and other relevant enterprise platforms. To further enhance a data-driven operation, businesses should integrate these technologies into a data and analytics platform.

How does a CIO prepare for warehouse modernization?

Oscar Lindberg: A good place to start is assessing current capabilities and weaknesses. There is no one size fits all solution, as smart order-fulfilment solutions need to be tailored to your organisation’s operational needs. Unless you have the expertise internally in your business, I recommend connecting with a logistics and supply chain integration partner for specific recommendations. 

How does the CIO ensure all parties involved, including those outside the IT team, work seamlessly in the operation of a smart warehouse?

Oscar Lindberg: To me, it is a matter of alignment from an early phase. The CIO should work closely with relevant stakeholders such as logistics, operations, and finance from the initial phases such as the assessment and planning phase.

Given all the continuing developments within the warehousing ecosystem, how does the CIO stay abreast of innovations? Or is it his or her job to do this?

Oscar Lindberg: Ideally, this should be a partnership between the CIO and the COO. The IT team should then support the supply chain team with relevant insights, acting as partners to achieve an efficient order-fulfilment solution.

We are into 2023. What can we expect when it comes to the adoption of smart warehousing technologies, and how does this get integrated into the overall digital transformation of a business?

Oscar Lindberg: Long-term growth of the automation market is supported by global megatrends and will continue to drive growth. Economic challenges such as labour constraints and inflation, coupled with consumer preferences for same-day delivery, reinforce the value of automation technology.

AutoStore just launched a research report with insights from over 300 C-level business leaders in warehouse management and fulfilment. The survey shows that a large majority of respondents have or will implement an automated storage and retrieval system by 2024. 32% have some sort of automation technology in place already and 56% are making plans to deploy it in the next 12 months.

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Perhaps this was the thinking behind computer scientist Kevin Ashton, then working at Procter & Gamble, when he proposed putting radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips on products to track them through a supply chain.

That was 1999. Fast-forward to 2023, IoT devices and sensors are expanding their influence from the production floors of manufacturers to warehouses all the way to retail shelves, and homes. Most remain designed for a specific, single purpose, their value now extends from innocuous public lights to critical systems that power cities.

The recent cyberattacks against public organisations, such as healthcare, and critical infrastructure like power and utilities, reveal the extent to which organisations need to enhance the security of these facilities while at the same time responding to business and consumer demands for faster, better, and more reliable service.

Can you have your cake and eat it too? How do you merge the unwieldy world of IoT with the controlled, predictable environment that IT is built upon? And do so while delivering it securely, faster and cheaper?

The IoT conundrum for the CIO and IT

Dee Dee Pare, senior marketing manager at CradlePoint says “the cloud is the de facto way that everyone delivers applications and stores data.” She points out that applications work as if they are next door. In contrast, IoT is messy, outdoors, usually at a larger scale, is distributed, and is found in environments where things just don’t operate (in a predictable fashion).

“IoT is not necessarily the most clean-cut way of doing things,” she added.

She hints that edge computing may be just the answer for IoT – “by having a lightweight version of your application, you can bring this closer to wherever the IoT device is,” she explained. “That way you minimise latency, also filter out some of the unnecessary traffic that goes back to the cloud (presumably saving bandwidth and data storage).

She called the increasing popularity of using containers, a self-contained application, inside a router.

“What you have is a low-footprint device closer to the IoT Edge. You only have one device to manage, figure out how to power it. Everything happens very quickly within the router, you have the connections back to the cloud,” she elaborated.

The other benefit is business continuity. “If the cloud goes down, the router with the containerised application can continue to work with the IoT devices connected to it. When the network comes back up, the router can send the necessary traffic back to the host,” she added.

Critical components of an edge strategy

What would be the critical components to developing an edge strategy that involves IoT, Pare suggested calling the containerised application running inside a router a “customer edge”. She then goes on to comment there are other edges.

She referred to Amazon Web Services as an example of the Internet edge. These tend to be distributed (in the cloud) and have more processing capability. She cautioned that by its design (in the cloud), the Internet edge will be further away from the devices – hence some latency can be expected.

The other edge is the 5G edge. “You can set up an edge in the cell tower as well – as some carriers are doing. That way you can improve and enhance performance as it goes out for the application and out from the cell tower,” she added.

Conceding that the customer edge provides the ‘most bells and whistles’, she advised anyone developing an edge strategy to keep in mind where the edge is located. “It is about balancing between the placement, the quantity of data processing, the latency from the application to the IoT devices, as well as how much you need to customise,” she elaborated.

Getting IT started with edge technology

Asked how easy it would be for traditional IT teams to build these applications around the edge, Pare noted that the challenge lies in developing lightweight versions of current applications. Pulling examples from within, she noted that among managed service provider partners, developing lightweight applications is their value-add.

She cited a partner in the US that developed an application for car wash operators. Running off a CradlePoint router, the solution ran the point of sales, the surveillance cameras, as well as the automated car wash machinery. An entire running on one router.

Getting IoT/OT to work with IT

Pare says IT needs to collaborate with the operational technology (OT) team. In the converging world of IT and OT, it is not feasible to manage each technology in a vacuum. She acknowledged that IT, throughout most of its history, has worked in predictable environments and therefore may not be ready for what she described as the ‘messy world of OT’.

“OT tends to work with machinery that is not the latest technology. In some cases, these types of machinery cannot be updated. OT needs to educate IT on these projects,” she added.

She conceded that the mixing of IT and OT will blur as the two start working together. But ultimately, she believed IT will own a little bit more of the onus because they have to understand it end-to-end.

“They (IT) must make sure things such as security are in place end-to-end, and they are ultimately responsible for that. There are several scenarios where the end-to-end fits a bit more cleanly in the IT side, but they can't do it without the help of the OT side, because OT knows the reality of what's happening on the ground."

Dee Dee Pare

The post Supercharging IoT with edge computing appeared first on FutureIoT.

IoT Analytics market research, Matthieu Kulezak, observes that within the (ICT) supply chain there are three distinct submarkets: software, hardware, and connectivity. The software itself is further segmented into sourcing software, supply chain planning and design software, and supply chain execution software.

This software is then connected to hardware like packing and place machinery, and automatic sorting and retrieval machinery for logistics. Finally, there is the connectivity submarket such as IoT-based track and trace devices. Network operators fit into the connectivity submarket.

Changes introduced during the pandemic

According to Kulezak, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, CEOs and CFOs assumed that supply chains just operated unencumbered by the day-to-day problems of running a business. The pandemic revealed just how complicated supply chain issues were – vulnerable not just to business cycles but to operational issues of suppliers and business parties.

“They realise that supply chains are important, and they need to work to have their business working so that that's clear. And they'll ask way more questions on supply chain visibility,” he added.

He concluded this is why supply chain managers are undertaking digitisation.

Digitalisation and transformation of the supply chain

Kulezak noted the recent big push for digitisation in part to support remote work and to gain supply chain visibility.

“There's been a lot of issues on the structures of the supply chain, on the networks. For example, an automotive or pharmaceutical manufacturer realised that they could not produce, not because of their own production capabilities, but because of a supplier that couldn't produce,” he added.

He acknowledged that at times, it’s the very little things that can stop an entire production system. He noted that the adoption of digital twins is enabling manufacturers to create replicas of the entire supply chain network to identify and pinpoint where the issues are.

Trends influencing the digitisation of the supply chain

He reiterated the big push towards visibility across the supply chain. He observed that the different players in the supply chain will have their view, albeit narrow, as to what constitutes visibility within their supply chain.

This complicates the challenge for IT vendors who, according to Kulezak, face a “fight for semantic” where depending on the business of the party in the supply chain will have a different interpretation of what visibility within the supply chain is important.

By way of example, a transportation company may have a different track and trace requirement compared to a manufacturer or warehouse distribution hub or parts supplier.

The cybersecurity angle

Complicating the digitisation journey for organisations in the supply chain is cybersecurity. Kulezak concede to have a functioning supply chain requires that all parties are connected.

“For example, an automotive manufacturing company will need to have all of the inventory of production capability data from suppliers, as well as the suppliers of its suppliers, in order to have a good prediction of the future,” he elaborated.

The predicament here is that some organisations may not be so open to sharing their data with others in part because they are concerned about cybersecurity risks. He called out efforts in some industry sectors to create third-party platforms that allow for data to become available to participants in the supply chain in a secure fashion.

Conclusion

Kulezak sees healthy growth in the software and hardware sectors of information technology supporting the supply chain.

He sees a growing demand for the simplification of technologies that deliver supply chain visibility. This, in turn, is resulting in a consolidation of the technology solutions marketplace. He foresees pe challenge for ICT players – choosing the right product to go for.

Click on the PodChat player to listen to Kulezak’s observations and recommendations for supply chain leaders in 2023.

1. Define Digital supply chain.
2. Looking back from pre-pandemic to this period (mid-August 2022), how have things changed regarding digital supply chains?
3. In accelerating digital transformation, which areas of the software have gained relevance in the industry verticals of the supply chain?
4. Which trends are helping in terms of digitisation of the supply chain?
5. How are companies approaching the topic of cybersecurity in the supply chain?
6. In summarising everything we’ve discussed, what are IoT Analytics’ recommendations for business, operations and technology leaders?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Changing the future of global supply chains appeared first on FutureIoT.

“With increased focus on sustainable development goals, enterprises are looking for tools to help them better audit and interrogate their supply chains. The connectivity of IoT solutions coupled with the security, immutability, and transparency that blockchain can provide is very appealing,” said John Canali, IoT Principal Analyst, Omdia.

However, despite the clear enterprise interest in blockchain, Omdia believes the technology must evolve further before it is ready for rapid adoption in IoT. 

“Probably the limiting factor is simply the complexity of blockchain technology. Not only is blockchain conceptually complex, but it is also technically complex and there are different varieties of blockchain solutions with different attributes.  As such, enterprises will need to establish internal expertise before adopting it widely in their organisation,” he added.

The added complexity runs contrary to the simplicity that many IoT enterprises require. This was highlighted in an Omdia survey where enterprises cited IoT adoption complexity as one of the top 3 pain points (and key challenge).

Canali is optimistic about the future convergence of these two transformative technologies. “Blockchain is evolving very quickly and addressing inefficiencies in the technology. For instance, in a short amount of time, stakeholders have addressed issues around the massive amounts of energy used to mine blockchains. Omdia believes this progress will continue and allow the technology to see wider implementation in IoT.”

John Canali

The post Blockchain is a priority for IoT enterprises in 2023 appeared first on FutureIoT.

Speaking at the IoT Asia+ event in Singapore, Sathvik Rao, principal director of Accenture’s Industry-X, noted how the pandemic has permanently changed the landscape. “Covid-19 has thrown up many uncertainties and changed the way we live, work and play. It has also accelerated the adoption of IoT – in fact, we have leapfrogged five to seven years in the past two,” he added.

Rao cautioned that several issues that need to be addressed as priorities. “The most immediate challenges relate to ensuring operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) security. In addition, several developments including device security and operation, power constraint and battery management issues, as well as the growing problem of chip shortages, also need to be resolved,” he continued.

For his part, Anson Bailey, the head of Consumer and Retail for the ASPAC region for KPMG China, posited that maintaining that the retail world is on the cusp of a new normal. He called for organisations to be more agile and resilient.

“The rise of IoT is a key enabler, but trust and purpose are going to also be key drivers, especially in the case of Gen Z consumers, a demographic that sees businesses through quite a different lens. Retailers, meanwhile, are looking at new technology and new innovations, while turning to AI, VR, big data and 5G to drive customer experience,” he added.

FutureIoT spoke to Paul Jesemann, regional chief technology officer for Asia-Pacific at Mavenir for his take on where IoT deployment is headed in the region.

Where is the concentration of IoT deployment? Why is that? What is driving this deployment of IoT?

Paul Jesemann: To pinpoint a region or market for the concentration of IoT deployment would be difficult, especially in a region as diverse as the Asia-Pacific (APAC). For different countries, various IoT projects have gained prominence, driven by demand within a sector or government and societal development initiatives.

For instance, advanced solutions for the mining industry in Australia differ from the smart city and digitalisation projects and initiatives in India, Singapore, or Thailand. Commonalities in driving the deployment of IoT is the need for and focus on value, whether derived or delivered.

Which industries are leading the deployment? Compared to other regions outside Asia, how sophisticated (mature) is the level of use of IoT?

Paul Jesemann: Different industries such as mining, agriculture, healthcare, and governmental or societal initiatives, such as smart cities, lead to IoT deployment in various ways.

The global IoT market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 25.2%, between 2022 and 2028, and the APAC region is projected to grow significantly during the forecast period. The growth is driven by several factors including urbanisation, mega-cities, population growth, and migration, amongst others.

Demand for IoT development is growing and made easier to meet. Combined with the innate innovation mindset, APAC can witness rapid growth in IoT solutions.

Within the leadership of these organisations deploying IoT, what do you see are the primary motivations?

Paul Jesemann: A primary reason why organisations deploy IoT is the numerous societal benefits derived from smart cities and government-driven initiatives. According to the UN, more than 60% of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030 and, if implemented properly, IoT can help optimise city functions, improve quality of life, and promote economic growth.

Another motivation is the opportunity for businesses to expand their digital capabilities and improve their operations to be more cost-effective and efficient. In fact, IoT is expected to reduce maintenance costs by more than 25% and downtime by 35%.

How do you see these IoT deployments impacting other initiatives like transformation, modernisation and many more?

Paul Jesemann: IoT deployment is often the result of digital transformation projects, and these are inextricable. The early IoT projects have led to the development and adoption of digitalisation initiatives and will do so in the future.

Consider the ecosystem effect, where technological advancement and cost-reduction initiatives driven by demand have led to further advancements in space.

"Cloud connectivity and edge solutions have enabled larger, more integrated projects that allow us to rapidly evolve through scalability, agility and leveraging cost-efficiencies. Human behaviour and expectations against IoT solutions, whether explicit or implied, will also change, further driving IoT deployments."

Paul Jessmann

Given that security is a rising concern for businesses, how should enterprises deploying IoT manage the security strategy of the company?

Paul Jesemann: Security remains an integral part of any business process or solution. The threat vectors and exposure to security breaches increase as the complexity and size of a project grow. The key to success is to make IoT deployments as secure as possible by including all solution components and mitigation measures against the worst possible scenario.

In mission-critical private network deployments, specifically for IoT projects, security is a key driver, top-priority requirement, and design criteria. This includes extending sophisticated access control to network services for devices or behaviour drift detection, in addition to the traditional aspects of security solutions.

As we step into 2023, how should enterprises review IoT deployment strategies to ensure that these initiatives meet expectations?

Paul Jesemann: Enterprises should review IoT deployment strategies according to the size and maturity of their organisation. As a starting point, it is important to recognise the business value and identify what problem it solves, the benefits the intended project delivers, and the costs.

Another consideration is choosing the right IoT partner to work with. An experienced partner that has executed implementations in your industry will help save you time, and money and guide you throughout the pilot phase. Another key consideration is to ensure a secure network that is robust, prevents any potential attacks and addresses any cybersecurity issues immediately.

The post State of IoT deployment and what to do next in 2023 appeared first on FutureIoT.

In the face of an expanding range of challenges connected to global production and supply chain management issues, IoT can enable businesses to better manage the intricate webs of production, distribution, and delivery across global supply chains.

For 2023, we see a growing importance of private 5G networks and edge data, as well as more VR/AR use cases and an increased focus on sustainability efforts within the industry.

The rise of private 5G networks

The use of private 5G networks in industrial settings, such as manufacturing, where sensors and robotics are heavily used, will begin delivering on the promises of device connectivity, machine reconfigurability, and real-time data analysis. Increased use of private 5G will enable troves of new connected devices, collecting more data at the edge than ever before, in addition to broader adoption of IIoT-enabled solutions.

Private network deployments have seen growing interest recently. Allied Market Research expects the market in Southeast Asia to reach nearly US$2 billion by 2030, expanding at a CAGR of 41.9% from 2021 to 2030. 5G speed and mmWave wireless is allowing IoT and Industry 4.0 applications to reach their full potential.

With increased bandwidth, lower latency, and mobility from 5G, there will no longer be any “obvious” decisions for where to process workloads. IT professionals will have greater flexibility in designing networks that better suit their organisations’ changing needs. Bandwidth and physical constraints will no longer dictate business decisions as they have in previous years.

Growth of edge data

2023 will bring more opportunities for cloud and network convergence and force a rethinking of IT architectures, especially at the edge and for mobile environments where IT meets the physical world. The explosive growth of edge data, driven by IIoT adoption and 5G, will allow companies to quickly process and analyse data where it lives and where quick responses are required.

This has consequences for the data storage industry. Research and Markets see growth of more than 20% CAGR for the edge data centre market in Asia Pacific in the next five years, as countries in the region support data centres and colocation that is lowering network traffic and costs. Smaller data centres need less energy for cooling. And sensitive data can be stored on-site, instead of in the cloud.

Boost for VR/AR

Computer vision will take a more prominent role as new technology, including low latency 5G networks, edge computing power, and AI tools make AR and VR more accessible to frontline workers. Images on smart devices appear more realistic to users, enhancing usability.

Several possible use cases come to mind, as a collaboration between remotely based colleagues is becoming much more effective. Maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) specialists can give guided assistance to workers at factories wearing smart glasses.

A senior employee can provide training and guidance using a special pen that draws 3D holograms, for example. New employees at a plant can use AR devices with pre-recorded instructions on how to carry out specific work.   

Becoming more sustainable

Digital solutions and data-driven processes will become intrinsically more important to achieving corporate sustainability targets by allowing enterprises to track and visualise progress in these areas in a more automated way.

Ambitious sustainability goals will only be met by companies that embed these goals in their offerings and can digitalise their processes to address sustainability while balancing the pressure to show immediate action and business results.

Sustainability is becoming an important requirement not just in terms of addressing today’s climate challenges. It is also increasingly important for investors, customers, and employees who recognise its real impact – on the company’s bottom line.

The post What’s in store for IoT in 2023 appeared first on FutureIoT.

The Deloitte report, 2023 manufacturing industry outlook, predicts that manufacturers will likely continue progressing toward smart factory transformations, as these initiatives drive future competitiveness.

Many manufacturers are making investments in laying the technology foundation for their smart factories. One in five manufacturers is already experimenting with underlying solutions or actively developing a metaverse platform for their products and services.

Trends influencing ASEAN’s manufacturers

According to Euromonitor International’s Voice of the Industry: Digital survey, around 62% of companies globally plan to increase their investment in cloud computing over the next five years, while around 50% of companies plan to invest in Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and production automation tools.

Pavan Mahajan, VP of solutions delivery for APAC at Belden observes that the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies gaining momentum among manufacturing companies in the region. He attributes this trend to manufacturers seeking to accelerate their journey towards full digital transformation.

Boston Consulting Group observes that harnessing Industry 4.0 will be key in helping the ASEAN manufacturing sector become more competitive and move up the value chain, with Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam among countries that are already investing in smart manufacturing solutions such as smart factories, industrial IoT, advanced robotics, and cloud computing.

“Customers are beginning to embrace the desire for digital transformation and are looking to transform their manufacturing ecosystem with industrial automation and smart solutions,” added Mahajan.

Industry 4.0 investment priorities

According to Justinas Liuima, insights manager, industrial with Euromonitor International, says to partly solve the problem and compensate for rapid wage growth, companies are forecast to accelerate their investment in production automation tools in 2023.

“Production automation in many cases could be the only viable option for companies to ensure productivity growth,” opined Liuima.

Mahajan says among Belden’s customers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, a key investment area is IT/OT convergence.

IDC predicts that by 2024, 50% of industrial organisations will be integrating data from edge OT systems with cloud-based reporting and analytics, moving from single-asset views to sitewide operational awareness. The IT/OT convergence market in APAC is estimated to develop at the highest CAGR of 7.1% from 2022 to 2027, from US$49,195 million in 2021 to US$73,523 million in 2027.

“As data becomes increasingly crucial for manufacturing companies to solve business challenges and achieve greater operational efficiency, performance, safety, and profitability, having access to an optimised, convergent network is key,” noted Mahajan.

With both IT and OT data available, he opined that companies could collect, move, integrate, and analyse data to automate processes and make better, more informed business decisions. “The additional capabilities in an IT/OT converged network, such as edge computing and analytics, will also usher in even greater opportunities for productivity and problem-solving,” he added.

Mahajan said that another key area of investment for manufacturers is in edge-to-cloud environments, especially edge technologies. We are seeing a higher level of acceptance and readiness among our manufacturing customers to invest in industrial edge solutions, with an increasing adoption rate over the past two years.

This is happening worldwide as well as in APAC, with GlobalData predicting that the global edge computing market will reach US$17.8 billion by 2025, with APAC sales accounting for 26.4%.

“As Industrial IoT (IIoT) and Industry 4.0 continue to gain momentum, investing in industrial edge capabilities will be key in enabling fully connected operational systems, reducing latency and cost of data processing while maintaining security and communication with the cloud,” concluded Mahajan.

Core competencies needed to benefit from Industry 4.0 innovations

Katarzyna Grzybowska and Anna Łupicka, authors of the report, Key competencies for Industry 4.0, noted that the demand for special skills will drive the shift of job creation within Industry 4.0 requiring more qualified managers.

For his part, Mahajan believes that to benefit from industry 4.0 manufacturers will need to have skills in network security, and data management and governance.

“The expanded, highly connected networks with more data transmission points, which are characteristic of Industry 4.0, create a greater need for security. This only grows with the integration of cloud computing, edge computing and the presence of older devices on an industrial network that can be more vulnerable,” he explained.

“Manufacturers need to have proper security measures in place to ensure network security, including the implementation of advanced network access control systems, industrial cybersecurity firewalls, and other hardware components to secure network infrastructures.”

Pavan Mahajan

He added that manufacturers also need to place more emphasis on industrial data management and governance. “With the adoption of smart technologies and IIoT, more and more devices are getting networked and connected. Organisations need to have a strong data governance policy that outlines how data needs to be stored, managed, accessed, and analysed and by whom to ensure data isn’t lost, stolen, or misused,” concluded Mahajan.

Top recommendations for ASEAN manufacturers

According to Mahajan, the pandemic has shown that digitisation which leads to digitalisation and usage of advanced technologies is key to staying resilient and agile in the face of major disruptions.

“As we move into a 2023 full of uncertainties, manufacturers in ASEAN need to further accelerate their digital transformation journey, prioritising the adoption of technologies such as warehouse automation and connected manufacturing,” he opined.

Mahajan posited that moving towards full automation for warehouses will help boost productivity and operational efficiency for manufacturers at the material handling level.

“Beyond being able to streamline workflows, eliminate waste and maximise output, smart automated warehouses will also be flexible and robust enough to support future technologies and processes, effectively futureproofing network infrastructures against changes and disruptions,” he continued.

“Depending on their focus and goals, manufacturers could also consider making the leap towards connected manufacturing, which harnesses the power of data to transform operations as well as customer and employee experience. With many uncertainties and challenges facing manufacturers now, it can be difficult for them to focus on the future,” he cautioned.

“Transitioning to connected manufacturing will ultimately enable manufacturers to stay ahead of the curve with significant long-term benefits such as boosting efficiency, reducing costs, and enhancing communication across all stages of manufacturing.”

Pavan Mahajan

“As the threat landscape is becoming more sophisticated than ever, manufacturers should look to reinforce their network security. Security should be taken into account at the initial stage of network design for a more holistic and effective approach to securing modern industrial networks.

“At the same time, security best practices such as implementing firewalls and continuous monitoring of potential threats should be applied in day-to-day operations to minimise security risks,” he concluded.

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Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis of the global BMS market reveals a need to ensure occupants’ safety and comfort encourages BMS market participants to focus on the digitalisation of buildings. The global market for BMS will likely reach $5.15 billion by 2026 from $3.52 billion in 2021, witnessing expansion at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9%.

“The need to manage buildings remotely is increasing post-COVID-19 and demands the convergence of advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), and emerging technologies with BMSs,” said Viswesh Vancheeshwar, energy, environment & sustainability industry principal at Frost & Sullivan.

“The health, wellness, comfort, and business productivity of occupants are driving change in buildings’ status quo. Further, the rising demand for energy-efficient and sustainable buildings, coupled with the need for simplified and effective building operation and maintenance, catalyse the market growth.”

Viswesh Vancheeshwar

Action items for market participants

• Incorporate AI and machine learning (ML) into digital twin platforms and align digital twin solutions to promote sustainability and net-zero buildings.
• Integrating BMS with the Internet of Things (IoT), AI, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) as the use case for these technologies in buildings is strengthening rapidly.
• Consider certifications that favour BMS as an integration hub connected to intelligent technologies and systems using IoT, AI, and cognitive analytics at the edge.
• Work with property developers and commercial real estate companies to offer integrated BMS solutions that target green/sustainable building developments.

The post Four digitalisation action items for building operators appeared first on FutureIoT.

"In many phase one projects enterprises focused on a single use case and on acquiring the data streams from single sources but as the organisations gain a deeper data-driven understanding of their operations, they can start to use other data sources (such as geolocation, machine maintenance data, weather, transactions activity, vehicular telemetric traffic data, and so on) to improve their analytics and expand beyond the original use case," he continued.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that any device that is connected to the internet is susceptible to some form of cyberattack. The Mirai Botnet and Stuxnet are two infamous attacks against targets that caused massive disruptions.  

Any device that is connected to the internet is susceptible to some form of cyberattack. Apart from the fact that IoT devices inherently have very little built-in security, and that patch management can be difficult because of their physical nature, the interconnectedness of these devices and the subsequent complex environments they are implemented pose grave security threats across entire networks.

Monitoring is a vital part of every security strategy, ensuring that all classic security tools like firewalls, unusual detection systems or privileged access management (PAM)-tools work flawlessly.  

Suitable monitoring solutions can ensure physical security by integrating door-locking systems, security cameras, smoke detectors or temperature sensors into central monitoring. And businesses in APAC should be prioritising this in 2023 to reduce their risk of cyber-attacks and data breaches.

In describing the state of IoT security or lack of it, David Montoya, the global head of IoT at Paessler, noted that it is not just the lack of security features in the IoT devices themselves that is the challenge, but where these devices are located.

“When you think about cybersecurity from the IT perspective, everything is central. You might have the perimeter and then you have all the endpoints in the middle. But here (with IoT) we might be talking about having a device, which is sending out information about the flow of water, or temperature or humidity of the soil, for example, in the farming context,” he explained.

“It is important to look at different security problems or challenges because we are not only talking about the security of the information. We are, in several cases, even talking about the security of the device itself.”

David Montoya

“People are creating vulnerabilities out of IoT, and they are willing to get a device, open it up and figure out how to reverse engineer it.  They will then try to figure out how it works and then install it again with some malware, which can then make the network vulnerable,” he continued.

Why IoT continues to be vulnerable

Montoya comments that despite more regulations and security practice context within the vendors, it is very costly or inconvenient for them to put extra resources, like computing resources into these tiny little IoT devices in use to be able to deal with patches and updates.

“For companies creating IoT devices, there is not a lot of value in needing to put more resources there,” he surmised.

He argued that device manufacturers are incentivised to create small devices that cost as little as possible. The other issue is the variety of devices and vendors. “Even though there are more regulations, there are still no standard practices put in place as to how the information should be stored,” he commented.

Twin standards to consider

Montoya clarifies that there are two standards they consider when it comes to IoT – security and communication. One is related to a standard for protocols and the way those devices connect to different cloud-based systems monitoring systems. These central consoles ensure all the devices are on and reporting data, etc. In such a heterogeneous environment the lack of standards is creating chaos in the IoT world.

“Every vendor with a specific device for a specific reason created specific ways of communication that led to multiple protocols nowadays,” he continued. “When you have different players, each looking at their market niche, what ends up happening is a lack of communication standards and protocols.”

“This (situation) opens the same vulnerabilities that have happened for operational technology (OT) before now happening for IoT as well. Stronger standards are one way things can get better in terms of how to secure all these kinds of devices.”

David Montoya

Monitoring tools can help improve the security of IoT

According to Montoya, monitoring tools help visualise the data, including receiving alerts about the data. And while IoT vendors may provide tools to monitor their solution, the variety of vendors and the specificity of their use cases, suggest that a user may have a collection of monitoring applications that track a specific kind of device.

And because these may not come from the same vendor, it is likely that these do not use the same standard and may not be able to communicate with each other.

In addition, Montoya believes that users will not likely stay with one vendor for the same use case throughout the entire life of the process. “It is very normal that you have a certain IoT device from a certain vendor today and maybe two, or three years later you need to go for another technology and another vendor,” he explained.

The result is complexity on the part of the user trying to make decisions on the entire system or process. “You will have multiple different visualisation tools with different databases where the data is stored. And whenever you are trying to retrieve the data from multiple sources, you will take more time to know what is going on, how to use the data, how to bring the data into a central location, how to use that central location to provide central visualisation,” elaborated Montoya.

Ideally, you will want a central location from which to manage all these different proprietary technologies, standards and protocols, something Montoya says is what Paessler does.

“We keep up with all these new technologies to provide a single pane of glass. So that multiple vendors for IoT devices can share the information with our visualisation tool and monitoring solution. So that the users can see everything in one place and can handle everything from a single location, we provide a central database, and they can also get centralised alerts,” he explained.

Where do we go from here?

IDC market analyst for Asia-Pacific, Sharad Kotagi, says enterprises no longer think IoT value is only limited to achieving operational efficacy and improved productivity.

“They see IoT as an enabler in the evolution of enterprises' requirements and challenges in an ever-changing business environment. Many organisations are willing to invest in digital technologies such as IoT, and AI to fully leverage the new expansive role of data in emerging digital business models.”

Sharad Kotagi

But in the race to Industry 4.0 and the promise of smarter IoT-enabled enterprises, businesses and operations should not forget that behind the facade of benefits such a transformation promises, lies a myriad of security threats and vulnerabilities that must be addressed not for the lifecycle of the IoT but the use cases it is trying to enable.

Click on the PodChat player and hear Montoya talk about the challenges organisations face as they integrate IoT into their operations, and why monitoring may be the best path forward to securing IoT as the converged future of IT, OT and IoT.

1. Paint us a picture of the security landscape where it involves IoT.
2. Technologies like IoT, security practices and regulations have evolved, why do IoT continue to be vulnerable?
3. Is the lack of standards around IoT protocol a problem for securing IoT?
4. Will this wide range of protocols also hinder the effective use of monitoring tools and services?
5. As IoT start to connect – be part of the enterprise, how should the CIO, CISO and the COO or head of operations work together to better secure IoT as these connect to the enterprise?
6. Your thoughts for 2023?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Why monitoring is essential in IoT adoption appeared first on FutureIoT.

Suppliers, distributors, and retailers are turning to digital transformations to cater to a rapidly growing market for end-to-end visibility and operational efficiency.

ABI Research forecasts warehouse management software (WMS) revenue in the food and beverage industry will reach US$975.2 million globally by 2026. Continued technology adoption will be critical to remain competitive and fulfilling growing consumer demand for omnichannel offerings.

“Technology adoption in the food industry has notoriously been low compared to other industries due to the razor-thin margins on food products and the challenge in managing products of different shelf lives and condition requirements,” said Ryan Wiggin, supply chain management & logistics industry analyst at ABI Research.

He opined that these very challenges that wide-scale digital transformations can help overcome, as well as help to ensure long-term price competitiveness and consistency in product availability.

“Accessible and scalable solutions are necessary for companies at each stage of the supply chain to thrive in such a fast-paced market,” he continued.

The technology landscape

As the volume of food and the number of ways consumers can shop for their groceries increases and the amount of labour available decreases, retailers are turning to software and hardware solutions to alleviate operational constraints.

Enabled traceability via the Internet of Things (IoT) data-fuelled software solutions, such as WMS and Supply Chain Control Towers, are becoming increasingly sophisticated and more accessible. As such, companies can move away from manual tracking and support better operational decision-making with deeper visibility and forecasting.

Companies like the Optel Group deliver centralised platforms to harmonize data and stakeholders across the supply chain, allowing companies to manage and react better to events. At the same time, companies like Wiliot offer innovative IoT solutions that can track product location, temperature, and exposure to provide real-time granular data and ensure food safety.

From a hardware angle, handheld devices, mobile computers, and interactive kiosks from companies like Zebra are facilitating retailers' move into omnichannel offerings to significantly increase worker productivity at both a store and warehouse level.

Item-picking solutions from robotics firms, such as RightHand Robotics, are helping to automate end-of-line operations to support micro-fulfilment and online order picking. Broader deployments of Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) and Automated Storage & Retrieval Systems (AS/RS) in warehouses continue to grow as functionality and control over the scale of deployments for end users develop.

“Growing operational pressures and incoming regulation such as FSMA Rule 204 will drive investment, but collaborative strategies and upskilling will be necessary to smooth adoption. Food companies must identify current pain points and establish phased digital transformation plans.”

Ryan Wiggins

“Technology vendors need to facilitate step approaches to adoption with continued engagement to ensure technology dispersal in the food industry is equitable and widespread,” concluded Wiggin.

The post Resilience in F&B to come from better visibility and insight appeared first on FutureIoT.

As Asia comes out of the three-year economic slump because of the pandemic, what lies ahead for businesses? What is the role of IoT in the return to some form of normalcy?

FutureIoT spoke to Danny Mu, principal analyst at Forester Research on recent trends around IoT adoption in Asia and where this will lead us in 2023 and beyond.

Drawing from the Forester Report, state of IoT in Asia Pacific in 2022. Where is the concentration of IoT?

We have seen that companies in Asia-Pacific are shifting the share of IoT engagements toward production deployments.

Five years ago, in 2017, production deployments comprised just 25% of engagements, and these were predominantly POCs or pilots.

But in 2021, 61% of engagements were production deployments. That is a clear indication that Asia-Pacific firms are getting more confident in the potential of IoT initiatives to generate business value.

Among all the IoT use cases, smart industry, smart consumer services, and smart infrastructure are popular in Asia-Pacific.

Why do you say the smart city industry in Asia Pacific's leading the world in terms of IoT?

As we know, Asia Pacific contributed 35% of the world's GDP, but when focusing on industry value added, including manufacturing, construction, and utilities, Asia Pacific contributed 44%. That is why the smart industry is a leading IoT use case.

What’s driving this deployment of IoT?

Three drivers. The first appearance and rising maturity of specialised IoT solutions and cloud-based IoT. Second, connectivity technologies such as 5G. Third capabilities and offerings of IoT consultants and service providers.

In Asia, which industries are leaving the deployment?

In Asia Pacific, two-thirds of telecom decision makers say their firm is currently adopting IoT solutions.

Adoption and investment are highest in high-tech manufacturing, 81% followed by telecom, 71%. General manufacturing and pharma are broadly in line with Asia-Pacific outreach.

Adoption rates below the average are found in financial services and insurance, 60%, and retail in wholesale 56.

Compared to other regions outside Asia, how sophisticated do you see the level of use of IoT in our part of the world?

According to the survey data, the IoT solution and application adoption rate in Asia Pacific is higher than in Europe and North America. Particularly in the high-tech manufacturing sector, the adoption rate in Asia Pacific is more than 10% higher than in Europe and North America.

Within the leadership at organizations deploying IoT, what do you see are the primary motivations most surveyed?

Asia-Pacific Telecom decision-makers are confident that IoT solutions will generate significant operational efficiency. Half of them expect IoT initiatives to significantly improve customer experience and increase revenue.

How do you see these IoT deployments impacting other initiatives like digital transformation and modernization, for instance?

Impacted by IOT solutions, enhancing customer experience in public places is the most often mentioned. Other use cases related to smart consumer services are also popular.

The two years of the pandemic have likely driven this trend as customer experience in public. It's driven by private companies, public infrastructure operators, and governments.

IoT Solutions also help to enable new business models, particularly in financial services and insurance – a clear indication that those firms will spend the extra IoT budget on usage-based insurance financing and lending.  

Given that security is a rising concern among business leaders, how should enterprises deploying IoT manage the security strategy of the company? 

Security is on top of the concerns with deploying IoT 10% higher than the second option. To help protect data in IoT scenarios, confidential computing can help to isolate sensitive operations in a trusted execution environment during processing.

To support the transfer of data between edge and cloud while appearing seamless to the developers, two networking markets, zero trust/edge, and multi-cloud networking will combine to create a business-wide networking fabric.

Finally, as we step into 2023, how should enterprises review IOT deployment strategies to ensure that these initiatives meet expectations?

We have found that Asia-Pacific companies are less confident in their in-house skills to deliver IoT solutions successfully. These points will need for consulting partnerships.

We also predict that the adoption of in-region digital industrial platforms will gain significant growth. Embracing these in region platforms and industry-specific cloud solutions will help Asia-Pacific firms meet their expectations.

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: IoT in Asia in 2023 and beyond appeared first on FutureIoT.

It will also impact which roles are needed, who fills those roles, and how organisations manage their operations. Operational excellence and resilience continue to present challenges across industries, as businesses struggle with supply chain disruptions, rising energy costs, talent constraints, and pressure to improve sustainability metrics.

Becoming a data-driven organisation is a journey that requires an honest assessment of the current state and a willingness to embrace the changes necessary to improve operational performance.

Recognising the need for new approaches and technologies, IDC has developed the Data-Driven Operations (DDO) framework and maturity model to help organisations benchmark themselves and develop plans to improve operational performance across multiple dimensions – efficiency, productivity, quality, safety, reliability, and sustainability.

"Data-driven operations is a journey but this should not be interpreted as a reason to be complacent,’ said Leif Eriksen, research vice president, Future of Operations at IDC.

“The pace of change in operations is beginning to accelerate and will result in significant realignments across a range of industries. Organisations that recognise the opportunity will thrive; those which fail to see it will not survive."

Leif Eriksen

The Future of Operations

Prediction 1: By 2025, 50% of G2000 industrial organisations will make real-time decisions balancing economic and sustainability metrics, simultaneously improving both sets of metrics by 5% across the enterprise.

Prediction 2: By 2026, 40% of product-centric organisations will use digital tools to measure life-cycle carbon footprint, creating demand for better integration between PLM and operational data.

Prediction 3: By 2023, talent shortages and pressure to improve operational performance will force organisations to re-evaluate their approach to digital transformation, resulting in greater use of outside services.

Prediction 4: By 2027, the use of extended reality technology, including AR/VR/MR tools, will increase by 40%, creating a new breed of digital workers and reducing operator/field worker errors by 30%.

Prediction 5: By 2026, the use of robots in non-traditional sectors, most notably remote inspection and maintenance, will increase by 35%, resulting in a 50% drop in inspection errors.

Prediction 6: By 2023, digital-first operations enabled by 5G connectivity will improve worker safety, resulting in a 20% reduction in lost time accidents.

Prediction 7: By 2027, 50% of remote operations will use satellite-enabled AI/ML technology to collect and analyse data at the edge, reducing costs and improving yields and energy usage in the natural resource sectors.

Prediction 8: By 2024, the cloud will surpass on-premises infrastructure as the primary location where operational data is stored, managed, and analysed for 50% of G2000 organisations.

Prediction 9: By 2024, 30% of industrial organisations will have become leaner and more agile than their competitors because of making real-time operational insights available anytime, anywhere, to anyone.

Prediction 10: By 2025, 50% of organisations will increase the use of IoT and OT cybersecurity solutions at the edge, cutting OT cybersecurity breaches in half.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has become a fertile ground for the combination of the IoT and digital twins to solve one of the biggest challenges brought about by the ensuing mobility restrictions – how to be more resilient to ongoing uncertainties.

As we prepare to face continuing uncertainties in 2023, what can we learn from the past three years to help businesses be more adaptive and resilient in the years ahead?

KONE is a Finnish engineering company best known for its elevators, escalators, automatic building doors, and monitoring and access control systems.

IoT has opened new business opportunities for Kone in areas such as remote monitoring, as Markus Huuskonen, KONE's head of maintenance processes, explains it: “This ability to remotely monitor equipment has been one of our targets for a pretty long time, but now IoT really enables us to do it efficiently while scaling up our operations.”

FutureIoT spoke Jukka Salmikuukka, partnership development director at KONE Asia Pacific, for his perspective on how organisations are adopting IoT to solve real-world business problems.

Which industries are leading the deployment of the Internet of Things (IoT)? Compared to other regions outside Asia, how sophisticated (mature) is the level of use of IoT?

Jukka Salmikuukka: IoT is utilised so widely that you can find great deployments happening in many industries. Good examples are manufacturing, finance, and healthcare where IoT is widely utilised.

"Regardless of the industry, often the deployments are driven by global organisations with the help of global technology/platform providers. This means that the best practices can be efficiently utilised, and the smartest deployments can be done regardless of whether the location of the underlying infrastructure (for example core networks for the internet) is solid and reliable enough."

Jukka Salmikuukka

In Southeast Asia, Singapore is leading the way and setting the standard in digitalisation in many ways – especially compared to the rest of the world.

The Smart Nation initiative has proven to be a very powerful approach in combining public and private sector actions to drive the adoption of digitalisation and IoT. Following this example, we have also seen the neighbouring countries actively working on various IoT opportunities.     

Within the leadership of these organisations deploying IoT, what do you see are the primary motivations?

Jukka Salmikuukka: Quite naturally it is usually about money – often IoT enables significant cost savings or opens new revenue opportunities.

More and better data combined with advanced analytics helps healthcare to operate more efficiently and provides more accurate care for patients.

Elevator and escalator companies such as ours can predict possible upcoming problems and neutralise those before issues arise allowing the people flow in busy buildings and cities to continue without interruptions.

The better retailers can understand their customer’s behaviour and preferences, the more successfully they can tailor their offerings for them.

Hotel operator may solve their service personnel challenges by deploying delivery robots to manage in-room deliveries. Numerous similar examples can be found in many industries.

At the same time, IoT can also play a significant role in helping organisations achieve their sustainability targets – IoT solutions can help eliminate waste, minimise energy consumption or achieve carbon-neutral operations, which besides providing financial benefits is also good for the planet.

Similarly, IoT can future-proof buildings for owners, so they can more accurately plan their future investments throughout the building’s lifecycle. 

How do you see these IoT deployments impacting other initiatives like transformation, modernisation and many more?

Jukka Salmikuukka: I would like to use a very worn-out cliche here: “everything is connected”. IoT is one of the key enablers for transformation, modernisation, and renewal.

IoT has changed and will keep on changing the world – the way we do things, how we work, how we play and how we live. Some jobs may disappear thanks to IoT, but new roles will emerge because of it.

Therefore, IoT deployments should be seen as tools and enablers to achieving the targeted transformations and other changes.

Given that security is a rising concern for businesses, how should enterprises deploying IoT manage the security strategy of the company?

Jukka Salmikuukka: Data security is a top priority when we speak about IoT. When leveraging IoT, security cannot be something that you “add” on top of the solution in the end.

It must be designed into the solution from early on to ensure that there is comprehensive, end-to-end security in place in a way that can be managed and updated when needed.

This type of comprehensive security management can be achieved only through systematically organised processes and practices that are applied throughout the entire organisation and in collaboration with the right type of partners.

As we step into 2023, how should enterprises review IoT deployment strategies to ensure that these initiatives meet expectations?

Jukka Salmikuukka: I believe everybody agrees that no organisation can walk away from digitalisation, but we all need to have a clear strategy and plan for it. It is very important to pick the right partners with whom the IoT initiatives can be carried out successfully.

The IoT and technology landscape is evolving so quickly that organisations need to stay on top of all the possibilities new technology can enable, being those digital twins, metaverse or anything else. This understanding combined with systematic technology roadmaps helps organisations deploy IoT successfully into their operations.   

The post IoT in 2023, beyond smart connectivity appeared first on FutureIoT.

Despite Singapore reporting a slightly smaller figure at 86%, there remain widespread gaps in industrial security and indicated opportunities for improvements.

Addressing the audience during the Operational Technology Cybersecurity Expert Panel (OTCEP) Forum 2022 on 12 July, minister for Communications and Information, Josephine Teo, stressed the importance of enhancing the collaboration between the public and private sectors, supported by suitable security tools investments, which will better position Singapore to manage future OT cyber-attacks.

During a media briefing, representatives from Fortinet, including Adam Wu, regional solution architect for OT, Rashish Pandey, vice president of marketing and communications, and Jonathan Chin, OT business development manager, joined Kenny Yeo, Frost & Sullivan's director and head of Asia Pacific cyber security practice, to talk about how organisations in Asia need to represent OT security practices.

When an OT attack occurs, what is the workflow for resolving the attack? Typically, when does the CIO/CISO/IT team get involved when an OT attack occurs?

Adam Wu: Don’t panic and don't pull the plug. Assess the process that you have currently in your plan. Then the CIO and IT team can decide, whether they want to isolate or start an instant response. The incident response has to be formulated by the organisation based on their needs. They toned to invoke caution before hitting the brake glass button and disconnecting everything.

Frost says OT refresh cycles take longer than IT. How do you then keep OT and IT security practices synchronised and reflect the present environment?

Rashish Pandey: The refresh cycles are different and longer for OT. The patching protocols are different depending on the different types of assets. How can these two teams work together? We observe that the air gap goes away and there is a need to have a common playbook that cuts across both IT and OT, known as IIoT alignment.  Aligning the mindset of OT and IT security is a bigger concern.

Adam Wu: Organisations can do virtual patching, periodic validation, and risk assessments in their environment. Organisations should conduct risk assessments and audits regularly to ensure that the current controls are being followed.

Do you see the current variety of connectivity standards for OT, and the varying age of OT devices as frustrating the securing of OT?

Rashish Pandey: We can choose to do something about it. Organisations need to make sure that traffic is protected in transit as well and are taking security measures. We can’t rip out all the OT infrastructure and replace it with brand-new infrastructure. We need to start with where we are and put in place a pragmatic approach to protect these assets.

How would you assess the state of OT security in Asia? Is the lack of maturity in OT security a reflection of lack of understanding or it’s just not a priority?

Rashish Pandey: OT security as a discipline has come to the forefront of the day which coincided with the rise of industry 4.0. It's mainly the lack of awareness but it’s speeding up fast. We see the board of directors getting involved in this conversation. We do see varying degrees of maturity across Asia, in which Singapore is a leading player. We have a very robust conversation happening on OT and critical infrastructure security.

Kenny Yeo: Regulation is also key, it’s the key number one factor leading to increased adoption of cybersecurity. Organisations tend to postpone OT security until something happens.

Do you think CISOs/CIO/Head of OT Ops will trust an AI to take remedial action against OT threats without human intervention?

Adam Wu: So, the level of security is according to the CVE rating, that is being assigned to a particular vulnerability. The score is derived from a variety of factors, whether it can easily exploitable, and whether it costs a lot of damage.

There is also a human element to giving that score. If the exploit is being stopped, that’s the most important.  For FortiGate, you can set what level of security you want to stop, let's say, out of five scores, you can set maybe three and above to block anything. It is flexible.

How should an OT security program be managed? Who should oversee this?

Jonathan Chin: The conversation is about cyber resiliency, which depends on the organisation's dynamics. For example, some organisations have a dedicated individual working specifically on readiness. They are responsible for understanding whether threats are real and critical, but also what they should be doing and who they should call.

Sometimes, the Lead Automation engineer takes charge due to OT system expertise, and the CIO/CISO acts as a consultant. In other cases, the IT teams take control regardless, and the Lead Automation engineer serves as a consultant. In an ideal case, an IT/OT specialized group should balance the IT/OT perspective.

Do you see AI/machine learning as going beyond the identification of threats and into the pre-emptive prevention of threats?

Jonathan Chin: AL/ML is utilized primarily for threat detection and automated responses upon discovery. However, we see AL/ML being increasingly used beyond threat identification to being utilized as take-down services, threat hunting at both networking, as well as endpoint levels, and actively pursuing botnet malware threats on the internet.

AI/ML models provide an effective way to counterattack by learning the pattern of these attacks. Putting in place intelligent analysis at the endpoints can also provide an enormous advantage since it protects the point where the possibility of human error is most exposed.

With IT looking at passwordless as the next level of authentication, do you see the necessity to deploy FIDO2 for IoT?

Jonathan Chin: Passwordless authentication and FIDO2 came out of consumer password fatigue while preserving the need for security. However, implementing the same for air-gapped scenarios/ private clouds will need expert supervision.

Security professionals can consider Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) technologies which confirm the identity of users by adding a step to the authentication process. A second step is to verify a user's identity to ensure that a cybercriminal can't access an individual's account even if a password is compromised.

OT organisations can also consider a Digital Risk Protection (DRP) Service that includes external attack surface management (EASM) and adversary-centric intelligence (ACI) which are essential in stopping adversaries early in their campaigns.

The post The Game Plan: Modernising OT security programmes appeared first on FutureIoT.

According to Data Bridge Market Research, the IoMT market in Asia Pacific is expected to grow with a CAGR of 24.1% from 2021 to 2028. Despite the growing IoMT market and rising adoption of advanced technologies, the healthcare industry still lags behind other advanced sectors such as info-communications on cybersecurity.

The cybersecurity risks patients and operations can be exposed to are real and pervasive. Additionally, the accreditation and compliance to standards for connected medical assets, including IoMT, are also straggling.  With the growing number of unmanaged medical and non-medical devices and sensors, the risks to hospitals' cybersecurity go beyond IoMT itself.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), during the first half of 2022, the healthcare sector has been the number one target of data breaches.

James Millington, senior director of product marketing at Armis, says concerns are not only with confidential medical data but also with patient care disruptions that might have life-threatening consequences. After all, the threat landscape has evolved with the rise of ransomware as a lucrative business model for criminals.

“The complexity of the healthcare tech stack, due to a diverse number of devices and types of systems, makes it harder to track assets and manage their vulnerabilities.”

James Millington

“For example, hospitals need to deal with a great number of medical device vendors, each one with its own, little-known proprietary operating system. Besides, many of those devices are mobile — think of infusion pumps being moved from one room to another, which can lead to misplacement or loss,” he added.

Does the coexistence of OT, IT, IoT, and IoMT expand the attack surface?

The healthcare device ecosystem is highly connected – beyond smart medical devices that are touching the patient or directly providing care. The growing number of devices connected to the internet – over 55 billion by 2025, as per IDC – leads to an increased attack surface, too.

Printers, self-check-in tablets, surveillance systems, smart lighting systems, and temperature control for vaccine storage are just a few examples of enterprise IT, Internet of Things (IoT), and operational technology (OT) in medical facilities. Hacking a smart TV in a waiting room might open the door to threats that can move laterally in often poorly segmented hospital networks and cause disruptions to patient care.

Why is it a concern that medical devices do not accommodate agents?

Since medical and clinical devices are regulated and built intentionally as walled hardware to achieve a specific outcome (for example, administering a medication), they usually don’t accommodate external software. As a result, they cannot be secured through traditional endpoint agents, nor easily updated or patched.

Effective patch management is a significant concern given that cybercrime and nation-state actors have focused on discovering vulnerabilities or unpatched systems as a main method of attack, according to the 2021 Microsoft Digital Defense Report.

Will the use of legacy technology compromise cybersecurity?

Medical devices generally have a higher lifecycle than consumer technology. Due to concerns over patching or restrictions due to FDA certifications, the operating systems and software running these devices may go untouched and unpatched for fear of rendering the device inoperable and impacting patient care.

Since medical equipment is expensive to replace, devices may even be operating outside the supported lifetime of the software they are running. An MRI machine, for example, might cost more than $400,000. Investments in hospital technology involve planning, training, and government subsidies.

Are vulnerability scans disrupting healthcare?

Medical devices have different sensitivities. You don’t know how a specific operating system (OS) will respond to the protocols of a vulnerability scanner. When the communication deviates from the expected, the device might crash.

If you are doing a scan through a workstation, the end user can likely tolerate the disruption, but a medical device malfunction while touching a patient can negatively affect care (for example, if the device stops working in the middle of surgery).

Network segmentation is recognised as a standard security strategy. How is the inconsistency in network segmentation affecting healthcare?

A typical hospital network is flat and divided between biomedical and corporate IT security teams, creating silos. IT is concerned with cybersecurity, while biomedical teams focus on clinical usage. Traditionally, VLAN keeps both sides separated, but it’s not designed for security.

Exposure to the IT side of the house increases risks. Many threats start on the IT side, such as the case of WannaCry malware, which spread through computers operating Microsoft Windows. As per Armis research, 40% of healthcare organisations suffered from the WannaCry attack.

How to stay on top of IoMT vulnerabilities?

Healthcare delivery organisations often lack the visibility to expand their vulnerability management programs to medical devices. Asset inventory is often a manual effort where healthcare professionals do a site survey, literally walking through every single room to see what they have and writing it down in an Excel sheet.

Improved Internet of Medical Things security requires a holistic, automated inventory of every digital asset (IT, OT, IoT, and IoMT), regardless of who purchased them (IT or biomedical teams).

To support today’s healthcare innovations, hospitals need a comprehensive cybersecurity and asset management solution that can monitor all devices, including those that cannot accommodate security agents.

The post Cybersecurity challenges of IoMT and mitigation appeared first on FutureIoT.

He noted that the continued shortfall in the availability of skilled workers has spurred the adoption of robotics, automation, AI augmentation and connected operations.

Challenges of IIoT adoption

As with many emerging technologies, challenges await organisations looking to tap the potential of IoT to improve the company’s competitiveness and business value.

For Rao, the most immediate challenges relate to ensuring operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) security.

“In addition, device security and operation, power constraint and battery management issues, as well as the growing problem of chip shortages, also need to be resolved,” he continued.

Ajithkumar Nandakumar, VP for strategic initiatives, IOT practice at Hitachi Vantara, says IoT pilot projects are focused on the innovation factor rather than the business outcome. He also noted that legacy systems with their proprietary protocols are still siloed. Efforts to link them to the rest of the enterprise often undermine the potential benefit.   

Part of the value proposition of IoT devices and sensors is the data they acquire. According to Andrew Ling, head of industries and customer advisory at SAP Hong Kong, there remains a lack of correlation between the IoT data collected and how it could be used to improve processes and create business value.

He also commented that data for many organisations are stored in silos. He posits that companies are collecting IoT but not holistically, as different business units within a company adopt IoT technologies for different reasons.

“They might collect IoT-generated data on the workforce, machinery, and process efficiency. But these multiple sources of data are, however, isolated, and not fed into an end-to-end platform,” he added.

“Without an end-to-end ERP or data management system that can integrate and harmonise the mass volume of data, it defeats the purpose of the investment. Having an end-to-end integrated system can facilitate data to run throughout the system and generate business insights.”

Andrew Ling

Strategies for accelerating IoT integration

While use cases abound for IoT in both commercial and industrial applications, the environment must remain conducive to encouraging adoption.

For Nandkumar, the path to IoT adoption begins with a business outcome in mind. He posits the need to plug the business-IT alignment gap.

“Most IoT programs will involve custom-built solutions combined with out-of-the-box software across multiple vendors spanning across business & IT. They must work with a partner that cannot just define a roadmap and deliver on an IoT-based innovation project but also has the experience to scale and cross the business & technology partner ecosystems.”

Ajithkumar Nandakumar

He cautioned that planning is very important in an IoT project. Typical innovation projects are kicked off with minimal planning since they are considered test beds.

He warns that scaling an innovation project (with little planning) will meet with failure since due diligence and proper planning are often skipped in urgency to test out new technology.

“The third critical factor is to look at IoT projects holistically over the longer term. This means considering combining them with other emerging technologies and looking at a longer horizon for profit and returns.

“IoT projects do take time to deliver outcomes and work best as part of a larger transformation initiative. Measuring outcomes from IoT projects in isolation does not deliver the expected outcomes, leading to early scrapping of IoT pilots,” continued Nandakumar.

Kickstarting the adoption of IoT in Asia

One strategy often cited by consultants and industry practitioners is starting small to get those quick wins.

SAP’s Ling explains that for quick wins, companies should map out how IoT technology can improve and optimize specific work processes and measure the time or resources saved.

“These use cases could illustrate what IoT technology can achieve and contribute to creating business value. Successful use cases can be baby steps for companies to develop a more holistic IoT roadmap and elicit funding and executive support,” he concluded.

For this part, Nandakumar suggests that Asian enterprises establish clear ownership for their IoT programs and form teams that cut across organisational functions and stay focused on the business value outcomes.

“Firms should also select the right pilot use cases that directly impact core business outcomes. This is where they can learn from some of the successful programs in other markets and start with such successful use cases but adapt it to their specific business context,” he added.

He commented that IoT architecture, even a pilot, should be designed with scalability in mind than just for meeting the immediate use case scope and needs. Another factor to consider upfront is on building the technical talent and skills needed in the program. This is quite crucial for execution and success.

“In addition, while designing architecture and making technical choices, it is important to focus on the interoperability of systems. It is key to solve this upfront to successfully scale and improve adoption beyond the pilot.

“Finally, there can be never enough emphasis on change management in an IoT program. Many pilots have failed because they were treated as mere technical projects. Asian firms need to approach such pilots with a change management mindset and thereby have the right talent, governance and business alignment upfront to accelerate the adoption of the IoT project beyond the pilot project,” concluded Nandakumar.

The post Realising innovation with IoT adoption appeared first on FutureIoT.

A report by Grand View Research values the global location intelligence market size at US$14 billion in 2021 and is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6% from 2022 to 2030, largely driven by increased investment in the Internet of Things (IoT) and a growing focus on location services across industries.

Regionally, the indoor location-based services market is expected to grow by 36.7% year-on-year owing to the rising demand for digital platforms amid the pandemic.

The state of indoor location services today

The problem with indoor wayfinding is the fact that global positioning systems (GPS) simply does not work well indoors. For GPS receivers to work, they need to be able to receive signals from the constellation of satellites orbiting earth from more than 20,000 km away.

That is why GPS systems in cars take seemingly forever to initialise, and why receiving these signals through concrete walls indoors is seemingly impossible.

So, current indoor access points (APs) on their own do not provide accurate location information. Indoor location-based applications have therefore used alternative technologies such as Bluetooth or other wireless systems to improve the accuracy of indoor positioning and this is typically a separate network to Wi-Fi.

As a result, we have not seen the widespread adoption of indoor locations nor a set of standard applications like we have in the outdoor space.

Users usually end up having to manually map out the location points of their APs. This results in inaccuracies due to human error, to speak nothing of the labour-intensive nature of this process. Each time the location of this AP is changed, time and resources must be devoted towards recalibration.

Imagine the cumbersome process of manually mapping each device or machine within a multi-storey hospital that operates over thousands of devices daily, each taking about 10 to 15 minutes to manually perform.

How GPS is making self-locating indoor access points

GPS-enabled APs, on the other hand, automate this process and drastically lower the cost of operations. APs are generally static—they do not move around a lot—and they need to communicate with other APs around them to self-locate by using high-sensitivity GPS receivers that are embedded in and optimised for APs.

By combining GPS with fine time measurements (FTM), which can orchestrate and coordinate the measurements between APs across the network, AP locations are accurately represented in both latitude and longitude—meaning the true height of the access point is also calculated in the process.

Furthermore, these GPS-enabled indoor APs can be located on ceilings, with their antennas facing the floor, and even in basements—traditionally the worst kind of environments for GPS solutions. But we made it work.

The integration of APs with GPS capabilities puts an end to any abstraction in location services. Instead, these APs communicate automatically with each other and algorithmically determine an optimal anchor point for all APs within the network.

This enables a self-correction of sorts over time after the initial set-up—performed through repeated measurements and correction of anchor APs to provide businesses with the most accurate location possible.

By standardising how APs share their reference locations with the ecosystem—over-the-air and via cloud-based APIs, existing GPS navigation applications can leverage location coordinates supplied by the APs to extend their coverage indoors.

This is highly beneficial for businesses that operate on large premises. In hospitality, for instance, precise indoor location can vastly improve the customer experience by providing guests with better navigation to event halls and food and beverage outlets, as well as easy and secure access to hotel facilities and services.

Beyond navigation, GPS-enabled indoor access points introduce many potential possibilities, including asset tracking of expensive medical equipment in hospitals, and geofencing in daycare centres to ensure child safety.

These self-locating indoor access points engender greater efficiencies across all layers of operations and simultaneously improve the accuracy of today's networks to bring greater value to customers.

By working out how to successfully integrate GPS receivers into indoor access points, network administrators can manage these APs in the long term to enable the delivery of improved indoor location services that make things like object and people tracking more accurate than ever. The potential use cases across industries are staggering, and that's game-changing.

The post Bringing GPS Indoors – access points as the North Star to your buildings appeared first on FutureIoT.

The annual report highlights changes in consumers, retail associates (front-line retail staff) and decision-makers among retailers over the 15 years the survey has been conducted.

Gearing toward a mobile-first retail experience

Among surveyed shoppers in Asia-Pacific (APAC), 68% say inflation has caused them to delay purchases (compared to 75% globally). However, they are still returning to stores. However, most shoppers (76% globally, 68% APAC) want to get in and out as quickly as possible. They are also willing to help make that happen with their growing affinity for self-serve technology.

Preference for a traditional check-out register staffed by a store associate has similarly declined (51% in APAC).

This trend for using self-checkouts is now being echoed among retailers in APAC with 79% viewing staffed checkouts as less necessary, while 53% have converted store space to self-serve areas and 52% are offering contactless options.

Device shopping

Overall, shoppers are ready for technological advancements, with about eight-in-10 expect retailers to have the latest technology.

Among shoppers in APAC, 46% of those surveyed opted for cashless payment methods. Half of APAC respondents prefer paying with a mobile device or smartphone.

Consumers also continue to rely on their smartphones during shopping trips; this year’s usage indicates price sensitivity as over half of those surveyed are checking for sales, specials, or coupons (48% in APAC), aligning with a good majority of shoppers (67% in APAC) concerned about having to reduce spending to make ends meet.

Everything experience

Consumers expect a seamless experience when they shop. Seven in 10 prefer shopping both in-store and online as well as favour online retailers that also offer brick-and-mortar locations. Convenience is king for fulfilment: most shoppers (73% in APAC) prefer the option to have items delivered and opt for retailers who offer in-store or curbside pick-up (64% in APAC).

The same is true for reverse logistics: about 77% in APAC prioritise their spending with retailers that offer easy returns. About 49% of surveyed retailers in APAC are converting space in their stores for order pick-up, supporting consumer fulfilment preferences.

Mobile ordering continues to increase, with around eight-in-10 shoppers and nine-in-10 millennials using it, and around seven-in-10 shoppers wanting more retailers to offer such services.

"With the convergence of retail channels today, retailers need to step up to meet renewed shopper expectations and ensure a seamless experience across their offline and online platforms,” said George Pepes, the APAC vertical solutions lead for retail and healthcare at Zebra Technologies.

“Furthermore, as the retail sector heads into the future of fulfilment, it is more important than ever for retailers to empower associates with the right technology to better perform their tasks.”

George Pepes

While 79% of global shoppers (76% in APAC) are concerned about inflationary price increases on everyday essentials, they are not necessarily leaving stores without the items they wanted due to price. Retail associates expressed out-of-stock complaints as their number one frustration (43% globally, 38% in APAC).

In APAC, the share of shoppers that do not complete their intended purchase order is lower overall (64%), with reasons including out-of-stock products (44%) or having found better deals elsewhere (27%).

Retailers are painfully aware of such reasons; 80% acknowledge the maintenance of real-time visibility for out-of-stocks as a significant challenge, needing better inventory management tools for accuracy and availability (84% in APAC).

Leveraging labour

Generally, shoppers, retail associates and retail decision-makers agree shoppers have a better experience when retail associates use the latest technology to assist them.

In the face of labour shortages: 74% of surveyed retail associates in APAC and 82% of retail decision-makers agree that stores leveraging retail technology and mobile devices attract and retain more retail associates as well. 

To further improve the shopping experience, more than eight-in-10 retailers surveyed aim to enable more retail associates or seasonal staff to help customers pick and fulfil online orders for the 2022 holiday season.

This also addresses another challenge cited by 73% of surveyed retailers in APAC: improving online fulfilment efficiency and expense (71%).

“To keep up with the ever-evolving retail landscape, retailers need to embrace intelligent automation and transform the way they integrate technology into their operations. Retailers also need to recognize that associates are a significant touchpoint to achieving long-term customer loyalty,” said Christanto Suryadarma, Southeast Asia (SEA) sales vice president for Zebra Technologies Asia Pacific.

“By equipping retail associates with the right technologies and processes, retailers will be well-prepared to respond to shoppers’ needs and deliver on-demand effectively.”

Christanto Suryadarma

The post APAC retailers moving to self-service egged by consumers appeared first on FutureIoT.

“LoRa Alliance members, working with their customers identified a new opportunity to enhance ease-of-use,” said Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance.

“By doing the work to develop a standardised application payload codec API, we are greatly simplifying the onboarding process, making it easier to integrate and deploy devices, and thereby facilitating massive LoRaWAN deployments.”

Donna Moore

She posits that this new specification eliminates yet another barrier to massive IoT with a new standards-based approach.

LoRaWAN payload codec API specification

When using LoRaWAN to transport application payloads, messages are very compactly encoded to minimize bandwidth usage. As messages reach the application server, they must be decoded to be read and processed.

Previously, each device manufacturer or application developer had to write a specific codec for each device and application platform pair, which created friction for device onboarding.

With the new payload codec API specification, a codec can be developed once and used on any application platform, achieving considerable savings in terms of reduced complexity and accelerated time to market.

The LoRaWAN Payload Codec API standardises an API for the JavaScript codecs for LoRaWAN devices to enable adoption by both device makers and application server vendors.

A standard codec provides the capability to decode uplinks/downlinks and to encode downlinks, allowing new LoRaWAN devices to be easily integrated into any compatible platform.

The post New LoRaWAN payload codec API to enable massive IoT appeared first on FutureIoT.

One such recent innovation is the Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS), which has seen accelerated by pandemic-mandated measures such as social distancing, border closures, and remote work.

ReportLinker forecasts the global market for ASRS is estimated to reach US$10.5 billion by 2027, up from US$6.8 billion in 2020. In Asia Pacific, ASRS is projected to reach US$1.2 billion by 2027, led by countries such as Australia, India, and South Korea.

Seeing the opportunity, cube storage automation company, AutoStore opened its office in Singapore to address the market opportunities in Southeast Asia. It also has operations in Japan and South Korea.

“We have already witnessed the rising demand for automated warehouse solutions in Asia Pacific. With Southeast Asia being one of AutoStore's core markets in Asia Pacific, it makes perfect sense to expand from Singapore with a team of capable people. I am confident that Clement will add value to AutoStore, and be the anchor for our expanding team," said Philipp Schitter, vice president of business of development for APAC at AutoStore.

AutoStore will vie for the business with competitors Kardex, Vallen, Muratec and Hai Robotics to name a few.

Recent deployments

According to Mordor Intelligence, many of the food and beverage industry companies have recognized the advantages provided by the ASRS systems and have increased their focus towards market adoption.

In Australia Cadbury Schweppes upgraded its national distribution centre in Melbourne. The upgrade resulted in a 20% productivity improvement to its warehouse's automated storage and retrieval system while maintaining full distribution capability. It involved refurbishing and upgrading four ASRS cranes and modernising the distribution centre's conveyor and sortation system.

South Korea has always been one of the world's top automotive manufacturing countries and one of the largest automotive exporters since the 1990s. Eco-friendly vehicles, including electric vehicles, hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel-cell electric vehicles, are expected to be the fastest-growing automotive end-user segment in South Korea during the forecast period. This provides a massive opportunity for automation in the automotive industry in the country.

With Japan’s adoption of lean manufacturing concepts in intralogistics, the close-knitted structure allowed the nation to adopt AS/RS systems at every level, economic and efficient.

Indonesia has recorded increased robotic usage for industrial work. Since Japan is both its supplier and consumer, Indonesia is expected to benefit from the trade with Japan. Thus, increasing the demand for automation in the region.

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IoT Analytics market research analyst, Matthieu Kulezak, acknowledged a persistent confusion in the market as regards what constitutes IoT software. He points to vendors that refer to IoT software as a bigger umbrella term for any kind of software that they wish to fit and bundled together.

For its part, IoT Analytics classifies it as a subset of a more extensive umbrella called industry software. In a typical manufacturing firm, for example, there’s designing, manufacturing, supply chain and service involved.

There are very specific functions, operations, and software for each of these steps which make up the three types of IoT platforms: application enablement, device management and data management.

At FutureIoT, we dare ask: are we at the beginning of software-defined manufacturing? And if so, how do we transition to this future?

IoT software is evolving

Back in 2017, the industrial software market was approximately 40% smaller than the hardware-centric OT market, but things are changing quickly.

Kulezak noted that back in 2018, the researcher estimated about 600 vendors selling software specific to IoT platforms. Fast forward to 2022, he estimates that about 200 of those vendors have stopped developing IoT platforms. He posits that the industry may be seeing consolidation as major players vie for a larger share of the market and a stable value proposition.

He posits that 2022 is a turning point for manufacturers.

For the first time, the average manufacturer will spend more on industrial software than on industrial automation hardware (OT hardware), according to IoT Analytics’ latest report on the industry titled Industrial Software Landscape 2022–2027.

Kulezak acknowledged that the pandemic and the boost in digital transformation efforts have benefited the software industry.

Ten years after Marc Andreessen, in 2011, proclaimed that “software is eating the world,” manufacturing is becoming software based. It is estimated that five years from now, the industrial software market will be twice as big as the OT hardware market. (The total market size for 2021 is $109 billion; the estimate for 2027 is $288 billion).

Why manufacturers are embracing cloud

Kulezak commented that manufacturers are embracing the software-as-a-service movement and cloud. But in the process, they are also discovering the limitations of the SaaS model – customisation. As a compromise, he noted a rise in interest in low-code and no-code platforms.

He opined that customisation was part of the legacy on-premises strategy of the past. With the cloud and SaaS model, the underlying intent is to harness the other benefits of cloud – scale and flexibility.

He further posited that customisation introduced complexity.

“That would be way too complicated to scale up. I think here the key is to go with a flexible go-to-market approach so flexible deployments and something quite standard so you can scale up."

Matthieu Kulezak

Recommendations

He suggests that manufacturers start very simple.

“Do trials and explore the new capabilities. It does not have to be a very complicated customised software which would be difficult to scale up in the future. Go for low code no code platforms, start with a standard, and then scale up,” he added.

“Digitisation requires leadership and commitment so IT leaders are doing more than before. There are security concerns which is why higher-level commitment is essential so the digitisation journey is smooth.”

Matthieu Kulezak

Click on the PodChat player to hear in detail Kulezak’s observations on how IoT is helping the digital transformation of manufacturing and hear his recommendations on how to take advantage of the opportunities.

1. Define IoT software.
2. Looking back from pre-pandemic to this period (mid-August 2022), how have things changed when it comes to IoT software?
3. In the period of accelerating digital transformation, which areas of IoT software have gained in importance?
4. Which software trends are helping in terms of IoT software adoption and development?
5. What needs to happen for organisations in manufacturing for us to see greater integration of IoT software in industrial settings?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Transforming manufacturing through IoT software appeared first on FutureIoT.

To keep up with renewed consumer demands and expectations, companies are increasingly investing in digital technologies such as new manufacturing methods, human-robot collaboration, and advanced analytics and intelligence to overcome supply chain disruptions and productivity challenges.

These businesses are supported by governments in the region, who have implemented progressive digitalisation plans to accelerate their digital economies, such as Singapore’s Smart Nation Plan and Australia’s Digital Economy Strategy.

However, despite having more data and workflows digitalised, complete confidence in the numbers reflected in inventory management systems is still lacking. Many businesses are not yet reporting 100% inventory accuracy or the ability to sense demand, which underlines that more work needs to be done to improve inventory planning.

Furthermore, according to Zebra’s 14^th Annual Global Shopper Study, retail associates surveyed increasingly feel the pain of inventory issues, ranking it their top complaint. From the consumer’s point of view, inventory visibility is also key to shopper satisfaction, as it helps connect shoppers to what they want and gets them in the door in the first place.

As highlighted by my Zebra colleague Suresh Menon, senior vice president and general manager of software solutions, data fragmentation remains an issue for most organisations. Information systems are siloed both within and outside the four walls even though operational functions and supply chain organisations have become more co-dependent than ever.

Fortunately, the introduction of technologies such as read-to-cloud radio frequency identification (RFID) application programming interfaces (APIs), handheld RFID sleds and readers, and affordable RFID tags and labels has made it easier for retailers of all sizes to leverage RFID to improve operational visibility, inventory management and process execution.

RFID systems can automatically read thousands of tagged items and provide highly accurate information about the location of an item, helping to increase the accuracy and reliability of quality control and track and trace processes.

Beyond automating data capture

Online shopping in Southeast Asia is growing at a significant rate. In Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, the demand for both e-commerce and m-commerce is on a huge growth trajectory and is poised to be one of the fastest-growing markets in the world.

With the exponential rise of e-commerce activity, retailers in the region realised that they needed to employ technologies such as barcode-based track and trace solutions to keep up with renewed consumer demands.

With just a single scan, these solutions allow multiple data fields to be automatically and accurately captured, recorded, and effectively interpreted by the relevant stakeholders, such as inventory and operations managers, buyers, and planners.

The introduction of RFID technology has allowed data capture to be further automated. Thousands of tags could be read each second by fixed readers strategically placed throughout facilities or handheld readers operated by workers, and recorded data could be fed in bulk into inventory management systems with increased accuracy.

To be able to sense, analyse, and act on both supply and demand trends in real-time, automating data capture is not enough. Retailers need to start automating analytics too.

Making sense of inventory data

Real-time inventory transparency is key to making the right labour, procurement, merchandising, pricing, and promotion decisions which hardware components like barcode and RFID systems provide to a certain extent.

However, these hardware components still lack the ability to analyse, or action-captured data. As such, retailers need to invest in software and independent software vendors (ISV) to analyse the captured data.

Modern inventory management capabilities have greatly improved since cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms became available at scale. As structured and unstructured data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT) components can now flow freely through a data pipeline or directly to a data lake, APIs and machine learning algorithms can be leveraged more extensively to access and mine data in a cost-effective manner.

The system is designed so that anyone and everyone at each stage of the fulfilment process can plug into the same information systems via APIs and extract actionable insights most relevant to their roles.

Workflow applications can also be customised to help drive the best next actions from different stakeholders, including operations managers, associates, and delivery drivers. A prescriptive analytics platform, for example, can be taught to detect certain patterns in the data and assign tasks to employees anytime an inventory-related issue or opportunity arises.

Furthermore, an intelligent demand sensing platform can aggregate inventory data from multiple business systems and analyse it alongside external data such as weather, traffic, holidays, and other demand-influencing events to prescribe calculated best actions when it comes to procurement, merchandising, pricing, or promotion.

Designing a personalised inventory management system

Led by advancements in technology, the progressive shift in focus from automating data capture to data analytics has been key to improving inventory availability and performance in the last decade.

An improved inventory management system offers universal accessibility to workers who are increasingly mobile, even automating decision-making to a certain extent, removing manual processes and legacies from inventory planning and management.

Inventory transparency is a key pillar driving the future of store operations. When designing inventory-related solutions, retailers need to adopt a forward-thinking approach to store and inventory management. Moving forward, better inventory management tools will improve accuracy and availability, increasing satisfaction levels for both shoppers and associates.

The post Inventory management: past, present, and future of retail appeared first on FutureIoT.

A Ponemon Institute study noted that 65% of responding organisations say that IoT/OT devices are one of the least secured parts of their networks, while 50% say that attacks against these devices have increased.

IT security practitioners in 88% of those organisations have IoT devices connected to the internet, 56% have OT devices connected to the internet and 51% have the OT network connected to the IT network.

Threat actors are aware of these trends. Forescout recently reported on how ransomware groups have started massively targeting devices such as NAS, VoIP and hypervisors. Not surprisingly, most of these devices were among the riskiest identified in the 2020 Enterprise of Things Security Report. 

Many of the device types observed among the riskiest in 2020 remain on the list, such as networking equipment, VoIP, IP cameras and programmable logic controllers (PLCs). However, new entries such as hypervisors and human-machine interfaces (HMIs) are representative of trends including critical vulnerabilities and increased OT connectivity. 

2022’s riskiest connected devices

Using Forescout’s scoring methodology, Vedere Labs identified the five riskiest devices in four device categories: IT, IoT, OT and IoMT.

• IT: Router, computer, server, wireless access point, and hypervisor
• IoT: IP camera, VoIP, video conferencing, ATM, and printer
• OT: PLC, HMI, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), environmental monitoring, and building automation controller
• IoMT: DICOM workstation, nuclear medicine system, imaging, picture archiving and communications system (PACS), and patient monitor

How organisations can mitigate risk

“We have seen two recurring themes in Vedere Labs’ research, which this report reinforces,” said Daniel dos Santos, head of security research at Forescout’s Vedere Labs, noted two recurring themes: “First, attack surfaces are growing quickly due to more devices being connected to enterprise networks, and second, threat actors are increasingly able to leverage these devices to achieve their goals.

“Unfortunately, the attack surface now encompasses IT, IoT and OT in almost every organisation across the globe, with the addition of IoMT in healthcare. It is not enough to focus defences on risky devices in one category, as attackers will leverage devices in different categories to carry out attacks. Vedere Labs has demonstrated this with R4IoT, demonstrating how an attack that starts with an IP camera (IoT), can move to a workstation (IT) and disable PLCs (OT).”

Daniel dos Santos

What to do

Forescout advises organisations to undertake a proper risk assessment to understand how their attack surface is growing. Granular classification information including device type, vendor, model and firmware version are required for accurate assessment. 

Once this assessment is complete, organisations should mitigate risk with automated controls that are not reliant on security agents, and that apply to the whole enterprise, instead of silos like the IT network, the OT network, or specific types of IoT devices.

Once the risk assessment is complete, organisations need to mitigate risk with automated controls that do not rely only on security agents and that apply to the whole enterprise, instead of silos like the IT network, the OT network, or specific types of IoT devices. 

Forescout Continuum enables these types of controls by accelerating the design and deployment of dynamic network segmentation across the digital terrain while also automating policy enforcement by enabling countermeasures to mitigate threats, incidents and compliance gaps.

Understand what makes the riskiest connected devices so risky. Then strive for full visibility into how many are connecting to your digital terrain so you can secure your attack surface.

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The increasing frequency of OT/ICS cyberattacks is serving as a wake-up call to organisations. Cybercriminals are using a range of techniques to launch a tsunami of attacks against OT and ICS systems.

The impact of these attacks can affect the masses by causing civic unrest, and governments in some countries are taking pre-emptive measures to stop these attacks.

For instance, the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA) created the OT Cybersecurity Masterplan in 2019 to enhance the security and resilience of the nation’s Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) sectors in delivering essential services.

Its goal was to improve cross-sector response to mitigate cyber threats in the OT environment and to strengthen partnerships with industry and stakeholders, proving that the threat of OT/ICS attacks is imposing enough for governments to act before they happen.

 In today’s manufacturing and utility networks, feeble defences across assets, managed and unmanaged devices give adversaries the advantage to launch attacks.

Without direct action to harden OT networks and control systems against vulnerabilities introduced through IT and business network intrusions, OT system owners and operators will remain at indefensible levels of risk.

An example is Iran suffering a major attack on its fuel stations nationwide in 2021, which disabled a system that allowed millions of Iranians to use government-issued cards for fuel at a subsidised price.

In total, 4,300 fuel stations were victims of the attack with traffic in cities being widely affected in an attempt to get “people angry by creating disorder and disruption”, according to Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi.

Similarly, petroleum powerhouse Oil India suffered a cyberattack disrupting the company’s operations in Assam earlier in 2022. In the attack, they received a ransom demand of USD 7,500,000, disrupting business through its IT systems.

The company reported huge financial losses due to the attack. When securing against today’s cyber threats, it is important to understand the game plans of threat actors and proactively counteract them with solutions.

Let’s start with Sun Tzu to understand our enemy’s 5 steps into our ICS and OT environments:

1. Effects and targets: 

APT actors, or state-sponsored actors, are looking to create chaos, sow discord, or destabilisation of leadership. To do so, they typically vet out critical assets within critical infrastructure like controllers in marine ports, energy generation/distribution points, and highly visible targets where disruption may cause harm, distrust, or may psychologically or socially impact a community.

Conversely, cybercriminals are looking for a payoff and are more than happy to find high-value targets anywhere within an organisation to extort their owners. While there may have been a wide gap in the past, the skills, backing, and training between the two are narrowing.

WHAT TO DO: Define your critical protection surfaces. Not all systems and components are created equal. Begin by identifying the most critical surfaces and grow to incorporate additional surfaces over time.

Within OT, this may be a bank of Windows machines that allow for remote access into a PLC segment where third-party lateral connections are established for maintenance and support. Within IT, these may be north-south assets that allow for pivoting from IT into OT, especially if IT connections to the Internet are present.

2. Intelligence collecting on the target system: 

It is widely known that information about both OT systems and IT technologies is widely known. Publicly available documentation on both IT and OT systems and components are not hidden, including default admin credentials.

WHAT TO DO: Never allow for default admin credentials to reside on any asset and continually rotate passwords.

3. Developing techniques and tools: 

Adversaries can be quite resourceful, especially with readily available tools on the dark web. Presuming devices are secured because they run proprietary protocols is a zero-sum game as tools are readily available to exploit IT and OT systems.

APT actors have also developed tools to scan for, compromise, and control certain Schneider Electric PLCs, OMRON Sysmac NEX PLCs, and Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) servers.

WHAT TO DO: Acknowledge that standalone, islanded networks are few and far between. Do not presume a posture of security by obscurity. Monitor application usage and ICS traffic to include authorised user access and behavioural anomalies.

4. Gain initial access:

Most modern control systems have remote access capabilities that allow third-party vendors and integrators into the systems, as well as work-from-home, remote access and the supply chain. Oftentimes, these points of access into the network are attack vectors for cyber actors. Matters get worse when we add wireless access points to the mix that attract local actors into the fray.

WHAT TO DO: Audit all third-party access. Ensure the ability to pivot to high-value targets is non-existent. Take advantage of VLAN technologies to create safe holding pens for devices as they are introduced into your network prior to introducing them into the production network. Look for devices with multiple NICs attaching to differing networks, creating bridges from ‘A to B’.

5. Execution: 

The disruption, disabling, denying, and/or destruction of the system, to achieve intended results. This might include the degradation of the monitoring of a target system (Manipulation of View [T0832] ), operation of the control system (Manipulation of Control [T0831]), SCADA impairment (Block Reporting Message [T0804], Denial of View [T0815]), denial of control (Denial of Control [T0813]), or Theft of Operational Information [T0882]).

WHAT TO DO: Monitor industrial control commands and anomalous behaviours coming from unauthorised machines, unauthorised users, commands occurring outside of change control, and multiple reset, errors, and mode changes in critical infrastructure.

As system owners and operators, we cannot prevent a malicious actor from targeting our systems. Understanding that being targeted is not an “if” but a “when” is essential. By assuming that the system is being targeted and predicting the effects that a malicious actor would intend to cause we can employ and prioritise mitigation actions.

It all starts with identifying the initial system and all its sub-components within a protected surface. Once we find success, repeating across the broader OT landscape gets easier each time.

The post Understanding threat actors’ steps into OT and ICS environments appeared first on FutureIoT.

Matter devices offer consumers assurances of secure use through a consortium-led standard for authenticating device identity that only allows Matter-certified devices to connect to the network.

With the high-profile hacking of critical infrastructure, security remains an important issue that the ecosystem or manufacturers, users and regulators need to address before the next major disaster occurs.

“The introduction of Matter to the smart home industry is an exciting move that improves interoperability between devices and raises the bar for security, creating a more efficient and secure experience for consumers,” said DigiCert VP of IoT Security Mike Nelson.

It also presents new opportunities for organisations like DigiCert to make available new offerings. This includes DigiCert’s announcement that its Root Certificate Authority (CA) is approved by the Connectivity Standards Alliance (Alliance) for Matter device attestation.

As the first Matter-approved root CA, also known as a Product Attestation Authority (PAA), DigiCert can now provide rapid time to market for smart home manufacturers looking to earn the Matter seal on their products.

“Device attestation allows existing Matter devices to locally confirm new ones when they have been recognized by the local network, and quickly remove non-compliant devices when needed. Consumers are no longer under the burden of ensuring new devices are secure; it happens automatically,” said Chris LaPre, Director of Technology at the Connectivity Standards Alliance.

DigiCert contributed its expertise to the security and attestation components of the standard and has the scalable technology to enable an efficient path to compliance.

“DigiCert has been involved in building the Matter standard for several years, and we’ve already helped many leading companies evaluate their device attestation procedures using our test Certificate Authority. Now, with our PAA approved for production, we are ready to help customers save time in achieving Matter security compliance,” Nelson elaborated.

What DigiCert offers to Matter participants

• Accelerate time to market in achieving Matter compliance.
• Save money by avoiding the costs of technology, maintenance, staffing and ongoing compliance.
• Enjoy flexible deployment options, including on-premises, hosted or batch issuance.
• Simplify management of device attestation certificates and product attestation intermediates through the DigiCert IoT Device Manager.
• Gain efficiencies using a scalable platform to sign and secure device updates.

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Market research firm Fact.MR forecasts the global heat pump water heater market to reach US$1.6 billion by 2022, up 12.5% from 2021 levels. The firm is forecasting a more modest 5-year CAGR of 6.7% with the market reaching US$3.08 billion by 2032.

Demand for heat pump water heaters has increased, registering a historical CAGR of 2.0% from 2017 to 2021. Strict governmental regulations and policies to curb emissions from HVAC equipment across the residential and commercial sectors will augment product penetration.

Governments across major regions including North America and Asia Pacific are retrofitting heating & cooling equipment across buildings to meet their emission targets, will further boost the technology advancements.

Sustainable technology boosting demand for smart solutions

The rising need for sustainable technologies from the residential sector will bolster the product requirement. Many governments around the globe are implementing various policies and schemes to promote the distribution of clean technologies in the residential and commercial sectors, improving the technology perception.

Additionally, stringent emission norms and regulations will compel constructors to install energy-efficient and renewable technologies will stimulate the heat pump water heater market demand.

 “The integration of heat pump water heater with IoT helps in tracking the abnormalities in heat pump water heaters, subsequently reducing system failure. Thus, the integration is expected to provide lucrative opportunities for the growth of the Heat Pump Water Heater market during the forecast period,” noted the analyst.

Competitive landscape

Penetrating new geographies, collaborating with government agencies or service providers and rebranding initiatives comprise some major strategies adopted by prominent Heat Pump Water Heater Service providers. Some prominent market developments are as follows:

In August 2020, Panasonic Corporation partnered with Systemair on technology to launch heating and cooling products for offering its customers with more options related to HVAC products, including heat pumps. Both companies will have separate sales channels and branding for these products.

In August 2020, Bosch Thermotechnology launched the Bosch Tronic 3000, a line of electric instantaneous water heaters that significantly reduce hot water wait times in light commercial applications. The new series, which includes four new types, is the first stage in Bosch’s intended cutting-edge, new dynamic electric instantaneous water heater portfolio.

In July 2020, Daikin launched Daikin SmartSource, a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) for heat pumps that enables efficient and cost-effective cooling and heating in all conditions using 100% fresh outside air. It also taps a water source heat pump's hot gas reheat coil in addition to the unit's primary DX coil; to enhance the efficiency of the heat pump.

The post IoT drives head pump water market appeared first on FutureIoT.

IoT Analytics also reports record levels of VC investments for IoT firms, including acquisitions in the areas of AI and analytics. It is anticipated that despite headwinds like rising inflation and prolonged supply chain disruptions, overall sentiment will continue to be positive as the number of connected IoT devices reach 14.4 billion by the end of 2022.

With this growth, we can expect more targeted and perhaps creative ways of attacking both producers and enterprise consumers of IoT devices in the years ahead.

According to Satyajit Sinha, principal analyst for IoT Analytics, organisations tend to focus on security from a softer aspect or had network security at best.

“We have never seen security from the device aspect, and IoT demands different requirements of security such as authentication, authorisation, and identification. Most devices are secured through software security which is not adequate as they are vulnerable to attacks.”

Satyajit Sinha

“The more we create awareness about IoT devices security, the more people will implement security in their devices,” he added.

How adequately do you think current IoT ecosystems are secured, especially for unmanaged IoT devices?

Satyajit Sinha: The IoT devices do not have the capability to hold a higher level of security because of the power constraint thus security will always be a challenge. However, if these devices are connected to a gateway or a router, they can secure the touchpoint of the network and IoT ecosystems. It is not the case for small devices or unmanned devices.

Are concerns around IoT security justified? Or why does the IoT ecosystem require security?

Satyajit Sinha: People are focused on securing devices that create critical data, autonomous driving and intelligent devices for example. But this should not just be about selected devices.

A thermostat may not provide critical data so you may disregard whether it is secured or not. But, if it is linked to your home gateway, it is easy for someone to hack into your network and get all the information from all other connected devices.

What is the strategy that will secure IoT?

Satyajit Sinha: For hackers, it is a business. They will not invest their time and money in devices with multiple layers of security. So, the best strategy is to have multiple layers of security from hardware to software to network to cloud security. Connect these four and create end-to-end security, also called chip-to-cloud security.

What are the challenges or roadblocks to securing IoT end-to-end?

Satyajit Sinha: First is having the right policies and regulations. There needs to be proper regulations and direction for security implementation in the market. The second is industry sentiment.

"Treating security as an extra cost will incur a burden in the long term. We need to understand that if you don't spend on that extra secure element chip, you will have to pay more in a ransomware attack."

Satyajit Sinha

Last is device provisioning and key management services for chip-to-cloud security. It is difficult to manage security especially if you switch between service providers.

What are the key similarities and differences between traditional IT security and IoT Security?

Satyajit Sinha: The similarity I believe is that both are accountable not just at the OEM level but also platform and the cloud level. The difference is that it is new for the IT industry to manage IoT security with multiple applications. There are many standards, and numerous players come up with their own solutions.

How much is post-quantum security relevant for now?

Satyajit Sinha: All IoT devices have a lifespan of about 10 to 15 years which means they are not capable of quantum security in the long run. Security needs to be future proof and there is no extra cost for adding quantum-level security so organisations should consider having it.

Click on the PodChat player to listen to Sinha on the state of the security of IoT devices in Asia.

1. How adequately do you think current IoT ecosystems are secured, especially for unmanaged IoT devices?
2. Are concerns around IoT security justified? Or Why does the IoT ecosystem require security?
3. What is the strategy that will secure IoT?
4. What are the challenges or roadblocks to securing IoT end-to-end?
5. What are the key differences between traditional IT security and IoT Security?
6. How much is post-quantum security relevant for now?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Securing IoT beyond 2022 appeared first on FutureIoT.

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis finds that carriers and insurance companies’ emphasis on risk management requires telematics solutions on trucks that carry dangerous or expensive goods. This market will reach 2.59 million units by 2027 from 1.12 million in 2021, registering commendable growth at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15%.

“More than 62% of freight transportation is through the road in Brazil. This highlights the importance of the truck fleet in the country and the urgent need for telematics adoption to reduce the total cost of ownership,” said Ingrid Schumann, mobility industry analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

“Additionally, although the telematics market in Brazil is still focused on track and trace solutions, other segments, such as driver and vehicle management, are increasing in demand.”

Ingrid Schumann

Schumann added: “The commercial vehicle segment in Brazil will grow rapidly in the next decade due to the expansion of agribusiness and eCommerce. This will positively impact the telematics market as these new vehicles represent opportunities for telematics service providers (TSPs), original equipment manufacturers, and start-ups to increase their market shares.”

To reap the benefits of the growing Brazilian connected trucks telematics sector:

TSPs should invest in solutions that impact fuel consumption, such as vehicle and driver management, in addition to routing.

Fleet companies should demand an open telematics system as it offers benefits such as truck data that will be easily read and understood.

TSPs that work with last-mile deliveries should invest in solutions requested by the end customer, such as routing, estimated time of delivery, and order status checks. For this type of product portfolio, it is vital to invest in logistics integration.

The post Drivers of telematics adoption among trucks in Brazil appeared first on FutureIoT.

Recognising this trend, the Commission is calling for organisations to take advantage of the decentralisation trends through IoT and edge computing capabilities, and leverage the expertise of its communities in the physical, industrial world and in digital world to bring the best of both worlds towards Europe’s next-generation IoT and edge computing infrastructure.

IDC says the IoT market in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) will continue to grow in 2022 by 9.1%, accelerating from 6.9% in 2021. Headwinds such as semiconductor shortages and supply chain disruption caused by geopolitical tensions have limited the growth in 2022 to single digits, and rising inflation may dampen growth.

However, rising demand for remote operations, better network coverage, and the deployment of commercial 5G and testbeds are driving IoT adoption in the region. IDC expects spending on IoT to reach $436 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 11.8% for the period 2021-2026.

IDC’s research director for Asia-Pacific, Bill Rojas, says the ongoing deployment and expansion of 5G will drive the growth of connectivity use cases that utilize massive narrowband IoT as well as wideband/broadband IoT such as 4K IP cameras.

“Low Earth Satellites including nanosatellites and next-generation Very High Throughput Satellites will enable a wide range of remote connectivity uses cases relating to smart cities, environmental and sustainability monitoring, transportation infrastructure, energy and resources, and utilities.”

Bill Rojas

FutureIoT reached out to Kenny Ng, head of worldwide market development, network business division at Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise for his take on where IoT is headed in Asia.

Do you think a decoupling of IoT hardware from software would further accelerate the adoption of IoT in the enterprise or is this a case of a solution looking for a problem to solve?

Kenny Ng: IoT adoption requires a holistic approach to meeting business needs in the digital transformation process. It will require a solution-based approach rather than approaching it from the decoupling of hardware and software.

However, there are a few challenges to surmount for enterprises in the IoT sector, including having a short time to market, airtight security, a versatile update mechanism for hardware and software and mastering device management.

Businesses need to evaluate hardware and software IoT choices pragmatically for their needs, but finding a cost-effective product that satisfies all requirements can be difficult.

For IoT-related projects, knowing the specific use case is essential to identifying the most applicable hardware. Careful software selection is also important, centring around ease of integration and maintenance.

What business problems/customer expectations are ideally suited for IoT?

Kenny Ng: IoT serves as a critical foundation and enabler for digital business processes. It also offers enormous value to businesses undergoing digital transformation. The connectivity provides also benefits enterprises that rely on collecting and processing large amounts of real-time data.

In a world where efficiency is key, IoT is best suited to enable enterprises to harness the data available at their fingertips to derive value-driven insights that can optimise workflows for better outcomes and accelerate business transformation.

As the pandemic boosted the digital transformation and sprouted the number of devices connected through IoT everywhere, the public sector saw an opportunity to leverage IoT capabilities to meet customer expectations and enhance processes and efficiency in everyday life.

IoT has the capability to transform the public sector, by significantly reshaping how governments keep track of data and information and harnessing mobility, automation and data analytics.

For you, what would constitute next-generation (next-gen) IoT?

Kenny Ng: Next-generation IoT would need to be holistic and enable organisations to scale up their digitalisation efforts securely with ease to welcome the age of digital networking. According to IoT analytics, there will be 30.9 billion IoT devices by 2030, making 75% of total devices.

With the growth of mobility and IoT, security is skyrocketing to become a top priority as networks become even more exposed to potential bad actors. And, with cyber-attacks increasing in volume and in complexity, unregulated devices can introduce security risks and chew up bandwidth unbeknownst to network operators.

With the sheer number of devices in a connected network, configuring and managing so many individual devices is unrealistic. Approaches like IoT containment must thus become more commonplace, where devices can be efficiently and safely onboarded via automation.

The ability to rapidly identify and classify every object connected to the network and automatically provision a configuration associated with a specific device, alongside virtual segmentation, are also crucial characteristics that must be present in next-gen IoT. Monitoring the objects is vital so that immediate action can be taken if there is unusual activity on the network, thus containing the impact and scale of a potential cyberattack.

Do you think culture and mindset are mature enough to accept these next-gen IoT solutions/technologies to realise real business value today?

Kenny Ng: While next-generation IoT does pose a complex challenge for enterprises, it offers massive versatility in the automation and optimisation of business processes.

Particularly after COVID-19, digitalisation has been at the top of many organisational agendas and has become a widely recognised priority in industries across the board. Though risk-averse enterprises may hesitate to make the leap when it comes to emerging technologies, organisations with a disruptor and agile mindset will be able to effect change and realise these benefits. This change in mindset must start from the top, with business leaders and decision-makers leading by example before it can become a part of their corporate DNA.

Once culture and mindsets have matured, then can concrete actions be taken to enact definite change. To unlock the potential of next-gen IoT, time and resources must be invested into building a skilled IoT workforce, such that the technology can be fully and strategically harnessed to drive core business competencies.

For those who may be limited by budget or resource constraints, an intelligent network fabric tackles this pain point by automating various manual tasks to simplify a network’s design, deployment, and operations. Automation also reduces the risks of vulnerabilities associated with manual errors.

How do you create an environment that will encourage IoT adoption and innovation within an enterprise? Who needs to own it?

Kenny Ng: As mentioned, enterprises will need to have the mindset for accepting change and embracing innovation, and this needs to start with the leaders. They will also need to invest in training a robust IT team to aid the secure operation and maintenance of IoT deployments.

The responsibility will lie with the senior leadership of the enterprises to instigate change from the top-down. IT leaders must transparently communicate both benefits and challenges of IoT adoption and push for ongoing education to overcome employees’ inertia towards change and help them understand the impact and implications of the organisation adopting IoT.

For instance, getting the message across that IoT help automate operations and streamline infrastructure, which in turn, can ease the workloads of employees may help to get their buy-ins.

The key also lies in cultivating an organisational culture and mentality that is comfortable with calculated risks. Every new technological adoption comes with its own sets of associated risks, but organisations that stay ready to mitigate risks will enhance their agility and responsiveness, and in turn their ability to compete.

Being comfortable with risk will also encourage new methods of trying out things, ultimately forming an enterprise environment that drives business innovation and constant evolution.

The post Shaping the digital future with the Next-Gen of IoT appeared first on FutureIoT.

Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) network technologies, such as 3GPP standards like LTE-M and NB-IoT, offer long-range communications with broad coverage, the ability to handle a large number of devices and low power consumption to IoT devices to operate for 10 years or more.

Relay allows for battery-operated, easy-to-deploy network coverage extensions at a fraction of the cost of adding additional gateways.

Challenges however remain. Participants in a VDC Research-sponsored study, identified several challenges related to IoT system development using LPWA including 1) minimizing power consumption; 2) securing IoT data; 3) lowering project development time, and 4) reducing the total cost of ownership.

Working on the problem, the global association of companies backing the open LoRaWAN standard for the internet of things (IoT) low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), the LoRa Alliance has expanded the LoRaWAN link-layer standard with the addition of a relay specification.

This allows LoRaWAN to achieve excellent coverage in use cases requiring deep indoor or underground coverage, or relay data on satellite-connected LoRaWAN devices within proximity.

“LoRa Alliance members identified that end users in specific markets needed a solution to achieve full network coverage due to environmental challenges surrounding their deployments,” said Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance.

“With relay, we’re providing a standardized solution that allows for full end-to-end communications in the extremely challenging underground, metal and concrete environments where sensor signals could use a boost or redirect to reach either the gateway or end-device.”

Donna Moore

She added that the new relay feature is a direct response to market needs and provides an essential building block to enable massive IoT.

Relay use cases

One of the first markets to adopt relay is metering in the utility sector. Utilities represent a massive opportunity for IoT, with VDC Research estimating that worldwide LPWAN communication services revenue will reach $2.47 billion by 2025.

Adding relay to the LoRaWAN standard to achieve coverage for even the most difficult cases (e.g., meters inside metal closets) significantly strengthens LoRaWAN’s market position in metering and utilities, and more broadly across key verticals including smart cities and buildings, and industrial IoT.

Using a relay is ideal for any application monitoring static assets in challenging environments.

LoRaWAN relay feature

The LoRaWAN standard is proven for long-range communications, however, there can be physical limits to where LPWAN communications can reach, such as around turns, underground, where a signal needs to be reflected/relayed into a specific location, etc. LoRaWAN relays allow signals to go where they physically couldn’t go before.

The LoRaWAN TS011-1.0.0 LoRaWAN Relay Specification document describes the relaying mechanism used to transport LoRaWAN frames bi-directionally between an end-device and gateway/network server via a battery-operated node. By enabling relay, the device can transfer LoRaWAN frames between an end device and network when there is insufficient coverage from the gateway.

This specification enables Network coverage extension through the battery-operated relay and maintains compatibility with the LoRaWAN Link-Layer standard in terms of protocol and security. The new relay nodes are battery-powered and can be installed anywhere and do not require electricity or internet connectivity. This makes them a very easy-to-deploy, low cost and low-power way to extend network coverage, without needing to add additional gateways. Relay endpoints allow LoRaWAN to provide coverage of all devices with only a nominal cost of installation.

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“Moving from the cloud to the factory floor, some manufacturers are turning to a micro-factory model, which relies on automation and robotics to create more flexible manufacturing frameworks that can be deployed in a fraction of the time and at scale.”

CB Insights

IoT Analytics forecasts the Internet of Things (IoT) market will grow by 18% to 14.4 billion active connections. It also posits that by 2025, as supply constraints ease and growth further accelerates, there will be approximately 27 billion connected IoT devices.

These billions of connections are a natural magnet luring cybercriminals looking for new targets and new opportunities.

According to CB Insights this “plunging deeper into virtual worlds opens up the playing field to more cybercrime: security solutions will become a major priority, especially as crypto hype and data privacy controversies continue to boom.”

Creating awareness about IoT vulnerabilities

BlackBerry EVP and CTO, Shishir Singh says the massive network of connected things will require interoperability between systems. He posits that organisations need to sensitize employees to the fact that IoT introduces unprecedented safety and privacy risks.

He believed that employees in government and enterprise organisations need to wake up to the fact that bad actors can now access records from any device, anywhere, in real-time, and cautioned that more worrisome is the fact that IoT device makers oftentimes omit rigorous testing and support just so they can get products out to the market sooner.

“They also frequently abandon development of software and security updates the moment products are released, leaving customers—both enterprise and consumers—with an ever-increasing number of unsecured devices in their environments,” Singh continued.

But while IoT is proliferating in any enterprise, it is on production floors of industrial operations where industrial IoT (I-Iot) is rapidly becoming an integral part of the Operational Technology (OT) landscape,” said Rafael Maman, vice president of OT security at Sygnia.

He posits that it is this risk related to I-IoT that is not well articulated, resulting in low awareness.

“These I-IoTs must be considered as part of the OT environment, both to work towards better cyber preparedness and resilience, and organisational awareness."

Rafael Maman

According to Srinivas Kumar, VP of IoT solutions at DigiCert, vulnerabilities in IoT extend beyond published exposures and exploits. He noted that the “closed” and “siloed” nature of OT/IoT ecosystems provide limited visibility through on-device logs or control through third-party intervention.

“OT/IoT devices are micromanaged by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in production environments. This creates a blind spot for NOC/SOC supervision and mitigation. Application security by design and a security profile for device field operations are essential to qualify and certify IoT devices for compliance and achieve cyber resilience in connected systems.”

Srinivas Kumar

“A comprehensive approach to digital trust ensures that all access points and data are properly authenticated and encrypted, and that identity- and access-based attacks are given an extra layer of protection that can be enforced and monitored throughout the organisation,” said Kumar.

Recommendations for creating sustained awareness around IoT security

Sygnia’s Maman recommends considering IoT, specifically I-IoT, as an integral part of the OT environment, and managing the related risk landscape as part of the overall OT security framework.

“And include it in all your cyber awareness campaigns and training programmes – again, as an integral part of your operational technology – and make sure to highlight the additional risk it introduces to your OT environment,” he pushed forth.

Kumar adds that cybersecurity in multi-vendor and heterogeneous device ecosystems is a collaborative effort and requires OEMs, device operators, device owners, and regulators to set mandatory compliance standards and best practices for endpoint security on headless field devices.

“The paradigm shift in OT/IoT ecosystems is to harden devices for protection throughout the active service life that may span 10-30 years,” concluded DigiCert’s Kumar.

BlackBerry’s Singh believes that an effective way to drive greater awareness about IoT vulnerabilities is to inform employees about their responsibilities from day one – adapting cybersecurity processes and policies as part of the company’s onboarding is a good method to educate users.

“Besides regular and mandatory training programmes that all employees must undertake, conducting cybersecurity drills like simulated crisis management exercises can raise awareness, preparedness, and ultimately reduce the impacts of critical events.”

Shishir Singh

“Lastly, ensure that IoT security training is targeted and easy to consume. Sharing irrelevant and confusing details about the threats of IoT vulnerabilities can be counterproductive. Communications should be kept simple, concise, and easy to understand as not every employee is an IT expert,” concluded Singh.

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Pilot programme

The six-month Breeze@Tiong Bahru pilot follows the successful beta release of the Breeze app on mobile application stores in April this year. A community initiative by NCS in collaboration with Tiong Bahru Community Centre and Tiong Bahru Market Hawkers’ Association, the app has been enhanced and hyper-localised with additional features and content to encourage the discovery of the Tiong Bahru precinct and promote walking explorations with custom maps of points of interest and other features.

Tiong Bahru is a popular estate with a thriving community of visitors, residents, and businesses.

The pilot aims to ease traffic flow by facilitating information for drivers on parking availability and pricing and by extension, encourage park and walk options so visitors can explore more places in this vibrant estate.

During the pilot programme, the NCS development team will also work with retailers, residents and visitors in Tiong Bahru to gather user-generated content and feedback on Breeze to further improve the parking and walking experiences of the precinct.

Indranee Rajah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, Second Minister for Finance and National Development and Adviser to Tanjong Pagar GRC Grassroots Organisations, said, “I am excited to see how this public-private partnership and the use of leading technologies can help improve the experience for drivers in the neighbourhood and make it even more attractive.

According to Rajah, the pilot project in Tiong Bahru with NCS can also pave the way for other uses, such as promoting heritage trials in the area, or even be used in other neighbourhoods.

Ng Kuo Pin, CEO of NCS, said, “Through our strong collaboration with the government and community associations, NCS is reimagining innovative digital solutions for the community at Tiong Bahru. The Breeze app leverages NCS’ deep experience in the land transport sector and our digital innovation capabilities to improve visitor experiences and highlight urban liveability of neighbourhoods.”

To improve driving experiences

NCS has been engaging 800 private vehicle drivers to better understand their needs and priorities to design an improved driving experience into the app. Focused on simplifying parking decisions and bringing convenience to drivers, Breeze provides real-time insights on the availability of parking lots and enables drivers to easily view and compare parking rates of nearby carparks.

To capture crucial traffic information, NCS’ digital and engineering teams designed a non-invasive and innovative video analytics solution – the Breeze Box – placed at the entry and exit points of Seng Poh Lane carpark and Tiong Poh Road. The carpark’s parking availability information is then pushed to drivers via the Breeze app, even before they start the drive.

Breeze incorporates the first “AI local-accented” navigation guide and can provide drivers the fastest or cheapest routes as traffic conditions and ERP prices change. It also offers real-time views of traffic across all highways and checkpoints, thereby helping drivers make informed decisions about their travel routes.

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To be clear, enterprise 5G goes beyond standard consumer 5G service. In an enterprise 5G, the enterprise has complete control over the network assuming the company forks out the money to have its infrastructure, radio devices, mobile core, and management software.

The possibility of having private 5G networks means an enterprise will have better control over how it scales its network in addition to better control over cellular resources.

This will grow in importance as enterprises adopt IoT sensors into the workflow and gain real-time insights for improved efficiency and preventive maintenance.

One of the challenges this opportunity presents is around network management. Fortunately advances in artificial intelligence and automation may present a solution in the form of autonomous systems for managing network resources.

IEEE posits that autonomousity is not just making the network capable of managing resources, but rather making the network learn and adapt itself to the dynamic environment.

“In networks, the autonomous tasks refer to self-healing, self-diagnosing, and self-provisioning. With the help of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Blockchain, autonomous tasks can be realised in current network systems.”

Autonomous Networks: Opportunities, Challenges, and Applications

Richard Howe, chief technology officer for Kyndryl Singapore, says an autonomous network is a self-configuring, or self-healing network that runs with minimal to no human maintenance. The network adapts to changes in devices being added, or degradation of network performance such as data throughput due to packet loss.

“Having a network that keeps devices consistently connected, and transmits data to an edge computing platform, enables fault detection. It ensures worker safety in industrial and manufacturing plants and facilities – you can add new drones to monitor whether employees are wearing hard hats or are in dangerous areas.”

Richard Howe

Benefits of autonomous networks for the manufacturing ecosystem

According to Deloitte, to remain competitive, manufacturers must absorb digital and advanced technologies across their business operations, including production.

The 2019 Deloitte and MAPI Smart Factory Study noted that connecting to an ecosystem was a hallmark of the Trailblazers (pioneers in smart factory adoption), a cohort of manufacturers that were making great strides by adopting Industry 4.0 technologies to solve specific business problems and opportunities.

The manufacturing ecosystem today is no longer limited to the manufacturer and its suppliers of raw materials. In smart manufacturing, an ecosystem is formed when different entities come together in meaningful ways to solve shared challenges and meet shared objectives.

Because the ecosystem comprises several companies, many independent from others in the network but sharing common interests, having a way intelligently manage some of the systems and processes automatically just makes sense.

According to Howe, autonomous networks enable scalable automation and add real-time intelligence to industrial processes, ensuring manufacturing quality, speed and efficiency without the need for much manual and human management.

“It enables fault detection and works safety, and for a manufacturer, this means more reliability and resiliency. For example, you can add cameras inside the manufacturing facility/plant for fault detection,” he added.

The use of 5G permits the use of mobile endpoints capable of collecting vast amounts of real-time data from industrial processes at low latency and taking advantage of local edge computing.

Machine learning leverages the experience of industry specialists at scale humans can’t match given the high data rates possible with 5G.

Use cases of autonomous networks

Asked where early applications of autonomous networks, Howe noted that in the manufacturing sector, these would include remote production monitoring using portable and deployable sensors.

He also highlighted use cases in predictive asset monitoring and condition-based maintenance, as well as vision analytics to ensure quality management.

He also highlighted the use of advanced robotics and human worker coordination (cobots), that can enable worker safety through wearable sensors, or support real-time worker augmentation via low-latency augmented reality/virtual reality that can either troubleshoot field problems or enable knowledge transfer between workers

“It is important to understand that successful integration of such autonomous networking applications will require the migration to cloud-native technologies and robust deployment of 5G. Such a foundation increases the speed and efficiency of properly integrated use case rollout that can be adjusted for specific operating environments,” he explained.

Integrating autonomous networking

Howe warns that implementing autonomous networks and also other related intelligent edge solutions can be a daunting task.

He stressed that a foundation of different technologies across the autonomous network’s application stack will be required like specialised compute infrastructure, wireless network connectivity like Wi-Fi 6 or 5G, along with IoT devices, data acquisition protocols, and lifecycle management tools in which volume of data can be compiled and processed by cloud-based Artificial Intelligence (AL) and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms.

“Such an undertaking will certainly require the right expertise for building applications on the autonomous network, and knowledge of the latest orchestration techniques. A majority of these technologies have only recently evolved and developed over the last decade, there is also an existing shortage of skill sets that can support these emerging use cases,” he added.

He posited that introducing and deploying autonomous networking to tomorrow’s industrial and manufacturing environments is a challenge that will require concerted support from an ecosystem of multiple vendors and partners.

“Such an ecosystem will include the major hyperscalers, vendors that provide low latency connectivity or analytics, AI and ML, and also managed services providers that can interconnect elements across all application layers,” he continued.

Economic implications of autonomous networks

Citing a 2021 study, Statista researchers noted that the concept of autonomous networks implemented in the sector of telecommunications may have a global economic impact of 13 billion U.S. dollars in 2021, and it is forecast that the implementation of this concept could have an economic impact of more than 800 billion dollars by the year 2030.

Howe believes that autonomous networks will simplify and enable the full extent of what can be possible in industrial and manufacturing environments by replacing costly, inflexible workflow processes that are manual and rely on legacy technological deployments.

“Aside from the direct benefits such as cost and workflow improvements, autonomous networks will enable the acceleration of a range of IoT, application and data use cases; this, in turn, will provide the basis for new revenue streams and products,” he added.

Advise for decision-makers

Asked what senior business, technology and operations leaders should bear in mind when evaluating autonomous networks as a solution to solve current business/operations challenges, Howe recommended that for organisations big and small, the transformation of network architectures and technologies can be uniquely challenging – yet imperative.

He further added that it is important to select vendors and partners that provide unbiased guidance and deep knowledge.

“Organisations have broad footprints, and each has the potential for thousands of edge environments needing deployment and management. Every manufacturing floor, every distribution hub, warehouse, or airport terminal counts as a single edge environment.”

Richard Howe

“The adoption of autonomous networks will enable organisations to speed system deployments and service activations, avoid failures and slowdowns, enable more dynamic operations, and operate at a greater speed and scale,” he concluded.

The post Why autonomous networks are important in Manufacturing 4.0 appeared first on FutureIoT.

Commissioned by Armis, The Forrester report, State of Enterprise IoT Security in North America, revealed that 74% of the respondents felt their security controls and practices were inadequate for managed, unmanaged assets across IT, cloud, IoT devices, medical devices (IoMT), operational technology (OT), industrial control systems (ICS), and 5G.

Keith Walsh, OT security and operations director at Armis, says the trouble with many installations within organisations is that each department tends to go solo on management and risk containment.

He cites the example of departments that may have managers over OT/ICS facilities, for instance: air conditioning, sanitation, telecommunications, and other functions. Server rooms and computers of all shapes and sizes may be managed by a separate IT department.

Outside a typical office, a process plant in the oil and gas, petrochemicals, and chemicals industries, or a power plant (nuclear, other renewable, or fossil), will yet have different field operations and maintenance managers managing various safety and other controllers. The expertise demanded by these fields tends to be disparate and so it would be difficult to converge all such manageable assets into a single department or system.

“For unmanaged devices, which may include OT and IoT, these may yet be another hurdle for organisations, since they may never have been defined as a security hazard, until recent times when 5G/LTE and broadband have permeated throughout every facet of an organisation.”

Keith Walsh

“So, it is safe to say, we can imagine the typical organisation may not have a complete security profile for all managed and unmanaged devices. Asset visibility is the first step in developing a security framework. You can’t secure what you can’t see,” he added.

As more devices in the homes connect to the internet, security and privacy concerns rise to new levels. The Palo Alto Networks’ The Connected Enterprise: IoT Security Report 2021 found that the problem has gotten worse with the rise of working from home. 81% of those who have IoT devices connected to their organisation’s network highlighted that the transition to remote working led to greater vulnerability from unsecured IoT devices.

“The bottom line is that while organisations are adopting best practices and implementing measures to limit network access, digital transformation is disrupting not only the way we work but the way we secure our ways of working,” explains Alex Nehmy, CTO of Industry 4.0 strategy for Asia Pacific & Japan at Palo Alto Networks.

He posits that safeguarding unmanaged and IoT devices continue to be an ongoing challenge. With most cyberattacks accessing corporate networks months before they are detected, ongoing monitoring and IoT device security should become a key focus area of a corporate IoT security strategy.

The real and present danger

The hacking events that we now remember including the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, meat packer JBS and the Triton malware attack against a Saudi petrochemical plant suggest that organisations will continue to be targeted as long as there are gains to be made.

Nehmy warns that most of today’s IoT security solutions provide limited visibility by using manually updated databases of known devices, require single-purpose sensors, lack consistent prevention and do not help with policy creation.

“They can only provide enforcement through integration, leaving cybersecurity teams to do the heavy lifting, blind to unknown devices, and hampering their efforts to scale operations, prioritise efforts or minimise risks,” he added.

Walsh further warns that the mature security processes that were born out of IT are now colliding with OT, as industry 4.0 becomes more pervasive. IoT devices also tend to be simplistic and lack sophisticated patching and firewalling capabilities.

“Looking ahead, Industry 5.0 is only going to increase the interaction between humans and machines to the point of necessitating real-world human safety protocols that go beyond current OT and IT security measures,” he continued.

The IT-OT convergence – who’s the boss?

Nehmy believes that the onus of IoT security rests on the shoulders of both operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) teams and they need to work collaboratively to ensure IoT security is adequate.

Having an IoT security system that provides a single pane of glass to give these teams a consistent level of visibility, monitoring and enforcement across both IT and OT environments, also helps bring these culturally diverse teams together, regardless of the systems they’re securing.

When organisations have limited visibility of IoT and OT devices, it hampers their ability to begin securing them.

“You can’t secure what you can’t see. One of the best practices for integrated IT and OT security involves conducting continuous monitoring and analysis."

Alex Nehmy

"The key focus should be on implementing a real-time monitoring solution that continuously analyses the behaviour of your entire network,” explained Nehmy.

Additionally, IT and OT teams should work together to ensure the IoT attack surface is managed by enforcing segmentation between IoT devices, OT devices and business-critical IT systems.

Strategy to secure IoT

Asked to name one strategy to secure IoT, Armis’ Walsh suggests understanding and identifying the attack surface.

“Once we do that, we can then properly patch, segment, and monitor transactions and interdependencies of those devices. Mitigating risk all starts with understanding and identifying the attack surface of our critical assets,” he added.

IDC cautions that IoT can very easily become the weak link or entry point for attacks in any organisation, which is why IoT solutions need to be secure by design. Extending a zero trust framework to IoT deployments can enhance security and reduce risk, but it is an enterprise-wide strategy that requires a complete understanding of all IoT systems on the network.

Nehmy concurs adding that implementing Zero Trust for IoT environments is the best approach for IT and OT personnel to devise an IoT security strategy that enforces policies for the least privileged access control.

Building a business case for IoT security

IoT and OT devices usually make up more than 30% of devices within corporate networks, 57% of which are also susceptible to cyberattacks, as they are built without security in mind and contain existing vulnerabilities.

“The attack surface of IoT devices permeates across all environments of the enterprise. While organisations may not yet spend more in managing the security of all connected assets, the increasing attack surface needs to be addressed holistically,” warns Walsh.

The attacks against Colonial Pipeline and JBS may have occurred in the US, but Deloitte believes that critical infrastructure operators in Asia Pacific are increasingly being targeted by cyber espionage and sophisticated attacks with the potential for severe disruption to essential services such as energy and water supply.

As IoT use grows in importance to the daily operations of critical infrastructure, adequately securing IoT and OT devices becomes a compelling business case, posits Palo Alto Network’s Nehmy.

He suggests that a comprehensive IoT business case should involve visibility of all IoT and OT devices, ongoing monitoring to detect security breaches, analysis of device risk and also the ability to protect and segment these devices. Ideally, this should be provided in a single security platform for the lowest total cost of ownership.

He opines that the monetary, reputational, and physical security repercussions of an IoT-based cyberattack, make it imperative for organisations to invest in advanced security solutions.

“Just as vaccinations keep us safe from COVID-19, investment in proactive prevention measures will place organisations in a better position to combat the IoT cybercrime pandemic,” he concludes.

The post IoT security realities – worse than you think appeared first on FutureIoT.

The Frost & Sullivan report, Growth Opportunities Driven by New Form Factors, revealed that the adoption of new form factors for devices will surge rapidly with advancements in connectivity technology.

It also noted that the advent of 5G and expanding artificial intelligence (AI) use cases will further inflate the global demand. This will lead to improved innovation across wearables, flexible devices, and implants.

“As the demand for new pliable form factors increases, companies cannot rely on traditionally shaped devices to capture market share,” said Akshay Menon, senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan.

He added that this encourages big electronic companies to work with newer materials to manufacture durable and flexible electronics.

Partner with application companies and social platforms to ensure their offerings are compatible with the device hardware, establishing an immersive customer experience.

Invest in research to develop durable materials, as current stretchable materials are thermoplastic, meaning heat softens them and makes them unable to withstand thermal exposure.

“With consumers’ growing preference for small-sized electronic devices, miniaturization will lead to developmental objectives for manufacturers. Further, new form factor development will lead to increased human-machine interaction, making data security a strategic priority for organisations."

Akshay Menon

Associate with organisations in the technology-enabled space as a new form of technology is dependent on internet connectivity and AI.

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The second, and arguably more dramatic, are the nearly persistent cyberattacks against private businesses and the continued operation of critical infrastructure. Nearly all industries are unable to escape unscathed from these attacks.

IoT adoption in manufacturing

Specific to Asia’s manufacturing sector, IDC is projecting continued growth in the integration of IoT technologies into the region’s manufacturing sector.

IDC estimates that in 2020, US$83.4 billion was spent on IoT technology by manufacturers in Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) with discrete manufacturing accounting for 60% of spend. Process manufacturing spent more than US$33 billion in the same year.

By 2025, IDC expects discrete manufacturers will send US$88.7 billion compared to US$51.9 billion among process manufacturers. The analyst says manufacturers can profit greatly from retrofitting smart sensors to old equipment because of the insights they can obtain about their equipment

FutureIoT touched base with Piyush Singh, senior market Analyst for IoT Insights, IDC Asia/Pacific to discuss how IoT is trending within the manufacturing sectors of Asia.

Manufacturers, whether in process or discrete, have used instrumentations to get feedback and provide some control over the production line. How can a manufacturer introduce IoT technology without disrupting the production line?

Piyush Singh: Industrial IoT uses a network of sensors to gather crucial production data, and cloud software to transform this data into insightful knowledge about how well industrial activities are run. The primary use case for expenditure was operations, followed by production asset management, maintenance, and field service.

Most of the manufacturers start with pilot testing by upgrading the existing legacy machines with the implementation of various hardware products. Additionally, it is true that replacing a plant entails a lengthy period of machine downtime.

In terms of time, this is frequently unsustainable. In this regard, a refit operation evaluation would be helpful. The most difficult barrier to a retrofitting effort is that a legacy system has machine tools from many manufacturing eras with various connection protocols.

Process control must be carried out manually by monitoring, sensing, estimating, and modifying the machine parameters due to the lack of sensors and actuators.

"Usually, in Asia, the retrofitting is completed in a phased manner wherein one production line is taken for the upgradation to avoid unnecessary downtime in production. Once the transformation of machines is completed in one production line, later the retrofitting of other machines will be considered."

Piyush Singh

Specific to manufacturers in Asia, do you see information security including cyber security, as a priority over production? How has the perception/acceptance/attitude towards security changed over the last five years?

Piyush Singh: The fourth industrial revolution, often known as Industry 4.0, is the logical outcome of the third revolution and is primarily focused on two key elements: the Internet of Things and Services (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS).

In Asia, retrofitting is not only the key concept of factory automation. Cyber security, data security, and enhanced data privacy are all covered under one umbrella called industry 4.0.

With the growing demand for IoT in various sectors, the demand for robust cyber security is also the need of the hour. Spending on security solutions and services in Asia/Pacific is forecasted to exceed $31 billion in 2022, an increase of 15.5% from 2021 in which almost $2 billion in security spending would be under the discrete manufacturing section, according to IDC's latest Worldwide Security Spending Guide.

Despite headwinds such as looming global recession, geopolitical conflicts, and rising inflation, investments in hardware, software, and services related to cybersecurity are expected to reach US$ 57.6 billion in 2026, with a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 16.4% for the period of 2021-26.

China will continue to be the region's largest market, accounting for more than 40% of total Asia/Pacific* security spending in 2022, with a five-year CAGR of 21.2% during the forecast period. This clearly showcases that the demand for security infrastructure is increasing in the Asia Pacific manufacturing sector.

If you think of IoT integration in the manufacturing process as a timeline, what IoT technologies do you see being deployed over time and what other technologies do you anticipate will follow because of IoT?

Piyush Singh: Most of the downtime and accidents are caused by the wear and tear of machines in many manufacturing plants. By virtualizing the plant and averting high-risk operator occurrences, the retrofitting goal is to ensure predictive maintenance applications.

Remote monitoring and management system, digital connectivity, cloud storage and robotic process control are some of the IoT retrofitting trends seen in manufacturing processes. 

To identify and detect upcoming errors, Deep Learning algorithms and Digital Twin (DT) approaches is something which is being used and have the tendency to grow exponentially in future. Artificial neural networks (ANN) for detecting the tool wear in a CNC machine after retrofitting is a concept which is in great demand in many production plants.

The post The IoT horizon for Asia’s manufacturers beyond 2022 appeared first on FutureIoT.

Gathering, analysing, and utilising vast amounts of data from equipment, processes, customers, and suppliers also drive this transformation. Broad, organisational information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) convergence, in which data-centric IT systems integrate with operations equipment and technology, can provide a huge competitive advantage when executed successfully.

IT-OT convergence is cited as one of the most important factors for organisations to achieve their strategic goals—68% of respondents—with a majority implementing or annually reviewing some form of this process.

Integration challenges range from getting old equipment to work with new systems and platforms to bridging the different goals and priorities of IT and OT teams. Others include:

• Technical and cultural integration issues.
• Incompatible legacy applications.
• Security vulnerabilities and concerns integrating IT and OT systems.
• Lack of expertise in IT/OT integration.
• Organisational complexity.

Despite these hurdles, many industrial organisations are working to excel at their IT/OT convergence strategy.

“Addressing these challenges requires investing in complementary solutions such as digital technologies and risk management, and ensuring that IT/OT convergence has clear, quantifiable business advantages by creating strong data monetization strategies and being responsive to evolving customer needs,” said Roberta Gamble, partner and vice president at Frost & Sullivan.

She added that reducing production downtimes and increasing competitiveness through optimizing operational performance (by reducing OPEX, and faster time to market) are the most common OT investment drivers across industries.

“Initiatives are led at the C level, with CEOs being the most common champions. Interestingly, they have a balanced view of achieving convergence across all three types; IT-centric roles tend to have physical convergence goals.”

Roberta Gamble

Recommendations

Frost suggests that Oil & gas industries must build industry-appropriate apps and systems that build value from data, prioritize creating operations and production performance views, and bridge growing skill and workforce gaps limiting IT/OT potential.

Utilities industrials must transition from silos to a matrix of multidisciplinary teams focused on end-to-end business goals, create strong defences against cyber threats, and harmonize data collection protocols.

Among the automotive industrials, Gamble suggested these prioritise automation to improve quality, reduce OT costs, and build workforce flexibility; use advanced connectivity for reliable, real-time connectivity; and build or partner with a solution provider to create industry-focused tools.

“Manufacturing industrials must create continuity and visibility across a disparate organisation, work with value chain partners on data/digital transformation strategies, adopt cohesive and integral cybersecurity solutions across platforms and networks, and opt for open systems that easily integrate across different equipment generations and legacy data systems,” she concluded.

The post Edge to drive industrial IT-OT convergence in key industries appeared first on FutureIoT.

According to Mark Verbloot, senior director of  product, solutions and systems engineering for Asia Pacific Region at Aruba Networks, the turbulence in manufacturing and the supply chain seen in the last two years have underscored the need for manufacturers to accelerate their transition from “mass production and economies of scale to prioritizing market and customer responsiveness".

"In response to the issues they face, high-tech manufacturers are increasingly aligning their technology investments to secure and optimise operations while addressing data privacy and security concerns even as they build greater resilience in the long-term,” said Verbloot.

The study, entitled “High-Tech Manufacturing Begins with High-Performance Networking and Security Solution”, was conducting by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Aruba – a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, surveying more than 270 business and IT decision-makers from high-tech manufacturers in Australia, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand in the first quarter of 2022.

The study found three in four manufacturers in the region are prioritising innovation and automation for greater operational efficiency and resilience over the past 12 months.

It also found that edge solutions, IoT applications, and networks were essential to driving innovation for 63% of respondents, with 61% indicating they had optimised manufacturing processes with automation and robots. Meanwhile, 69% of respondents said they were either piloting or already using cloud-managed networking and security solutions to benefit from improved flexibility, scalability, and defense capabilities.

Furthermore, 64% of respondents who indicated their intention to build on previous investments in AI-powered software to optimise operations, implement predictive capabilities, and optimise productivity.

Data privacy and security concerns

With the increased connectivity and digitalisation of processes and operations, the study states that the collection, transmission, and utilisation of the breadth of data is becoming critical to the sectors' ability to scale operations and address the challenges posed by privacy and security concerns.

Indeed, more than half (52%) of APAC decision-makers ranked data privacy and security concerns within their top five challenges when implementing networking solutions, while 48% said the lack of cybersecurity features in legacy IoT devices is one of their top five challenges. About 18% ranked information technology/operational technology (IT/OT) divide as one of their top two networking challenges.

In response to data privacy and security concerns, manufacturers have plans to leverage emerging technologies and automation to secure their operations in the next 24 months.

These solutions include cloud-managed networking (38%) and SD-WAN (37%). More than 50% of manufacturers are also expanding, upgrading, or planning to invest in Zero Trust Edge solutions in the same timeframe, while 57% said identity-based traffic segmentation helps them to achieve their business goals.

"As we emerge from the pandemic, there is a need for the manufacturing industry to develop greater agility and flexibility in their operations. Innovation is at the heart of decision-makers’ priorities but manufacturing leaders need to act now by leveraging high-performance network and security solutions to help the smart manufacturing industry scale effectively,” said Verbloot.

The post Consistent network operations crucial to smart MFG in APAC appeared first on FutureIoT.

Collectively called “OT:ICEFALL”, all 56 vulnerabilities are divided into four main categories: insecure engineering protocols, weak cryptography or broken authentication schemes, insecure firmware updates and remote code execution via native functionality.

The 36-page report from Vedere Labs underscored the impact of “insecure by design” legacy of OT devices which leave them exposed to real-world OT malware such as  Industroyer, TRITON, Industroyer2 and INCONTROLLER.

“The rapid expansion of the threat landscape is well documented at this stage. By connecting OT to IoT and IT devices, vulnerabilities that once were seen as insignificant due to their lack of connectivity are now high targets for bad actors.” said Daniel dos Santos, head of security research, Forescout Vedere Labs. 

He added: “We a very long way to go to reach the summit of these OT design practices. These types of vulnerabilities, and the proven desire for attackers to exploit them, demonstrate the need for robust, OT-aware network monitoring and deep-packet-inspection (DPI) capabilities.”

The products affected by OT:ICEFALL are known to be prevalent in industries that are the backbone of critical infrastructure such as oil and gas, chemical, nuclear, power generation and distribution, manufacturing, water treatment and distribution, mining and building automation. Many of these products are sold as ‘secure by design’ or have been certified with OT security standards

Shifting threat landscape

The report by Vedere Labs has identified a shift in the community toward recognising “insecure by design” vulnerabilities.

“Only a few years back, well-known vulnerabilities like some that can be found in OT:ICEFALL would not get assigned a CVE ID because there was the assumption that everyone knew OT protocols were insecure. On the contrary, we believe a CVE is a community recognised marker that aids in vulnerability visibility and actionability by helping push vendors to fix issues and asset owners to assess risks and apply patches,” the report said.

The vulnerabilities and associated issues disclosed in this report range from persistent insecure-by-design practices in security-certified products to inadequate attempts to fix them.

It is crucial for asset owners to understand how the opaque and proprietary nature of these systems, the suboptimal vulnerability management surrounding them, and the often-false sense of security offered by certifications complicate OT risk management efforts.

Although the impact of each vulnerability is highly dependent on the functionality each device offers, they fall under the following categories:

• Remote code execution (RCE): Allows an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the impacted device, but the code may be executed in different specialised processors and different contexts within a processor, so an RCE does not always mean full control of a device. This is usually achieved via insecure firmware/logic update functions that allow the attacker to supply arbitrary code.
• Denial of service (DoS): Allows an attacker to either take a device completely offline or to prevent access to some function.
• File/firmware/configuration manipulation: Allows an attacker to change important aspects of a device such as files stored within it, the firmware running on it or its specific configurations. This is usually achieved via critical functions lacking the proper authentication/authorization or integrity checking that would prevent attackers from tampering with the device.
• Compromise of credentials: Allows an attacker to obtain credentials to device functions, usually either because they are stored or transmitted insecurely.
• Authentication bypass: Allows an attacker to bypass existing authentication functions and invoke desired functionality on the target device.

A full list of devices affected by OT: ICEFALL is available here, while details of each vulnerability are discussed in Forescout’s technical report.

The post Forescout reveals 56 flaws in OT devices from 10 companies appeared first on FutureIoT.

With maintenance and modernisation of existing equipment expected to exhibit significant growth over time, manufacturers are also focusing on value-added services.

Elevator maintenance, including elevator preventive maintenance, is one of the major tasks involved in elevator service. It involves ensuring that no accidents or breakdowns happen on elevators. Elevator maintenance helps avoid major replacements and it prolongs the life of elevators.

Another issue that has recently come to the fore (driven in part by climate change) is sustainable energy use. With elevators representing 2-7% of the total energy consumed in a building, there is significant scope for improvement regarding energy consumption.

The rise of IoT elevators

The global IoT elevator market is set to reach US$93.9 billion by the end of 2022-2032 with a CAGR of 13.4%, according to Fact.MR. IoT Elevators are proving to be more efficient than traditional elevators in comparison with next-generation elevators.

With a growth rate valued at US$18.4 Billion, in 2022 the hardware demand has boomed significantly in the past few years. Based on the data that is being collected from daily usage of elevators, artificial intelligence is currently being used to assist both operators and mechanical contractors in keeping up with their daily routines and finding ways to better manage the flow of elevator traffic and find ways to prevent problems before they occur.

Challenges ahead

The integration of third-party systems with elevators is expected to become more prevalent as technology develops. Construction companies are calling for efficient and safe technologies in the global elevator market.

Driving the growth is increased urbanisation, including demand for residential & commercial amenities, propping demand for IoT in elevators.

IoT to power innovations

Devices powered by IoT technology can manage big data streams and perform predictive maintenance in elevators.

Birgitta Van den Driessche, TK Elevator’s product and marketing director for APAC, says the pandemic, technology and sustainability have fuelled the innovations of the past few years. She highlights technologies like TWIN elevators operating in the same shaft and ropeless elevators that can move both vertically and horizontally.

When it comes to user expense, she noted that smart and connected elevators not only streamline maintenance but also effectively increase availability levels.

“Through newly developed human and system interfaces, elevators are getting more integrated into building operations. We expect innovations to continue as vertical mobility serves an ever-important role in reducing urban sprawl and improving accessibility, especially in emerging economies in APAC."

Birgitta Van den Driessche

How is elevator maintenance conducted?

Birgitta Van den Driessche: Elevator maintenance is of paramount importance to the safety of passengers, for the same reason it is highly regulated in most countries around the world. Maintenance checks are required to be conducted regularly by certified technicians to verify the integrity and efficiency of mechanical, electrical and safety devices, and to ensure elevator units operate safely and efficiently.

Given that these tend to be operated manually by passengers, how do you ensure minimal disruption to operations?

Birgitta Van den Driessche: Through connected controllers, elevators today work in synergy with advanced group scheduling and calling solutions. These systems optimise elevator dispatching to cater for the needs of different scenarios, including energy-saving, priority service and peak hours arrangement for specific zones/floors.

For example, in multi-car configurations like the TWIN, these systems are together able to increase service availability and optimise energy consumption by parking the unused car during non-peak hours. With the entire operation flow coordinated by digital systems, operations are optimised, and human disruptions can be reduced to a minimum.

How has IoT influenced the preventive/predictive maintenance of elevators?

Birgitta Van den Driessche: Elevator maintenance was performed on a “Break & Fix” basis, usage data of elevator components was not easily accessible.

Recent technological advancements gave major global players an unprecedented edge over smaller and local contenders - with the introduction of elevators connected through an IoT platform and monitored by a host of sensors, and the help of big data, operation insights of thousands of elevators uploaded to the cloud, property owners and managers are now able to integrate predictive maintenance into building operations workflow, and as aforementioned, enable more versatile elevator services.

Talk about the impact of data-driven building operations on the passenger experience.

Birgitta Van den Driessche: The integration of digital mobility solutions and data-driven building operations has changed how people travel within buildings, especially in today’s post-pandemic situation.

On one hand, digital solutions such as gesture, voice and mobile elevator calls enable smooth elevator rides without the need for a single physical touch, on the other hand, digital and centralised elevator dispatch systems shorten queues and wait times by optimising elevator availability according to access and usage data in specific sections of the building.

Real-time operation insights including fall and misuse detection and visual safety based on computer vision and AI technologies will also significantly enhance the safety performance of elevators and escalators.

Can you compare traditional and cloud-based elevator maintenance?

Birgitta Van den Driessche: Cloud-based maintenance is of game-changing importance when it comes to service improvement. In the past elevator maintenance was conducted mainly through visual inspection, technicians were often not able to accurately estimate the usage of elevator components. As a result, when elevators malfunctioned, downtimes were inevitable due to parts availability and time needed for the actual repair work.

With the new cloud-based maintenance approach, in addition to regular visual inspections conducted by certified technicians, we are now able to monitor the real-time operational status of the elevator and its various components, which enable us to perform predictive maintenance on connected elevator units.

Can you share the future development and benefits of building operation platforms?

Birgitta Van den Driessche: Buildings in the future will consist of numerous control systems, a greater scale of integration of these systems will be the way forward.

With next-generation elevators, access control, in-car infotainment, emergency-call, smart maintenance and monitoring solutions, central air conditioning, etc., all working together in synergy, will result in a building that allows tenants and even robots – a new type of elevator users travel seamlessly within a building that is more secure and consumes less energy.

Development of these technologies has matured in recent years, and they are readily available for deployment as new installations or retrofits.

Click on the PodChat player to listen to Van den Driessche’s account on how IoT is further accelerating the adoption of IoT-enabled elevators, and the benefits these bring to both operators and the public.

1. What is new about elevators (particularly since 2020)? – new in terms of features, rider expectations and operator preferences.
2. How is elevator maintenance conducted?
3. Given that elevators tend to be operated manually often by passengers, how do you ensure minimal disruption to operations?
4. Talk to us about the impact of data-driven building operations on passenger experience.
5. How has IoT influenced the preventive/predictive maintenance of elevators?
6. Can you compare traditional and cloud-based elevator maintenance?
7. Can you share future development and benefits of building operation platforms?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Future of connected mobility appeared first on FutureIoT.

Regardless of these challenges that limited the growth of IoT spending, IDC said the rising demand for remote operations, better network coverage, and the deployment of commercial 5G and testbeds are driving IoT adoption in the region.

In fact, based on its latest Worldwide Semi-annual Internet of Things Spending Guide,  IDC expects Asia/Pacific spending on IoT to reach US$436 billion in 2026, with a CAGR of 11.8% percent for the period 2021-2026.

"The ongoing deployment and expansion of 5G will drive the growth of connectivity use cases that utilize massive narrowband IoT as well as wideband/broadband IoT such as 4K IP cameras. Low Earth Satellites including nanosatellites and next-generation Very High Throughput Satellites will enable a wide range of remote connectivity uses cases relating to Smart Cities, environmental and sustainability monitoring, transportation infrastructure, energy and resources, and utilities," said Bill Rojas, research director for IDC Asia/Pacific.

From a pure spending perspective, in 2022, the largest portion of spending is expected to remain in the services category, representing roughly 40% of the overall IoT spending in the region.

Furthermore, organisations are increasingly establishing cross-functional IoT centers of excellence, emphasizing IT/OT convergence, which increases their reliance on system integrators and other outsourcing partners.

The hardware market for IoT will be the second-largest technology group in 2022, primarily driven by purchases of modules and sensors. Software will be the fastest growing technology category with a five-year CAGR of 13.3% with a focus on application and analytics software purchases. Connectivity spending will grow at 7.2% CAGR during the forecast period and will account for 7.6% of the total spend in 2026.

Manufacturing sector leads IoT adoption

According to the IDC study, discrete and process manufacturing will continue to be the top industries investing in IoT solutions in 2022 and in forecasted years, followed by state/local government and professional services. The ability to improve the product and service quality, efficiency, and customer experience are the primary motivations for these businesses to invest in IoT.

Industries that will experience the fastest growth in 2022 are retail and healthcare, with a growth of 11.8 % and 11%, respectively. Changes caused by the pandemic increased digitisation in retail processes, and continued the momentum of remote or contactless engagement are driving this growth.

IoT use cases that see the highest spending in 2022 are manufacturing operations, production asset management, omni-channel operations, public safety and emergency response and smart grids which follows similar growth patterns as the host industries. Together these use-cases will make more than one-third of the overall IoT spending in the region.

Use-case related to healthcare - bedside telemetry will continue to be one of the fastest-growing use-cases in 2022, along with Maintenance & Field Service and Airport Facility Automation.

“Enterprises in Asia/Pacific excluding Japan are actively pursuing digital transformation of business processes to understand better current difficulties and productivity gaps across the value chain. The use of IoT will facilitate better collaboration within the organization and the ecosystem” said Sharad Kotagi, market analyst at IDC IT Spending Guides, Customer Insights & Analysis.

IDC said government-led IoT initiatives and policies, and the emergence of Smart factories and Industry 4.0 have accelerated the IoT adoption across Asia Pacific countries.

Based on its latest study, China (PRC) continues to hold the lion's share, with more than 60% in 2022, followed by South Korea and India. Countries with the fastest IoT spending in 2022 are Singapore and Hong Kong.

The post IDC: IoT spending in APAC to reach US$436-B in 2026 appeared first on FutureIoT.

The solution will identify all facility-wide assets, deliver risk and vulnerability management capabilities, and provide continuous threat monitoring to protect enterprise investments.

“The integration of IoT in buildings is sparking an exciting shift across the sector, but like with any innovation, it also presents new risks,” said Annick Villeneuve, vice president for digital Enterprise Solutions, Schneider Electric.

Smart buildings face heightened exposure to risks

Indeed, Schneider Electric cited that IoT technology for buildings is expected to grow from an existing 1.7 billion connected devices at the end of 2020 to over 3 billion by 2025.

As these commercial buildings evolve into smart buildings of the future, they share at least one common trait: heightened exposure to risks. This is driving commercial buildings to digitize their assets, including modernising their building management system.

The sector must address the security challenges presented by smart buildings. Studies have shown that 57% of IoT devices are vulnerable to medium or high-severity attacks. Cyberattacks have already harmed several businesses, including critical infrastructure such as hospitals, data centers, and hotels. The commercial building sector must find ways to safeguard both its access to the company’s IT systems as well as its mission-critical infrastructure.

Villeneuve said: “For threat actors looking to disrupt operations, benefit financially and/or achieve other objectives, and in so doing to put individuals at risk, buildings can appear to be the perfect target. It is with this in mind that we are partnering with Claroty to bring our customers a comprehensive, industry-leading solution that meets the unique security and operational risks facing buildings of today and of the future.”

Protecting cyberphysical assets

As more IoT devices are deployed within the buildings space and increased connectivity between previously isolated operational technology, building management systems (BMS), and their IT counterparts, have made them attractive targets and vulnerable to cyberattacks. Additionally, facility managers oversee hundreds of vendors, service contractors, and technicians in a fragmented manner, increasing complexity and risk.

“When it comes to securing cyber-physical systems, including BMS, the number one priority is to keep physical processes operational and safe,” said Keith Carter, vice president of worldwide channels and Alliances, Claroty. “By fusing Claroty’s deep domain expertise and purpose-built technology with Schneider Electric’s renowned services and commitment to driving digital transformation globally, we are empowering our customers to reap the benefits of smart building technologies without increasing their exposure to cyber risk, thereby taking a profound step toward creating a more efficient, sustainable future for the world.”

The Cybersecurity Solutions for Buildings is designed to give building owners, facility operators and security teams a simple solution without adding further workload. It identifies baseline risks, continually reduces both cyber and asset risks, and identifies and remediates threats in their environment before services are interrupted. Some of its key features include:

• a simple, vendor agnostic solution with which they can easily fulfil secure remote access, asset inventory, efficiency, and other related requirements from building owners and asset managers.
• automated asset discovery and network mapping solution that identifies and catalogues all system assets (BMS, IoT, UPS, Power Systems, etc.).
• continuous threat detection solution that constantly monitors buildings networks to identify, assess, and alert at the earliest indicators of network and asset level anomalies.
• external, secure tunnels to connect to and maintain specific resources and assets in the building network easily and without introducing additional risk.
• dashboards and reporting capabilities to enable management and security teams to understand current situations, receive tailored recommendations, and drive the proper actions to reduce a building’s exposure to safety, operational, financial, and reputational risks.
• secure remote access (SRA) solution that is purpose-built for buildings and OT environments to increase building security when vendors, contractors, and technicians are performing remote maintenance activities.

Furthermore, the visibility and intelligence gained on the building OT and Asset Environment through the deployment of Schneider Electric’s Cybersecurity for Buildings solutions can also bring additional benefits to the building owners and operators to enhance their building operational efficiency and productivity with actionable insights.

The post Schneider Electric, Claroty unveil new offering to secure smart buildings appeared first on FutureIoT.

"Many manufacturers are considering introducing smart factory technologies that incorporate information technology into their manufacturing processes to flexibly respond to changing markets and strengthen competitiveness through continuous innovation," said Yong-ha Lee, regional director, Rockwell Automation Korea.

"The CEC provides a one-stop location where customers can physically and virtually interact with our cutting-edge solutions and understand the value of the connected enterprise. I hope the centre will be a place where customers can experience how digitalisation can address real business problems and immediately begin developing tailored strategies together with us," added Lee.

The centre consists of five zones where customers can experience Rockwell Automation's latest smart factory technologies first-hand, including the motor control centre, Independent Cart Technology, Internet of Things (IoT) control systems and cybersecurity systems, distributed control systems, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) applications.

Hands-on demonstrations will be administered by Rockwell subject matter experts and visitors can download an AR-enabled app to experience the solutions for themselves. In addition, all solutions are operated based on real-time data, so visitors can behold the actual operation status of facilities.

With over 120 years of experience, Rockwell Automation provides cutting-edge smart factory solutions to companies in more than 100 countries.

The post Rockwell Automation's new centre in Seoul shows smart factory at work appeared first on FutureIoT.

The Nokia MXIE is a future-ready, high-capacity and highly-resilient as-a-service OT on-premise edge solution that accelerates the digital transformation of operational technology (OT), and is powered with 4.9/LTE and 5G connectivity provided by the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC).

Through the expanded  partnership with Microsoft, Nokia MXIE and private wireless solution customers have seamless access to the full Azure ecosystem offering on MXIE. For one, the integration will allow Nokia customers in industries such as automotive, manufacturing, energy, logistics and government to run Industry 4.0 applications in the traditional cloud, as well as directly on their premises. It will also provide numerous benefits such as increasing worker safety through AI and automation, while decreasing the amount of needed backhaul with local data processing.

“Our extended collaboration with Microsoft will enable and enhance the performance of Industry 4.0 mission critical applications allowing our customers to tap into Microsoft Azure Arc in the cloud and on the customer premise’s edge,” said Stephan Litjens, vice president, Nokia Enterprise Solutions.

Nokia has deployed mission-critical networks to more than 2,200 leading enterprise customers in the transport, energy, large enterprise, manufacturing, webscale and public sector segments around the globe. It has also extended its expertise to more than 450 large private wireless customers worldwide across an array of sectors.

Microsoft Azure Arc offers a simple way to deploy and manage Azure applications on-premise with multi-cloud resources, such as virtual or physical servers and Kubernetes clusters. It simplifies governance and management by delivering a consistent multi-cloud and on-premise management platform.

Microsoft Azure Arc running on Nokia MXIE provides enterprises with added access to Azure capabilities while benefiting from private wireless connected assets’ real-time data and on-premise, highly-resilient OT-centric edge processing. Keith Sutton, CTO, telco service line at Microsoft said: “Nokia is an established leader in fully integrated industrial edge and private wireless solutions to provide features and automated management tools that accelerate OT digitalization. With Microsoft Azure Arc, a wide ecosystem of applications, and our long standing work with Nokia, we can provide AI-powered insights and identify solutions to workflow issues for mission critical Industry 4.0 applications running at the edge.”

The post Nokia extends Microsoft partnership into the industrial edge appeared first on FutureIoT.

The entry of insurtech has also opened new avenues for insurers to market products, in some cases, create totally new offerings in new locations, not possible with the conventional model for marketing insurance.

Concirrus CEO Andrew Yeoman acknowledged that the pandemic has challenged the insurance industry business model in Asia. He commented that COVID-19 has given the industry problems and opportunities.

"It's given us a problem because operating a business where you're we've been predominantly used to doing face to face work, and then trying to do that remotely has been challenging. And clearly, there's going to need to be some investment going forwards in some of that backend office and infrastructure. The very manual methods of perhaps processing policies have been challenged," he added.

IoT-led innovations in insurance

According to the IMARC Group report, IoT Insurance Market: Global Industry Trends, Share, Size, Growth, Opportunity and Forecast 2022-2027, the global IoT insurance market reached a value of US$20.2 Billion in 2021. The Internet of Things (IoT) insurance refers to a technological solution that collects, transmits, and shares data of the client to insurance companies.

Yeoman acknowledges that IoT is creeping in everywhere. "Everything that we see in touch with seems to be monitored these days. What we're starting to slowly see is that the insurers are building products around that," he added.

"We're seeing it rising everywhere at the same time, both in personal lines and in commercial lines. And really the most exciting part of it is that it gives you some that hyper-personalised proposition so around how you work, how you're behaving and how you're driving."

The value proposition of IoT in insurance

IoT brings with it data not previously available to insurers. Yeoman commented that the data represents the behaviour, in the form of how, where, and when, of the asset. He cited the example of vehicular insurance. Where traditional insurance would mean that the insurer would only have a record of an incident during an insurance claim, embedded insurance describes a behaviour that is a far better indicator of risk than the static factors that have been used previously.

According to Yeoman, from the insurer's perspective, the data that they get from IoT devices will allow for disaggregation of risk. He posited that using data gathered by IoT devices, insurers can price their products and services to the risk profile of the insured.

"The secondary benefit that it also provides is the concept of nudge behaviour. I think that notion of those additional benefits changes our relationship with an insurer from just being somebody that's there, when things go wrong, to somebody that can help me live a healthier life," he added.

Supporting the operations of insurers

Beyond the embedding of IoT into insurance products, Yeoman says insurance companies make their living off managing the risks of the insured. He cited the example of insured vehicles – that under the traditional business model, the insurer has no awareness of where an insured vehicle is at any given time, whether it is on the road or parked somewhere, the road conditions and the driving habits or pattern of the driver.

He posited that the insurer would not know how many risks the insurance company is taking during the lifetime of the policy. IoT quantifies some of these risks and provides a granularity of risks down to the individual policy owner.

Importance of data

To realise that example of automotive insurance, it is important that data from IoT devices are collected and processed according to a pre-defined workflow.

To succeed in integrating IoT into the insurance business model, Yeoman says it is important to have a very clear understanding of what their business model is going to be, how that's going to scale, and how they can adopt such a business model.

He posited that insurers would need to be willing to experiment and be able to adapt to what works for them. "They need to see what's acceptable to their policyholders. And they need to do that quickly. I think the short, sharp, focused experience. What can we learn? We call it fail-fast," he commented.

Managing the unknown – IoT skills, experience, and expertise

Yeoman noted that insurers are used to dealing with data – much of it recorded on paper. With an IoT-led insurance model,

Clearly, if you go in with an IoT enabled proposition, you might take on a new supply chain, you might have to buy hardware, you might have to have connectivity issues in terms of SIM cards or other sorts of network connectivity. And you need a supply chain to then say, both procure those but then get those shipped out or installed with a customer or whichever. I think that in terms of the insurance expertise, depending on the particular business case, and the line of business that going into, clearly, it changes the need of an insurer, what skills they need in that supply chain. My one-sentence advice is, don't build that in-house, just partner with somebody who's an expert in that.

Click on the PodChat player to hear Yeoman's insights and recommendations around how the insurance industry can meet the evolving challenges using IoT.

1. How has the insurance industry in Asia evolved in the last five years?
2. It can be argued that IoT is still relatively new as applied in insurance. Can you cite one or two recent innovations around the use of IoT in insurance?
3. What is the value proposition of IoT in the provision of insurance products and services?
4. There are two aspects of IoT that need to be addressed in insurance: risk management and the other is around data privacy and protection.
   1. How are insurers using IoT to better manage their risks? (insight into behavioural analysis)
   1. In your observation, is the understanding of IoT technology, sufficiently mature around data privacy and protection?
5. How important is having a clear business model to benefit from IoT data? And how can businesses adopt such a model?
   1. What skills, expertise, and experience must an insurer have access to benefit from the use of IoT?
   1. When looking to tap IoT, what questions should leadership ask their CIO/CTO to ensure they are in the right direction and frame of mind?
6. What does Concirrus bring to the table?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Redefining insurance with IoT appeared first on FutureIoT.

Aquaculture or fish farming involves interventions in the rearing process to enhance production, such as regular stocking, feeding, and protection from predators.

Allied Market Research forecasts that the global aquaculture market size US$378 billion by 2027, registering a CAGR of 5.8%. Since 2019, Asia-Pacific has held a leading position in the global market and is expected to maintain this dominance in the future. 

Singapore has set an ambitious goal of producing 30% of its nutritional needs locally by 2030 in a bid to achieve food security. While ‘Agri tech’ may be looked upon as the answer to raising yields quickly, the aquaculture or aquafarming industry has been slower in its digital transformation. It continues to rely heavily on labour for simple operations such as fish feeding and water quality monitoring.

GK Tay, general manager for ISDN Group, notes that compared to other manufacturing sectors, which have embraced technologies to increase production and overcome space constraints, the aquaculture sector in Singapore has been slower in its digital transformation.

Hurdles to the modernisation of the aquaculture sector

According to Tay, one of the chief hurdles that the industry faces is the apparent skills gap. He acknowledges that local farmers are struggling to keep up with the pace of digital transformation and require upskilling or retraining to use existing or new technologies for fish farming confidently.

He also believes that faced with challenges, some beyond human control, some farmers may not be convinced and prepared to sink in funds to invest in technologies, as the return on investment is volatile.

“Digitization of the aquaculture industry requires collaboration between various experts, which can be challenging to coordinate,” he opines. “Farmers will have to extend communication with aquaculture experts, scientists, and even technology providers like us. Interdisciplinary collaboration is needed, which may be too much for farmers to handle – especially with the shortage of resources and bandwidth.”

Commercial adoption of new concepts

Singapore is not short of ideas on new ways to innovate the aquaculture sector. Singapore’s National Water Agency, PUB, issued the Global Innovation Challenge, aimed at realising ideas to transform into a Smart Utility of the future.

However, Tay reckons that for any concept to be adopted commercially, it must be sound and proven. He acknowledges that companies like ISDN Group, or other institutions, need to go out into the field and work closely with the farmer to understand their use cases and requirements. These concepts and solutions must be able to work in a real-world setting.

The other issue is affordability. Farming tends to be a very practical profession, with down-to-earth people, who are accustomed to simple living. Technology draws concerns around the practicality, cost and return of investment.

“We need to ensure that the solution is affordable, especially in the agriculture business, where margins aren't high,” says Tay.

He concedes that funding support is available from the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) to help local farmers adopt technologies and innovation. However, the follow-on challenge is creating awareness of the availability of such funds and encouraging farmers to apply for them.

Not limited to aquaculture

Tay acknowledges that some of the technologies developed for aquaculture can be applied to other disciplines and industries. Technology is just an enabler.

He cites the example of concepts like IoT, Cloud, remote monitoring, artificial intelligence, and data analysis. These can be applied to other use cases by changing the parameters.

The overall aim remains the same - to improve productivity and drive operational performance. Hence, collaborations between partners like AVEVA, Stratus, and ISDN and institutes of higher learning such as Temasek Polytechnic are crucial in driving the adoption and awareness of these technologies across multi-industries,” he elaborates.

Angling for ESG

Aquaculture is seen by some as the answer to the call for sustainable production of aquatic products to meet the rising demand in Singapore, and the world, for seafood. The OECD forecasts that the ocean economy will grow at twice the rate of the mainstream economy by 2030.

With livestock farming under scrutiny for its environmental impact – reported by some to contribute up to 25% of total global carbon dioxide emissions, aquaculture may provide the answer to what some are saying is a dwindling supply of wild stocks against the backdrop of overfishing.

In a recent AVEVA survey of 850 global C-suite leaders, 92% of respondents listed sustainability as their company's top area of focus for the next three years. Furthermore, 89% of the respondents have committed to improving their business practices to tackle some of the climate changes.

Tay concedes that industrial business has a very adverse environmental impact, making sustainability a critical priority.

“To minimize the impact, industry leaders must have a strong understanding of the scope of the problem. Sustainable solutions may be a very global and complex problem and, if not solved today, may become even more detrimental for many generations to come."

GK Tay

“With technology, issues like productivity, efficiency, and affordability can be improved. Technology also enables businesses to track their progress and reduce production and chemical impact on the environment. Industry vendors will need to step up and chip in innovative ideas and solutions to minimize adverse environmental impact while maximizing their business potential,” he concludes.

Click on the podchat player and listen to Tay elaborate on the role of IoT in supporting a sustainable and safe digital-able aquaculture industry.

1. Describe the state of digital adoption in Singapore’s aquaculture sector.
   1. What are the immediate benefits of introducing technologies like IoT?
2. What are the top three hurdles in the digitization of the aquaculture business?
3. Looking at the concepts showcased at the Industrial Innovation Challenge, what needs to happen for the commercial adoption of these ideas?
4. Can the concepts and technologies developed be applied elsewhere?
   1. Who should drive it? How will be marketed to the right parties?
5. With ESG a growing priority, how do you see technology being applied to create sustainable practices?
6. What does ISDN Group bring to the table?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: How technology supports sustainable development appeared first on FutureIoT.

Shaping the future of manufacturing, WEF “Lighthouse” facilities implement Fourth Industrial Revolution technologies, such as the Internet of Things, big data, artificial intelligence and robots, into manufacturing and supply chain operations to deliver a wide range of benefits, from increased production efficiency to enhanced environmental sustainability.

“As the world grapples with many challenges, it is remarkable to see how Lighthouses are yielding sustainability benefits while achieving business goals, which we call eco-efficiency,” said Francisco Betti, head of Shaping the Future of Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains, World Economic Forum. “We need them to continue illuminating the way forward for the global manufacturing community by shaping a responsible future of manufacturing that works for people, society and the environment.”

Futuristic manufacturing

Over the past five years, LG has transformed its factory complex in Changwon, South Korea into LG Smart Park, a futuristic hub of home appliance manufacturing.

The key elements of the transformation are a digitally-enabled end-to-end three-dimensional logistics system, an advanced analytics system based on edge computing technology and machine learning that predicts defects, and state-of-the-art facilities that can mass-produce multiple models to respond flexibly to customer requirements.

The newly implemented “digital twin” technology enables the operation system to analyse production processes in virtual reality. It can predict if any issues will occur within the next 10 minutes and provide exact parts and materials for the assembling of each appliance with an accurate, up-to-the-minute status of the facility’s logistics operations.

Sensors utilising deep learning technology are installed throughout the factory to monitor each phase of production in real-time, helping factory workers to pre-emptively identify and resolve any possible issues. As a result, the cost of defective product returns dropped by 70%  from 2020 to 2021 while overall quality competitiveness and production efficiency were both significantly strengthened.

Floors one, two and three at LG Smart Park employ an overhead conveyor system that quickly transports boxes containing refrigerator parts to the required production lines. Attached to each line is an intelligent warehouse that monitors inventory in real-time, enabling automated materials management, including the request of additional parts and supplies.

On the ground, automated guided vehicles (AGVs) leveraging stable 5G network connectivity transport parts and materials to wherever they are needed on site. Through its three-dimensional logistics automation system, the company can minimize the amount of warehouse space needed by 30% compared to conventional logistics systems, and shorten the time required for hourly materials transportation by 25%.

LG Smart Park has also adopted the use of robots featuring an AI engine and camera to make the home appliance production process faster and safer. The robots undertake dangerous and complicated tasks, such as welding and the lifting of heavy parts and equipment.

Taking it global

LG plans to apply the innovative, smart production technologies pioneered at LG Smart Park to a total of 26 LG production facilities in 13 countries, accelerating the digital transformation of its global manufacturing network by 2025.

“LG Smart Park illustrates our strong commitment to adopting the revolutionary technologies as the leader of the global premium home appliance market,” said Lyu Jae-cheol, president of the LG Electronics Home Appliance & Air Solution Company. “We are presenting a blueprint for the future of manufacturing, one that delivers better outcomes across environmental, economic and employment aspects.”

The post LG Smart Park gets WEF’s Lighthouse Factory nod appeared first on FutureIoT.

Gartner observed that in the past three years, nearly 20% of organisations have already observed cyberattacks on IoT devices in their network.

While 64% of respondents to the Kaspersky study, Pushing the limits: How to address specific cybersecurity demands and protect IoT, use IoT solutions, as much as 43% do not protect them completely.

This means that for some of their IoT projects – which may be anything from an EV charging station to connected medical equipment – businesses don’t use any protection tools. Kaspersky posits that may be due to the great diversity of IoT devices and systems, which are not always compatible with security solutions.

Barriers to protecting IoT

The study noted that 64% of businesses fear that cybersecurity products can affect the performance of IoT while 40% fear it can be too hard to find a suitable solution. Other common issues businesses face when implementing cybersecurity tools are high costs (40%), being unable to justify the investment to the board (36%) and lack of staff or specific IoT security expertise (35%).

Barriers to implementing IoT

The study also noted that 57% of surveyed organisations see cybersecurity risks as the main barrier to implementing IoT. This can occur when companies struggle to address cyber risks at the design stage and then must carefully weigh up all pros and cons before implementation.

Stephen Mellor, chief technology officer at Industry IoT Consortium, insists that cybersecurity must be front and centre for IoT. He posits that managing risk is a major concern as life, limb and the environment are at stake.

He warns that an IT error can be embarrassing and expensive; an IoT error can be fatal. But cybersecurity is only one part of making a system trustworthy.

“We also need physical security, privacy, resilience, reliability and safety. And these need to be reconciled: what can make a building secure, (locked doors for example), could make it unsafe if you cannot get out quickly,” he continued.

While IT projects such as messaging/communication, analytics, CRM, etc., have around 80% of common requirements, IoT deployments are very fragmented, loosely coupled, domain-specific and integration-heavy in nature.

Eric Kao, director for WISE-Edge+ at Advantech comments that in the case of IoT implementation, companies must deal with all kinds of legacy systems, physical constraints, domain protocols, multiple vendor solutions. They must also maintain a reasonable balance in availability, scalability and security.

“In pursuit of higher availability and scalability, certain cloud infrastructure has to be leveraged, the system has to be open to some extent, then security becomes an enormous challenge,” he added.

The bright side

Challenges aside, there remains optimistic about the potential benefits of the technology and the possibilities of protecting IoT solutions as they are integrated into operations and IT.

Andrey Suvorov, CEO at Adrotech in Russia, says IoT is widely used in smart cities (62%), retail (62%) and industry (60%). These include projects such as energy and water management, smart lighting, alarm systems, video surveillance and many more.

“Experts around the world are working on the task of effective protection for such projects but efforts should be made at every level – from equipment manufacturers and software developers to service providers and companies that implement and use these solutions,” he added.

Next steps for securing IoT

To help organizations fill the gaps in their IoT security, Kaspersky suggests the following approaches:

• Assess the status of a device’s security before implementing it. Preferences should be given to devices with cybersecurity certificates and products from manufacturers who pay more attention to information security.
• Use a strict access policy, network segmentation and a zero-trust model. This will help minimize the spread of an attack and protect the most sensitive parts of the infrastructure.
• Adopt a vulnerability management program to regularly receive the most relevant data about vulnerabilities in programmable logic controllers (PLCs), equipment and firmware, and patch them or use any protection workarounds.
• Check the “IoT Security Maturity Model” – an approach that helps companies evaluate all steps and levels they need to pass to achieve a sufficient level of IoT protection.
• Use a dedicated IoT gateway that ensures the inbuilt security and reliability of data transferring from edge to business applications.

The post 43% of businesses don’t protect their full IoT suite appeared first on FutureIoT.

In addition, research suggests that there will be more than 75 billion devices connected to the internet by 2025, which equals around 10 IoT devices for every human on earth.

Various industries are using IoT for a more connected experience across their businesses. For example, manufacturing providers have increased IoT spending significantly over the past few years.

During the pandemic, manufacturers leveraged IoT to monitor and maintain equipment without a full team of staff, for tasks such as temperature and usage monitoring.

Gartner estimates that installed IoT endpoints for manufacturing and natural resources industries are forecast to grow 1.9 billion units in 2028. This foreseen estimate is fivefold the size of 331.5 million units in 2018.

As Singapore continues to roll out smart business initiatives such as the Networked Trade Platform to position itself as a leader in trade and supply chain, IoT devices will play a role in fulfilling said initiatives.

But, as IoT expands across the globe to offer a more connected experience, security undoubtedly takes a hit. IoT technology creates a broader attack surface, leaving businesses exposed to threats of attack.

The increasing attack surface of IoT devices

IoT devices are notoriously hard to monitor and secure, as most of them utilise legacy systems and infrequently connect to the internet, making them hard to track. This beckons a frustrating question for many CISOs and security teams; How can security experts secure and patch IoT devices if they don't know the device is there?

This is especially so when employees bring their devices to work (BYOD) which results in the issue of shadow IT. It refers to the use of technology without the knowledge of IT departments and this contributes to the lack of visibility on IoT devices.

As the office disruptions brought about by the pandemic are slowly diminishing, plenty of employees surveyed by EY expect to return to the office, whereas others look to a hybrid work model. This could spell an influx of vulnerable devices being brought back to the office as people return to work post-pandemic.

Furthermore, the endpoint can be deployed but with these small, unadvanced IoT devices, normal security telemetry can’t be. This poses additional threats to devices. Systems are left vulnerable when vital updates and device inventory are lacking.

IoT security nightmares

The Cybersecurity Agency of Singapore detected nearly 6,600 botnet drones with Singapore IP addresses daily in 2020, a massive spike from the 2019s daily average of 2,300. Mirai and Gamarue were the key malware types that accounted for 25% of infected Singapore IP addresses in 2020. Globally, malware types such as Mirai have been observed to target IoT devices, launching DDoS attacks.

In August 2021, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and Mandiant, a threat intelligence firm, disclosed a critical vulnerability in ThroughTek. This vulnerability allowed attackers to access millions of IoT cameras to view and record live feeds and compromise credentials for further attacks.

This discovery highlights the increasing challenges of IoT supply-chain security, which often demands immediate action to apply necessary software updates. Connected devices need to have the same cybersecurity as other IT systems to avoid exploitation which can have major consequences.

Monitor IoT with network detection and response

Organisations need to take steps like implementing sophisticated network segmentation and Zero Trust so that no asset is implicitly trusted.

At the same time, a device discovery plan should be in place for all IoT component producers to manage device inventory and containment. Businesses also need to be able to gather deep forensics insights to investigate the cause of a threat and ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Connected devices require a more advanced network security tool, such as network detection and response (NDR), which shows organisations’ east/west movement and can display thorough device inventory taking the pressure off security teams.

NDR solutions, however, can see everything on the network – every device, traffic, and activity.

Security teams need to have an actionable plan in place to eradicate vulnerabilities and risks rapidly from the business environment, leaning on deep forensic insight to help. These capabilities give teams the resources they need at their fingertips to hunt, investigate, and remediate threats quickly providing a full spectrum of response and streamlining the workflow.

The growth of IoT is going to continue to explode – but so will cyberattacks. Organisations need to ensure they are prepared by putting the right tools in place now to reduce response time when an attack inevitably hits, especially with how crucial IoT has become to the functionality of supply chains and manufacturing. Being left in the dark is no longer an excuse.

The post IoT growth - a gateway to opportunity & threats appeared first on FutureIoT.

In recent years, the convergence of IoT technologies with machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cloud, along with automation, have raised the possibility of putting smart IoT technology into business processes or workflows with the idea of automating these with minimum human intervention.

Seth Ryding, chief sales officer (CSO) global sales, Telenor Connexion, acknowledges that how IoT is valued by a business varies from industry to industry.

“There are general values that you see in different verticals such as increased reliability, predictability and being able to collect real time data. You can also add a new customer value that can generate new charging models for users. The way you operate your business and the transition from selling a product to selling a product as a service brings new and shifts the total business value,” he continued.

How do average business and operations leaders in organisations see IoT?

Seth Ryding: There are always two sides to a coin. There are risks and, in some cases, hesitation in moving into a new solution. The pandemic has shown us that those who had made or initiated the transition towards a connected solution pre-pandemic, have been much stronger when it comes to continuing through the pandemic.

What challenges must CIOs address if called upon by leadership to introduce IoT into business processes whether it is workflow or automation or actual operations?

Seth Ryding: An IoT solution is something the whole company needs to stand behind. CIOs and IT heads need to be well prepared to have a good plan about security and capabilities within the company and have a clear view on how they want to create their solution.

Things are evolving so fast and are so complex so the faster you develop your solution and focus on the customer value; it helps the operations process.

When is the best time to consider adopting IoT into the business processes? If yes, how do you minimise disruption and risk to existing operations?

Seth Ryding: I would say there is no time to wait. Looking from an employment perspective, we are living in a time where you can recruit people anywhere in the world which means it is easier to acquire competencies for areas you want to develop. It might just take a little different approach on how you do it.

What is your advice for CIOs and CTOs to help them guide the successful adoption of IoT into the business process?

Seth Ryding: You need to focus on what value you want to bring. Without the value that is related to your connected solution, there is really no point of doing it.

In addition, you need to be agile, try not to overcomplicate things. Create the solution that you can test and that you can scale and then start to roll it out.

Finally, you need to have the support of the whole management team as this is a transformation journey.  

Click on the PodChat player to listen to the full discussion including some interesting use cases of IoT integration.

1. In the context of a typical business operation – for example a financial institution, hospital or government – what is the business value of IoT?
2. How do business and operations leaders in these organisations see IoT? Any preconceived ideas that may hinder adoption of IoT in business processes?
3. For CIOs and heads of IT, what are the challenges they must address if called to introduce IoT across several business processes – for example process or workflow automation?
4. Given the continuing uncertainties arising from the pandemic. Is now the best time to consider adopting IoT into business processes? If yes, what is the better approach to ensure minimal disruption to existing operations, and minimised risks?
5. What is your advice for CIOs and CTOs to help guide the successful adoption of IoT into the business process?
6. You spoke about partnerships and core competencies, what is Telenor Connexion’s value proposition in an organisation’s IoT journey?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Integrating IOT into existing business processes appeared first on FutureIoT.

It is estimated that 1.5 billion IoT breaches occurred between January to June of 2021, most using the telnet remote access protocol, used by network admin to access and manage network devices remotely.

Kamal Brar, vice president and general manager, Asia-Pacific and Japan, Rubrik says the proliferation of unsecured (or less than enterprise-grade secure) IoT devices connected to the enterprise make them great entry points for ransomware and malware attacks.

“Depending on where we're talking about in terms of the IoT devices, the nature of the devices and the complexity of the ecosystem, it varies, but it's an obvious place for everyone to go look at, given the simplicity and the fact that it's so integral to our lifestyles,” he added.

Identity of Things

According to Brar, the identity of things relates to the verification or validation of a trusted device. Within an IoT environment, this ranges from a simple environment involving a single IoT device to a very complex one involving multiple IoT sensors working together to operate a large domain.

“The identity of things or identity of IoT refers to how we authenticate, verify and trust a device on the network, whether it is doing what it is designed to do, for example controlling a process in a manufacturing environment,” he elaborated.

He added that having that validation or the trust in that device is critical. It that sensor is compromised, for example, then it becomes difficult for that system to operate.”

He cited the Colonial Pipeline incident in 2021 where the billing system infrastructure was crippled by a ransomware attack. While the company could continue to pump gas, it was unable to bill customers forcing the company to shut down the operation until the ransom was paid.

How and where threat actors hijack IoT

According to Brar, there are three areas where an IoT-focused attack can occur.

One, the IoT device are forcibly encrypted and therefore the company is unable to control these devices.

The second is along the communication channel. A compromise can occur if the communication channels and/or protocols that the IoT device uses to communicate are hijacked, for example, a denial of service or spoofing of the network, then the company again loses access to the infrastructure.

The third is the hijacking of the data that the IoT captures. “If you're using credentials to connect between the sensors and a central, for example, a database, then you're potentially compromising the application security layer,” he explained.

Can zero-trust be applied to IoT?

At the core of the zero-trust principle is trust no one, always verify. This means that even if someone’s identity has been verified already, that credential is ignored when the user accesses the same application or data in the future. Zero-trust requires identity verification each time a request to access the network, data or application.

IDC acknowledges that IoT can very easily become the weak link or entry point for attacks in any organization – just ask the people at Colonial Pipeline, meatpacker JBS, even Verkade, a Silicon Valley-based security as a service provider.

IDC says extending a zero-trust framework to IoT deployments can enhance security and reduce risk, but it is an enterprise-wide strategy that requires a complete understanding of all IoT systems on the network.

Brar concurred adding that with zero trust, you are always in the process of reconfirming (validating identity and rights) – always!

He however cautioned that contextual information is necessary to ascertain the authenticity of identity.

“For example, if you're in multiple zones on how those IoT devices operate together, to provide an operational outcome, you want to understand the contextual information on what those devices are doing, to being able to have that outcome,” he explained.

He goes on to elaborate that: “If I'm having a three-phase deployment across my power generation, I want to understand exactly which parts or which zones of those devices are actually functional to do, what parts of that delivery of three phases, so I can really understand the blast radius, or the impact, potential impact that ought to have if I was compromised.”

The third element is around automation – specifically, how quickly to recover from a potential threat or exploit.

“If you think about the IoT devices, because the configuration management is large, and it's complex across the general environment, depending on how big it is. That's an area where many customers get it wrong,” laments Brar.

Applying behaviour analysis to IoT

Brar acknowledges that the approach to security varies from company to company. Some focus on the perimeter, others on application hardening data security.

He posits that from the behaviour standpoint, what you want to look at is end-to-end. Is there a way to capture how this device or how this potential workload or payload behaves from point of entry to potentially how it interacts with the application or how that information flows between all the systems and relevant network interfaces?

Click on the PodChat player to listen to the full dialogue with Brar and his recommendations for better securing IoT in the enterprise. 

• What makes IoT devices a valuable target for threat actors? 
• How does the Identity of Things play a role in protecting IoT devices? 
• How do threat actors exploit IoT devices through the Identity of Things? 
• What makes zero trust crucial for protecting IoT devices?
• How can behaviour analysis detect threats in IoT networks?
• What makes Rubrik an expert on IoT security?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Zeroing in on securing IoT in 2022 and beyond appeared first on FutureIoT.

Vishnu Andhare, a consultant with the Information Services Group (ISG), believes that IoT (IoT) digital twin technology will continue to mature rapidly because of the demand for this technology across many industries as well as the remote needs required by pandemic workforces.

With the integration of IoT into the enterprise comes the potential for cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Ian Lim, field chief security officer, Asia-Pacific at Palo Alto Networks, offered his perspective on where IoT is headed and how securing IoT needs to step up or catch up with IT security.

Major enterprise IoT trends in Asia for 2022

Ian Lim: We see private 5G gaining popularity as people capitalise on its low-latency, high-bandwidth capability. Organisations will be looking into overlaying a private 5G network to facilitate their future use cases.

Another major IoT trend will be digital twins, which is the concept of having a virtual version of a physical object. This creates the need for better connectivity with 5G technology so that any physical changes can be synced in the virtual model in a responsive and near real-time manner.

State of IoT Security in Asia

Ian Lim: The latest IoT security survey from Palo Alto Networks found that nearly all (96%) respondents reported their organisation’s IoT security needs improvement. Part of the reason is due to lack of visibility at scale because IoT falls in the grey area between security teams and operation teams. Organisations need to define their security ownership for better management and visibility over IoT devices.

Another challenge is the knowledge gap between security tools and IoT technology. For example, there are still very few tools that can interpret 5G traffic, so the tools themselves are not ready to protect an organisation from IoT attacks.

IoT use case in Asia where security needs to be addressed early on

Ian Lim: The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has been leveraged heavily during the pandemic and is likely to stay. Handling IoMT devices means dealing with a patient's private data and physical health, so there can be severe ramifications if IoT data is compromised.

The entire lifecycle of IoMT architecture needs to have embedded security to ensure it is secure by default. The IoMT network should also be segmented and secured with visibility, monitoring and response.

Left out in securing enterprise IoT

Ian Lim: People should be aware that many IoT devices are not secure by design. According to another IoT report by Palo Alto Networks, over 50% of IoT devices are vulnerable to medium- or high-severity attacks, making them low-hanging fruits for attackers.

The next aspect is visibility. Many organisations often don’t know all the devices that are plugged into and lack understanding of any attacks targeting them and how they can remediate the attacks.

The third question is the tug and pull of “who owns securing IoT”. Organisations should start defining IoT security ownership and promote collaboration between security teams and operation teams. Security teams will be responsible for defining strong security standards, while operation teams will need to comply with these standards and provide feedback on what works and doesn’t.

IT-Ops working together

Ian Lim: These teams should align around four common goals: visibility, context, control, and response.

Organisations need a toolset that can automatically scan all IoT devices for visibility. Then, they need the context of what the device is by understanding its functions and vulnerabilities. Machine learning can help to build knowledge of the ecosystem at large. Next is control – organisations need to identify if a device is segmented and under a specific protocol. These rules lower the probability of attacks as access is limited. Lastly, response – systems that can automatically respond to threats gives us the ability to orchestrate a response swiftly.

Key trends in IoT governance

Ian Lim: Within Asia, we are looking at regulating IT manufacturers. We want to be able to see more devices that are secure by design, hopefully using government regulations. There’s also another area where we hope to see actions from governments, which is the architecture and infrastructure these IoT devices live on.

Key trends in Persona-based IoT

Ian Lim: Some general examples include Alexa, Siri and Google Home. Persona-based IoT is use case-based as it fits in some cases and not in others. When you align a persona with an IoT device, it’s much easier for people to understand and associate the IoT device.

Key trends in sustainability initiatives around IoT

Ian Lim: We need to be conscious about how we use energy, maintain our environment, and treat waste. Because of the proliferation of IoT, billions of devices are going to come online. We need to have a very strong strategy around sustainability because of its big numbers.

Key trends in IoT-as-a-service

Ian Lim: Much like how anything can be provided as a service nowadays, we may have companies that capitalise on their understanding of a device at scale in future. Take security robots as an example, instead of having every single organisation know how to manage those robots, it makes more sense for them to outsource the management process to an IoT-as-a-service provider. However, there are also IoT devices that are very specific to manufacturing plants and factories and will require specific in-house knowledge for managing them.

Click on the PodChat player to hear Lim share his perspective on how to improve the security of IoT.

1. What are the major enterprise IoT trends in Asia in 2022?
2. Please describe the state of IoT Security in Asia in 2022.
3. Can you cite one or two emerging IoT applications/use cases in Asia in 2022 where security needs to be addressed early on?
4. What often gets left out in securing enterprise IoT?
5. How should CIOs, the CISO and the IT team work with operations to improve the overall security of the entire operation?
6. Coming into 2022, what are the key trends to expect on the following topics:
   a. IoT governance
   b. Persona-based IoT
   c. Sustainable initiatives
   d. IoT-as-a-services

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Securing the enterprise IoT in 2022 appeared first on FutureIoT.

“Operational networks are often less secure, unsegmented, and manually managed with fewer capabilities to proactively resolve issues. Rapid growth in industrial IoT demands a new type of network with enterprise-grade security, automation, and performance combined with industrial features to meet compliance and use case requirements. And that is what we are bringing to the table across our entire industrial networking portfolio with our newest industrial switch,” said Vikas Butaney, vice president and general manager, Cisco IoT.

According to a Gartner report published in August 2021, most CIOs have responsibility for OT systems decisions, with 82% saying  their responsibility for OT systems has increased in the last three years, and 89% say it will increase in the next three years.

Indeed, operational connectivity in industrial spaces is growing exponentially as organisations seek to improve efficiencies, employee safety, business agility, and support hybrid work. As the operational world evolves, IT expertise is required to scale and secure the network as operational technology (OT) systems are brought onto the corporate networks.

Bridging the IT-OT Gap

According to Cisco, a new solution is needed to connect and secure the growing number of industrial devices. As IT and OT converge, common tools to scale and secure the network are required.

However, automation, segmentation and other capabilities to resolve network issues – which are de rigueur in the enterprise – are not as pervasive in industrial networks. Without enterprise-grade network infrastructure features, IT/OT resources are increasingly strained, putting deployments at risk.

The new Cisco Catalyst IE9300 switch aims to bridge this gap, integrating enterprise capabilities with industrial protocols in a form factor built for rugged, industrial spaces.

“Our customers are taking on massive challenges like transitioning to cleaner power sources and enhancing electric grid reliability, and the critical nature of these environments demands a network infrastructure with enterprise-grade security, visibility and automation for scale,” said Butaney. “We’re empowering our customers to modernize their large-scale industrial environments and build an agile network, while protecting their assets from cyber threats.”

Already, companies such as  Schneider Electric and World Wide Technology (WWT) – which are advancing  the smart grid to ensure energy availability – expressed optimism about Cisco’s new industrial network switch solution.

“We're delighted to see the Cisco Catalyst IE9300 switch come to market this year as it brings unprecedented performance and fibre scalability to electric grid networks, together with native cybersecurity features,” said Jim Simonelli, CTO, Secure Power Division, Schneider Electric. “In combination with the APC by Schneider Electric Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS), these technologies will elevate electric grid reliability to a new level.”

Adam Nathan, Utility & Energy Industry Practice Manager at WWT, said:  "To truly modernise the power grid, utilities need to ensure their substations are efficient and resilient. Developed with the robust needs of the industrial world in mind, including adhering to the stringent IEC 61850 networking standards, the new Cisco Catalyst IE9300 switch empowers utilities to accelerate substation modernization with the agile connectivity needed to power a high-demand future."

Next-generation industrial switching architecture

Based on our high-performing UADP ASIC silicon, Cisco touted the Catalyst IE9300 delivers the highest density feature switch on the market. It provides enterprise-grade switching in a ruggedized form factor with advanced visibility, security and edge compute.

The Catalyst IE9300 is based on the Cisco IOS-XE Operating System and managed by Cisco DNA Center. It provides security through the Cisco Identity Services Engine, enabling customers to leverage their IT knowledge and existing investments to modernize and secure their industrial and outdoor networks.

New features include:

• Unrivalled performance at scale: Enhanced network scalability and reliability with features such as the ability to stack up to 8 switches and manage them as one, zero packet loss failure recovery, and high precision time synchronization.
• Unprecedented visibility to assets and applications: Improve efficiencies by identifying connected endpoints for asset inventory, automatically enforcing QoS policies via application traffic recognition, and proactively detecting and resolving issues with network health monitoring.
• Enterprise-to-edge, industry-leading cyber security: Assess and strengthen the security posture of connected industrial assets and enable zero-trust security with the embedded Cisco Cyber Vision sensor and SD-Access fabric edge capability. Catalyst IE9300 is the first switch to enable zero-trust security in operational environments.

The post Cisco bridges IT-OT gap with new Catalyst IE9300 switch appeared first on FutureIoT.

Each ‘accident’ would equate to downtime for the entire production line which would, in turn, lead to delays in delivering the final product to customers. You can imagine the behind-closed-door meetings trying to figure what happened and how to avoid similar incidents in the future.

The true cost of downtime

Alain Dupuis, VP Industrial Development at UnaBiz acknowledged that nothing is ever simple when it comes to estimating the cost of downtime.

“It varies greatly, from a minor annoyance to catastrophic proportion. What is difficult to evaluate is the rippling effect of one downtime over a whole process. Sometimes a small downtime can have severe consequences down the line,” he elaborated.

Those were the days when rudimentary controls were the prevailing technology, and any automation would be prehistoric by today’s standards.

Persistent downtime

Advances in IoT and industrial automation have evolved to the point that today there is a potential to significantly improve efficiency and safety through predictive maintenance.

However, Dupuis pointed out that very few aspects are currently addressed by technology.

“It is still a long way before we have implemented across it the board. There is a major cost involved to cover all the aspects and despite the best advancements in technology AI cannot do everything so it will never be 100% foolproof,” he added.

Understanding the AI equation

Given all the technology innovations, particularly the injection of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technology into the production facility, for example, why do downtimes still exist?

For Dupuis, the most important action item is developing a proper digital model of a business operation through the interaction of all the processes involved.

“Then run AI through this model fed by real-time information from IoT nodes to detect bottlenecks early and balance the load between processes to remove potential showstoppers and streamline the operations. After this, use the AI to work on improving the processes themselves,” he continued.

He cautioned that one of the issues with AI is that it needs examples of failures to define what success is. For example, in predictive maintenance for a water pump, the AI needs to know what are the signals that say that the pump will break.

“Not many businesses will want or can afford to break something just to make their AI work faster and better. So, the implementation of AI in most cases can be a long process before reaching its effectiveness,” he opined.

To AI or not to AI

The quest to modernize a production line is not as simple as introducing new software. Any changes will incur costs such as a planned downtime while the new technology is being introduced to the process and the people that need time to learn to use the technology.

Dupuis highlights the very first challenge – complexity!

This is the paradox of modernization: the more you try to simplify the process, the more sophisticated the technology needs to make it happen.

“For AI to work you need a lot of things to be put into place. AI is kind of the last thing you will add when you have already a strong data collection system only when a massive amount of data is collected over time, can insights be drawn, and Machine Learning and AI come in.

“For this, you need IoT to be implemented at a massive scale. Then, you need it to relate to the enterprise IT system. This requires a lot of dedication and know-how which often companies do not have internally and with little external consultancy available for help,” he added.

Dupuis raised the second thing is cost. “All this complexity requires a heavy investment, in capital and human resources. The third aspect is linked to the second, a lack of confidence regarding the return on investment. AI is still a very new thing, and it is often difficult to measure the potential benefits,” he said matter-of-factly.

Questions to ask

Because everything involves an investment – whether it is time or resources – there should be sufficient understanding about what is involved and how it will impact people, processes and the business.

Dupuis agreed that people need to be honest with themselves in looking at the major pain points that affect running their business. He suggested going about this along with a comprehensive risk analysis.

“What needs to be put forward are those with either high recurring occurrences and/or with potential major destructive effects. Then focus on the top pain point and risk and start with this,” he continued.

He explained that this will limit the expenses and maximize the ROI. Only then to approach this effort using both Agile and Design Thinking methodologies.

“Do not look at it as a one-off effort but as a continuous work where improvements will be made along the way through refinement of the model and with the integration of new services as you will be answering more pain points and risks along the way,” he continued.

According to Dupuis, the question they need to ask themselves is: ‘Are we ready and willing to commit to digital transformation?’

“When it comes to selecting their service providers, they should avoid vendors pushing ready-made "universal" solutions even if they look like good deals at first glance. They want to choose a service provider that is listening to them and offering a tailored service because they know that every business is different. Never forget that this is going to be a very long-term work relationship,” he concluded.

The post AI-based maintenance – keeping production moving appeared first on FutureIoT.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN

Rise of digital twin marketplaces

Manufacturers need a range of capabilities to deploy digital twins, including Computer-Aided Design (CAD) modelling, connectivity, cloud computing, Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) software platforms, remote monitoring, hardware for shop floor workers (tablets, AR glasses), physics-based simulation, ML, and systems integration.

This is because digital twins are not a technology, but a composition of solutions aimed at bridging the physical and digital worlds, from design through simulation, manufacturing, assembly, and after-sales service and support.

Over the last few years, digital twins have grown from a concept to become mainstream with the help of IIoT dashboards and near-real-time reporting. This level of maturity has been accompanied by new thought constructs, such as the use and implementation of AI at scale, changing requirements like the need for model libraries and standards bodies, and soon, the emergence of digital twin marketplaces that enable Independent Software Vendors (ISVs and other third parties to build relevant tools for the ecosystem.

These tools are essential for continued value creation and the wider democratization and adoption of digital twins. Spending on industrial digital twins will grow from US$4.6 billion in 2022 to US$33.9 billion in 2030 at a 28% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR).

Hardware-based robot operating system optimization

Robotics processor vendors will increasingly offer Robot Operating System (ROS)-based solutions for hardware acceleration across the entirety of robotics offerings.

This should help tackle the problem of system integration and entice developers to adopt more off-the-shelf processors and hardware. Furthermore, the hardware-software optimization will provide a set of benchmarks and standards for the field, which is fairly fragmented now, accelerating the time-to-market.

As a total of 45,000 cobots and 452,000 mobile robots are expected to be shipped in 2022, a 65% and 51% Y-o-Y growth, end users are expected to benefit from the tighter integration.

WHAT WILL NOT HAPPEN

5G Will Not Permeate the Production Line

As of July 2021, there were 84 sites with publicly announced private cellular network (4G/5G) deployments. All are at large companies and facilities, with examples including ABB, Airbus, BASF, Daimler AG, Ford, Haier, Konecranes, and Nippon Steel.

While important, current deployments are mostly used as campus networks or in a lab or intermediary production development centre for non-industrial production applications. Standards work by 3GPP and 5G-ACIA continues to advance adoption and use of the technology; however, the device ecosystem and implementation/management functions lag.

There is also a question of relevance: two-thirds of manufacturers employ fewer than 20 people. In its current form, working with and trialling 5G in manufacturing favours large companies/factories with the R&D capital to test and learn.

These larger companies and locations have started to evaluate the cost and benefits of different deployment scenarios (a key progression); however, 5G will not be relied upon for production-critical applications at scale until 2024.

The democratization of robotics expertise

While the emergence of ROS and various robotics startups will offer real advances in the short term, robotics suffers from a significant shortage in expertise. In the long run, this will have an adverse effect on development and commercialization.

Considerable investment in resource- and time-intensive areas requiring experts from different fields is badly needed, but this will not happen anytime soon.

The post Robotics and other ABI Research predictions for 2022 appeared first on FutureIoT.

The concept of the IoMT involves healthcare providers leveraging connected devices such as remote monitoring sensors and surgical robotics to improve patient care, staff productivity, and operational efficiency.

Juniper Research says smart hospitals in the US and China as leading the global adoption of IoMT devices; accounting for 21% and 41% of connected devices respectively, by 2026.

It highlighted digital healthcare initiatives implemented during the ongoing pandemic and high levels of existing digitalisation within healthcare infrastructure as key to these countries’ leading positions.

Collaborating with network operators crucial

The new report, Smart Hospitals: Technologies, Global Adoption & Market Forecasts 2021-2026, identified remote monitoring as key to delivering smart hospital services. It analysed how the adoption of remote monitoring technologies accelerated during the pandemic significantly, due to difficulties associated with delivering in-person healthcare.

This accelerated adoption is set to continue over the next five years, as patients become acclimatised to remote monitoring and benefit from proactively managing and treating health conditions.

However, it identified that the real-time nature of remote monitoring requires low latency, high bandwidth connections to ensure the transmission of patients’ health data is not interrupted or distorted.

As a result, it encourages smart hospital vendors to develop partnerships with network operators to leverage multi-access edge computing to drive major reductions in lag and latency.

According to research author, Adam Wears the emergence of remote monitoring within healthcare presents an opportunity for network operators to place themselves within the digital healthcare value chain.

“Smart hospital technologies generate significant quantities of data, meaning that the edge computing function provided by network operators will be crucial to the successful roll-out of these systems,” he concluded.

The post Smart hospitals to deploy 7 million IoMT devices appeared first on FutureIoT.

“Many businesses and consumer products will struggle with the availability and price increases through 2022. IoT devices will feel the pinch particularly hard because they generally use mature sensor, microcontroller and communications technologies that have significantly more availability issues than advanced chips like CPUs and GPUs,” said analysts at the technology research firm.

They also predict that as a result  of the chip shortage, IoT-based products such as  appliances, automobiles, and consumer electronics will be unavailable, delayed, or overpriced.

“In turn, this will increase demand for less smart equivalents,” the analysts added.

The impact of  the shortage in semiconductors supply is one of the key takeaways in the 2022 Forrester Predictions report on IoT, Edge and Networking.

Edge and IoT edge will power sustainability innovation in the supply chain

According to Forrester, demand for sustainability-related services powered by edge and IoT will grow in 2022 for energy efficiency and resource management. The two technologies will drive new solutions for scope 3 emission reduction.

Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions in an organisation’s value chain; they come from assets not owned or directly controlled.

“High-demand use cases will include environmental monitoring (e.g., air quality, CO2 levels, and pollution); resource management (e.g., water, power, electricity, and lighting); and supply chain processes (e.g., fleet management, material sourcing, and asset tracking). These technology-led sustainability solutions will be especially fruitful for stakeholders who are keen on recognising business value and creating competitive differentiation with their sustainability investments,” the analysts said.

Traditional smart-technology product vendors, IT, and professional services players and platform vendors that specialise in edge and IoT will bring these solutions to market in 2022 as standard offerings and bespoke IT solutions.

Satellite internet will challenge 5G as the connectivity of choice

Government red tape and delays in developing 5G have opened the door for the satellite internet market, according to Forrester.

“In rural areas, low earth-orbiting satellite internet services like SpaceX’s Starlink show more promise than 5G does. Enterprises’ remote worker initiatives and remote facilities will benefit significantly from satellite internet in 2022,” the analysts said.

They also predicted that wired connectivity providers — with no cellular business — will offer satellite internet services as a backup option instead of positioning competitor with a cellular backup connection.

“Rural areas will see a significant proportion of users subscribing to satellite services; 85% of satellite users will be in rural locations,” Forrester analysts said.

Smart infrastructure will increase by 40%

Meanwhile, large government spending in China, Europe and the US will drive a 40% increase in investments in smart infrastructure, Forrester forecasts.

“To facilitate pandemic recovery, city planners will prioritize initiatives that provide citizens with internet connectivity, address public health, and manage critical resources (e.g., water, power, and lighting) by using smart meters and predictive grid monitoring,” analysts said.

They added that stakeholders will also harness insights captured from edge devices and IoT-enabled infrastructure to modify traffic patterns to reduce congestion; evaluate multimedia data to deliver insight for security applications; and combine 5G, V2X, and edge technologies to enable autonomous vehicles (e.g., container trucks and automated guided vehicles) in ports and airports.

With the proliferation of connected devices, Forrester analysts warns that an IoT botnet will successfully take down communication infrastructure via DDoS.

“Many IoT devices have notoriously weak security. Cybercriminals have been able to compromise these devices and build massive botnets that can launch disruptive DDoS attacks,” they said.

This summer, they pointed out Cloudflare mitigated a DDoS attack of 17 million requests per second from the Mirai botnet, which was three times larger than any previously seen DDoS attack. That record was quickly shattered when Yandex repelled a DDoS attack of 22 million requests per second.

“In 2022, we predict that an IoT botnet will launch a DDoS attack that surpasses 30 million requests per second, setting a new record. That level of traffic will successfully cause economic pain by denying some critical communications infrastructure,” they said.

“Enterprises should evaluate their current DDoS mitigation vendors and test response plans in preparation for larger attacks in 2022,” they added.

The post Chip shortage will hinder IoT growth by 10% to 15% in 2022 appeared first on FutureIoT.

The new manufacturing facility is fitted with advanced pipe processing, welding, and assembly process equipment. It deploys real-time information connectivity and automatic processing in key processes such as frame manufacturing, iron and plastic parts coating, motor manufacturing, and whole motorcycle assembly. Moreover, its production equipment in the workshop is using the Internet of things (IoT) to improve efficiency and reduce labour cost.

When fully operational, the smart factory can  produce an electric motorcycle can be produced in 30 seconds, with a frame accuracy error of less than 0.5 mm. Automatic cutting, bending and welding are realised in frame manufacturing of electric motorcycles, which are monitored with the MES system, so that the accuracy error of finished products is less than 0.5 mm.

It is planned to equip the intelligent factory with 10 automatic production lines for synchronous pre-assembly, five of which have been completed to date.

"We will try our best to cultivate a 100-billion-level new energy electric vehicle industry cluster, and strive to achieve the '311' project target for the electric vehicle industry during the '14th Five-year Plan', that is, 30 million electric vehicles (sets of accessories) will be produced every year, to achieve the output value of RMB 100 billion and the tax revenue of RMB 10 billion,” said Huang Yingmei, party secretary of Gangbei District.

The district is capitalising on Guangxi’s proximity to the borders of Vietnam to tap into the burgeoning Southeast Asian market.

In recent years, the Gangbei District in Guigang City, Guangxi, has seized the development opportunity brought by the Belt and Road Initiative, and continued to optimise the business environment, planning to build a 10,000-mu China-ASEAN New Energy Electric Vehicle Production Base.

At present, nearly 100 electric vehicle enterprises have been introduced and more than 50 electric vehicle enterprises have started operation. Guangxi New Energy Electric Vehicle Products Quality Testing Center and Guangxi Electric Vehicle Industry Association have been established successively.

An annual production capacity of 4 million two-wheeled electric motorcycles, 500,000 three-wheeled electric vehicles and 5 million sets of spare parts has been formed, with the local matching rate reaching 80%.

From January to September this year, the industrial output value of enterprises above the designated size in the new energy electric vehicle industry of Gangbei District increased by 37.9% year on year. Key components such as motors and plastic parts are continuously sold to domestic and ASEAN markets.

In addition, Gangbei District also creates "Marshal Travel", a local shared electric bicycle brand, which has been put into operation, and it plans to put more than 500,000 shared electric bicycles in Guangxi within five years, and expand to the whole country in the future.

The post RMB400-M smart factory for EVs opened in Gangbei District appeared first on FutureIoT.

Operational Technology is less understood and only with the adoption of IoT, and more importantly, the attacks on infrastructure critical systems have the issue of securing OT become a point of contention starting with those is responsible for IT-OT or OT-IT converged systems.

The implication of convergence to business

Richard Farrell, Eaton Asia-Pacific director for Cloud, Data and Digitalization, is quick to remind us of what constitutes information technology (IT) comprise of servers, storage, switches, routers, and software.

He goes to remind us of that operational technology as what is typically associated with facilities or commercial buildings, power generators, chillers, lighting systems, as well as SCADA software systems.

Is it convergence or integration?

Most discussions involving both IT and OT tend to use the term convergence. So, when FutureCIO asked Farrell for his opinion, he acknowledged that ‘integration’ is not something he is asked on the subject. He conceded that convergence has become a buzz term, losing its meaning in the process.

For Farrell, the discussion is more than just the technology itself. He believed that it is about bringing the two, IT and OT, together. It is also about the people that have traditionally been associated with each technology.

“To make that convergence is to bring these people together for governance and cultural purpose to have a common purpose. The integration for me is probably more on the technical side of things. How do we integrate our IT and OT systems? How do we integrate those and how do we converge teams to work together?” he opined.

Influence of 5G on IT-OT

At a compound annual growth rate of over 46%, Farrell says 5G is one of those technologies that are ‘smashing the IT and OT worlds together’. He opined that 5G is an enabler of the growth of IoT.

“Think about what the Internet of Things is. It's a bunch of sensors that are gathering data and transporting that data to the internet. It is transporting back and forth, whether it be in the storage, back to the sensors, lots of lots of information, you know, coming in. The transport mechanism is 5G. And because this 5G is super quick, that's going to transport even more masses of data,” he continued.

He is quick to remind that the growth is not exclusive, not strictly IT or OT or IoT or Industrial Internet of Things – as both benefits from the connectivity that 5G enables.

“You are going to find that a lot of the information that is used in IT systems is going to be used to operate more efficiently, the Operational Technology systems. And vice versa, all that data we're getting through the Internet of Things, and 5G being an enabler, is going to send all the information back to IT networks works as well,” he elaborated.

He believes these things are going to be smashed together, but it's going to be IoT and 5G that are rapidly, rapidly growing in the region, which is going to be the enabler for this.

Holistic IT-OT cybersecurity programme

Asked for his recommendation on best practices for a holistic IT-OT cybersecurity programme, Farrell suggests a better approach is cybersecurity lifecycle service. It is not about fixing the problem only once, and it is fixed forever.

“We strongly advocate having a lifecycle service, meaning regularly assessing and auditing physical and virtual networks,” he added. He was emphasized that network is one network as IT and OT are interconnected today.

“If you do an assessment, you can do asset management checks –checking what is physically and virtually connected to your network. It is having somebody who knows how to do this, comes out, sniffs around your network, walks around your facilities, and with the help of the local IT and OT teams map out all those devices virtually and physically that are connected,” he elaborated.

You don't know what you don't know!

He also advocated thinking like a customer.

“The last thing you want to do is suddenly start to think you are having an attack or denial of service attack, and you have no idea what device is being affected, or where it is originating from. So, the simple thing first - know what's connected to your network, physically and virtually,” he reiterated.

“What does a customer want? Customers want everything as a service. They want everything to be cloud-based. They want it to be accessible 24/7. They want to have zero security risks when they do it, and they want to know who is accessing the data, and they want to know what to do with that data,” he continued.

Assume that the customer can see the data, will it help them make facilities operate more efficiently? How does this attach back into the IT world?

“The reason we say everything as a service is because at the end of the day, anything as a service is going to live in the cloud, and it's going to have security vulnerabilities, right? If we look at just one, just something in isolation on the OT network, or something in isolation on the IT network, we're not looking at everything. So, look at everything as a service in there, and how that affects the organisation,” he explained.

Lastly, he believes that best practice is about people and psychology.

“It is a mixture of convergence and integration. You want one team that is working together for one goal. Whether you have operational people sitting in your IT team, or IT people sitting in your operations team, whichever way it may be – you have got to have the right governance in place,” he explained.

Having the right culture – of ‘us’ and not ‘them’ in place will be important in this IT-OT connected world.

“As these technologies integrate more, and they converge more, as well, there is probably not going to be an IT person. There is probably not going to be an operations person. They are just going to be the network security people in general,” he concluded.

Click on the PodChats to listen to Farrell offer his expertise and opinion on IT-OT convergence.

1. What is IT-OT convergence? What are the implications for businesses?
2. Should it be considered IT-OT convergence or IT-OT integration?
3. How has the growing adoption of 5G and IoT technologies led to the convergence (integration) of IT and OT systems?
4. How should these be connected to the IT systems be secured?
5. Please name 3 best practices for a holistic IT/OT cybersecurity programme?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Securing IT-OT convergence appeared first on FutureIoT.

The paper claims that Smart Destinations require this smart management as well as the integration of the stakeholders’ value-chain throughout the entire process. In this process, IoT has a crucial role in enhancing the experiences of tourists, managing the destination more efficiently, and offering a channel of information exchange.

Sanjiv Verma, vice president, Ruckus Networks, APAC from CommScope, acknowledged that personalised guest experience remains at the top of the must-achieve for guests. That said, following the prolonged, there is a greater focus on sustainability.

“From the hotel properties side, they are looking into how they can improve the operational efficiencies when they're delivering these services,” he opined. At the same time, there is pressure on these businesses to improve asset utilisation, so they have a better return on capital.

According to Verma, IoT devices are used to improve facilities management by deploying sensors to regulate conditions such as temperature and air quality in tooms. “If somebody left the door open in the balcony, rather than the AC running, (sensors) can turn the AC off automatically so that there is much better conservation of energy,” he suggested.

He conceded that one of the biggest challenges here is the integration of operational technologies (OT) with information technology (IT) – so that you have a single network where you can optimise your cost and efficiency, he continued.

In addition, IoT can also be used to ensure both the security of guests and staff.

He suggested that if a guest room is accidentally left open, sensors can inform hotel management of such and assign staff to check out what has happened and take appropriate actions.

Verma is quick to remind that with more connected devices the more complex the ecosystem becomes, and the more important cybersecurity becomes.’

“Any kind of connected devices poses the same risk as IoT devices will. Those that can be leveraged to make sure that when guests are in the hotel, their information is protected, their payments through the card system are protected and things like phishing attacks can be protected. A lot of this stuff is treated in the same way as an enterprise network. We need to make sure that those tools are in place and that the customer can be protected from all these attacks,” he suggested.

Improving IT-OT connectivity

Verma commented that the reality is that businesses maintain multiple networks that operate in silos. He acknowledged that some hotels are working to improve efficiencies by merging networks.

The (merger) process starts with a consolidation of network protocols with the intent of merging the OT and IT on a single platform.

“There is software like “SmartCell Insights” which are labelled, which can give you a common dashboard and will be able to provide all the visibility from various IoT devices that allows you to manage them from the control centre,” he elaborated.

Click on the PodChat player and listen to Verma go into details about how the hospitality industry, one segment of the Tourism and Travel industries, can take advantage of IoT to move into the digital economy.

1. How will the hospitality industry shift in the next few years in a technology perspective in terms of streamlining processes and ensure hotels operate more efficiently?
2. Beyond the current IoT implementations in hotels, what are the other ways hotels can leverage IoT to increase efficiency level in building maintenance and what are the potential challenges they might face?
3. With hotels adopting more advance security systems (for entire property and individual guestrooms), how do we ensure that they will not be bypassed by a third person?
4. With travel slowly restarting, what can hotels implement to boost travellers’ confidence within the property, while at the same time allow hotels to ensure safe distancing and have sufficient health & safety protocols in place?
5. You mentioned the need for OT to work with IT for better network efficiency. How do we bridge the divide between IT and OT to maximise value for the business and experience for customers?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: How IoT brings the hospitality industry to the digital economy appeared first on FutureIoT.

“With most of the region working remotely, demand for digital services in APJ is growing, and with digitalisation comes inherent risk. In the industrial world, that risk is particularly high as previously isolated OT networks become more integrated with IT networks, and thus exposed to a whole host of cyber threats they were not designed to face,” said Yaniv Vardi, CEO of Claroty. “Our expansion in in Asia Pacific and Japan is a reflection of this growing demand as well as the success we’ve achieved to date in the region, and we look forward to working with our strong ecosystem of partners to continue building upon this success.”

According to ResearchandMarkets,  global OT cybersecurity market will be worth US$18.13 billion by 2023, with Asia-Pacific's OT cybersecurity market projected to grow at a higher CAGR in the forecast period. Manufacturing and mining will be the largest sectors with a strong growth trajectory over the study period. The impact of COVID-19 will be significant across these sectors and other key segments, including oil and gas, transportation and smart cities, and power verticals from 2020 to 2023.

Claroty noted that spending on OT cybersecurity in the region is increasing as large-scale cyber incidents impacting critical industrial operations have become more pronounced – pointing out that countries in Southeast Asia have increased their spending on industrial cybersecurity as critical infrastructure in industries such as telecommunications, finance, energy and technology become targets of persistent threat actors.

The company added that such incidents have also made regulators aware that they need to prioritise the security of critical national infrastructure, whether publicly or privately held. Thus, regional agencies are assessing how they will mandate that incident-reporting procedures and cybersecurity practices be installed and required of companies which operate in certain sectors, especially those in energy, oil and gas, transportation, finance, healthcare, and food and beverage. For one, Singapore’s Cyber Security Agency (CSA) has drafted a Master Plan for OT cyber resilience, and are installing expert panels to advise them.

Eddie Stefanescu, general manager of Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) at Claroty said the company’s remit with existing customers in the region has significantly expanded, as their industrial cybersecurity programs continue to mature.

“It takes specialist knowledge and experience to effectively implement cybersecurity for OT networks, and what differentiates Claroty is the depth of visibility we have into those networks when our platform is implemented,” said Stefanescu. “That’s why public and private entities, including Coca-Cola EuroPacific Partners (Australia, Pacific, Indonesia), BHP, IRPC Public Company Limited, and Aboitiz Power, are investing in Claroty.”

To date, the company  is experiencing hyper growth in the region, having doubled its client base and achieving 250% growth in revenue year-over-year from the first half of 2020 to 1H 2021. The company has tripled its headcount in the region over the past year, with hiring occurring across seven countries.

“Across Australia and Asia, Claroty is a strong partner for companies in the oil and gas, utilities, manufacturing, water, and electrical power industries, but our customer base is broadening. In the past year, we have also experienced strong growth in the food and beverage sector, and in the pharmaceutical sector for the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines,” said Stefanescu.

Meanwhile, the opening of Claroty’s regional office in Singapore comes shortly after Claroty’s US$140 million in its Series D financial round, which included participation from Temasek.

The post Claroty opens APAC regional office in Singapore appeared first on FutureIoT.

When Kevin Ashton first coined the term “Internet of Things” back in 1999, his primary intent was for IoT’s use in retail operations. Today, IoT applications have gone beyond retail and into industrial and commercial use.

Companies and industries are looking at carbon footprint reduction activities as a mainstream initiative that forms a significant part of their operations and their businesses.

In a report published by Ericsson, the use of IoT has the potential for reducing emissions by as much as 63.5 gigatons by the year 2030, should all industrial sectors participate. IoT is destined to be an enabler that will help industries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and increase their energy efficiency.

FutureIoT spoke to Mehal Shah, Global Business Head, TCS Clever Energy, on his perspective on the integration of IoT technology to improve energy management and energy emission as a result.

Click on the PodChat player and listen to Mehal offer a candid look at the drivers for zero emissions and the role of IoT in realizing these aspirations.

1. Why the increased interest in carbon neutrality and improved emission management?
2. For an effective use of IoT to attain zero carbon goals or better emission management:
   1. What KPIs (milestones) should be put in place?
   1. Who should comprise the team to oversee the planning, execute and management?
3. What are the challenges that organizations will face as they plan and execute the above?
4. Can management monetize carbon neutrality and emission management initiatives? (can you cite example)
5. What are your expectations around carbon neutrality and emission management going forward (keep IoT in the frame)?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: Using IoT to make the world a greener place appeared first on FutureIoT.

As IoT proliferates, promising huge business benefits, this report explores the steps businesses must take to ensure their IoT is properly secured, to enable maximum success.

Click on the link to download this report to discover more from the Internet of Things to the Internet of Trust. 

The post Futureproofing IoT appeared first on FutureIoT.

According to Gemalto, another worrying stat, 48% of businesses admit that they cannot detect IoT security breaches on their network. Nearly half of the companies that use IoT can’t identify when their network is compromised. As more businesses invest in IoT technology, we can only hope that this number decreases.

According to Pieter Danhieux, the co-founder and CEO of Secure Code Warrior, an average building will have air conditioning, automated doors, surveillance cameras – many running on IoT systems. In the agriculture business, tractors, measuring devices and rainwater stations also run IoT.

“In homes today, you will find IoT in Christmas lights, door locks, etc. IoT has infiltrated both enterprise and our personal lives, which is a good thing because it allows us to do many, many great things. But it could also be a very scary thing,” he commented.

State of security in IoT devices

Danhieux opined that when manufacturers build IoT devices they don’t think that these things would be exploited. He argued that manufacturers are under pressure to build these devices at the lowest possible cost and deployed them quickly.

“People don’t think about the potential threats we could face with some of these IoT devices, whether it is hardware or IoT software development kits (SDKs). The vulnerability could be in how the IoT communicates from within the network,” he added.

His point was that it's a very complex environment. “I think, and not many people, when they are building those devices are thinking about all the different problems that can go wrong, around IoT security,” he continued.

In the IoT manufacturing space, everything needs to be minimal. This may mean a lack of processing power to do proper cryptography. “Those are the trade-offs that manufacturers make. Some cannot do remote updates, remote patching of firmware vulnerabilities. It is stock firmware that never changes even though it [may have] weaknesses in it,” Danhieux elaborated.

Buyer beware

At the personal level, there is increasing awareness and concern about device insecurity. Danhieux believes the same should apply to enterprises. He noted that very often the IoT network is separated from the IP network and managed by a different group.

He warned that IoT can still be used as a launchpad for attacks. He cited the Mirai botnet that exploited vulnerabilities on software development kits of some 83 million IoT devices.

“I do think both from an enterprise, we should ask the right questions to the manufacturers. I think from a personal life perspective, as well, we should make sure that manufacturers of IoT devices, that there is a level of responsibility they take around building secure devices, rather than just building a device and getting it out there,” he opined.

Key considerations for revisiting security for infrastructure

Danhieux recommends scanning and testing networks for vulnerabilities. This includes all devices connected to the network, regardless of age.

The next step in the process is determining whether it makes sense to build layers of defences into the infrastructure. Can device manufacturers update the firmware of these devices? He recalled that some of these devices could be 20 to 30 years old.

He recalled that 20 years ago, enterprises were dealing with web application securities. He now sees those same vulnerabilities appear in IoT devices today. Things like remote command injections and buffer overflows are well-known problems but are now appearing in the IoT world.

Skills gap

Danhieux warned that looking for a security expert that knows IoT may be a problem. It is a very specialist role, and there are very few firms around the world that focus on IoT security, including at the network, data, and software layers.

He acknowledged the skills can be developed in-house.

“Developers can be taught to write securely at the data and software layer. Network security architects and security engineers can be tasked with assessing the network component. You might find somebody that can work with physical devices to assess the physical side,” he continued.

“But to find it all in one person inside an enterprise. I think it's almost impossible. That's probably a security expert. You need to hire for that. You can kind of split them up in the different layers of your organization.”

Pieter Danhieux

Ownership of IoT security

Danheiux acknowledged that ownership of IoT security remains a philosophical issue. Internet Protocol (IP) security people normally do not care about the security of buildings.

“However, at the end of the day, if it is a threat to your business, if it can damage your enterprise, if you could damage your reputation, does it matter which C level person in the company takes ownership of it? He queried.

He opined that at the end of the day, it is a business risk. It doesn’t matter which C letter is responsible. Not covering it [security] is the big problem, he concluded.

Click on the PodChat player and hear Danhieux talk about the state of IoT security in Asia.

1. Let’s frame our discussion first: where can we find IoT technologies in a typical enterprise in Asia?
2. What are prevailing misconceptions about IoT security?
3. From your perspective, should leaders be concerned about IoT security?
4. Where should senior leadership begin the discussion of IoT security?
5. What should be the key considerations for revisiting the security of their IoT infrastructure?
6. What about the skills/know-how around IoT security? Do we hire or outsource?
7. What preconceived ideas should leaders set aside when discussing IoT security?

The post PodChats for FutureIoT: State of IoT Security appeared first on FutureIoT.

Networks for the new normal

More than ever before, networks are now vital. They cannot struggle under the load of new demand. Instead, they must be able to accommodate societies and businesses during the next, connectivity-driven industrial phase. Yet, this is not just an imperative for a far-off future; it must be done now, due in no small part to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

For people, ‘shelter-in-place’, ‘work-from-home’, and ‘remote schooling’ practices – in addition to people generally digitally connecting with each other during the pandemic – have led to a surge in internet traffic. In many of these instances, more people are consuming high-definition video streaming, caused by the concurrent rise in upstream traffic which, due to the greater proliferation of video conferencing and collaboration tools, require connectivity that is significantly lower in latency and higher in bandwidth.

Robust and high-capacity networks are also needed to facilitate the revolution of industries and enterprises operating within them. We are no longer at the beginning of a new industrial era; COVID-19 has shown that we are now in the thick of it. The “Automation of Everything” is already happening and it is being brought about by digital interfaces, data analysis, and control of the physical world via networks.

Automation will catalyse the digital transformation of more physical, asset-intensive industries. This is as significant productivity improvements can be generated by combining advances in information technology (IT) and operations technology (OT) to enable industries to drive closed-loop automation in their physical environments.

This will involve the proliferation of advanced technologies such as the internet of things (IoT), edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI)- and machine learning (ML)-powered deep analytics, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), robotics, remote control, and digital twinning technologies – just to name a few. These innovations will then foster new demands on the network infrastructure, and in many cases, these demands will extend far beyond what has traditionally been acceptable, even for the largest enterprise networks. This means that the capabilities of mission-critical network infrastructures must be expanded greatly.

The 5G difference

As our world’s digital transformation is gaining strong momentum, so too is the 5G race. Revenue from 5G network infrastructures worldwide continues to grow and by 2024, more CSPs are projected to commercialise more 5G services. The next few years will therefore be the bellwether of a decade of 5G innovations that will bring an expanded portfolio of mobile and wireless services to market. For people, 5G will bring broadband performance to mobile devices while industries can realise more wireless applications and industrial IoT to not only drive greater productivity, efficiency, and safety, but also make operations more resilient during unforeseen crises.

To deliver 5G-enabled innovations with agility and flexibility, radio access network (RAN) and mobile core technologies are migrating to cloud-native architectures, in addition to adopting virtualised, comprehensive ‘network slices’ to partition resources as needed. The roadmaps for new 5G capabilities are deep – ranging from immersive experiences and sophisticated video analytics for environmental applications to connected vehicles and eHealth – and will be rolled out over many years. Given that 5G RAN will generate ten times more traffic than 3G and 4G combined, their impacts on IP and optical networks will be profound and, by extension, for the services that will be made possible by next-generation connectivity.

The transformation of networks is at hand

Just like roads that were built centuries ago, quality networks are now core building block of our society and economies. Still, creating and operating modern networking infrastructures – especially those that stand up when we need them most – is highly complex.

To ensure that broadband, and eventually 5G, networks must step up to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. IP and optical networking systems must provide scalable and assured network performance, robust and secure network infrastructure, efficient and programmable network architecture. Networks that are designed and built around these principles will make them ready to deliver the needed connectivity at any time and no matter the crisis. This is because the network can respond quickly and gracefully, ensuring continuity of relationships, businesses, and life, particularly when they all are being threatened by circumstances we cannot control.

At the end of the day, networks are what keeps us going and will continue to do so. As they become more mission-critical to our daily lives, they must be reimagined for a world that has been irrevocably changed by digitalisation and global crises to help sustain societies and businesses in the future.

The post Networks play critical role in a connected world appeared first on FutureIoT.

In the movie “Sleepless in Seattle” Jay (Rob Reiner) asked: “What do they call it when everything intersects?” To which, Sam (Tom Hanks) responded without so much as a thought: “The Bermuda Triangle.”

For decades we’ve been shown the possibilities of humans working together with robots. Since the 1970s, humans have been deploying robots to help at work. In the 2017 article, Automation, Robotics and the Factory of the Future, McKinsey partner, Jonathan Tilley opined that in the next five to ten years, however, we expect a more fundamental change in the kinds of tasks for which robots become both technically and economically viable (Exhibit 2). Here are some examples.

Exhibit 2

Source: McKinsey

The next evolution of robotics – the human equation

“Fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is increasing demand for robotics in warehouses and distribution centres,” said Dwight Klappich, vice president analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain practice.

A collaborative robot, or cobot, is a type of robot intended to physically interact with humans in a shared workspace.

Should employees fear the entry of cobots into the workforce?

James McKew, regional director Asia-Pacific at Universal Robots, believes that cobots are not a threat to human labour, they help to enhance the quality of production and the ability for humans and robots to collaborate.

How do we address the lingering fear that robots will replace human workers?

According to McKew, it is natural for people to fear robots since many have seen robots replacing humans. But the vision that Universal Robots was founded around is ‘Empowering People’ and shifting from ‘people working like robots’ to ‘people working with robots.’

“The purpose is to guide people who are capable of managing production processes and get them to show how robots do the dull, dusty, monotonous and non-creative aspects of production processes.”

As human workers are worried about job security during this uncertain time, what steps can be taken to assure them that cobots will not replace them?

One of the earliest visible impact of the pandemic is the closure of factories and operations. McKey argues that the beauty of what cobots can do in the current pandemic situation is to allow factories to get back to production.

“We talk about the situation where migrant workers are not allowed entry to Singapore. In this case, cobots provide a unique opportunity to get factories back into production,” he added.

He explained that cobots allow the production workers to start mastering robotics and training cobots to do the dull and monotonous jobs that talented and dexterous humans should not be doing.

With the deployment of cobots, what kind of new jobs will be created?

McKew sees robot cell operators taking the place of human-machine operators.

“For instance, 10 machines can be tended by several robots and the person who put the parts in and out of the machine initially, is now the person who is managing all those cobots.”

“They program them, optimise them, and determine if there are more creative ways that the cobots can be used to enhance production output,” he continued.

Is it safe for human workers to work alongside cobots?

McKew believes that a key differentiator between a cobot and a robot is just that – the ability to work alongside humans.

“Cobots are designed to be human-friendly, they have systems onboard that can detect humans and do not have to be caged.

“Cobots will not hurt humans whereas industrial robots may. They are easy to use, easy to program and lightweight. In fact, even operators with limited programming skills can become cobot programmers,” he explained.

How do you see human-cobot collaboration evolving?

According to McKew, Universal Robots is on a journey to shift humans who are working like robots to humans mastering robots themselves.

The opportunities are immense for countries to resume production. The pandemic has taught countries that strategically sourcing away all production is not actually very strategic.

“Cobots along with talented manufacturing workers provide companies with massive opportunities for efficient reshoring in the post-pandemic world,” he concluded.

Future trends

ABI Research cautioned that onlookers should not think of collaborative robotics as a replacement for industrial robots, but as a parallel technology development that will eventually converge.

Innovations like advanced machine vision, improved localization, haptic sensors, and superior mechatronics are all allowing cobots to become faster without neglecting safety. Strategic advances in 5G, cloud robotics, and edge-enabled AI will make the performance of multiple collaborative systems superior.

“This will gradually allow for the development of cobots that have the advantages of industrial robotic arms, while retaining the benefits of current collaborative systems, including ease of use, ROI, re-programmability, low footprint, and flexibility,” concluded Rian Whitton, senior analyst at ABI Research.

The post Collaborative Robots: help or threat? appeared first on FutureIoT.

Radiflow has introduced the Cyber Industrial Automated Risk Analysis Platform (CIARA), which allows for a digital twin of multiple facilities to be created on the same UI in order for security and risk teams to execute OT-BAS (Breach & Attack Simulations) in a global enterprise view.  The  new enterprise-level risk management system for OT facilities allow CISOs to view all their sites in one dashboard.

This takes the guesswork out of OT by letting teams anticipate the impact of potential threats via simulations of known attacks from a continuously updated global database. They can then simulate WHAT-IF scenarios of mitigations to decide which course of action would be most suitable in light of the changes in the threat landscape.

While this has been a common practice to prepare for attacks in the IT world through twin-network simulations, it is the first time that an OT environment can benefit from this proven strategy. CIARA offers a first-of-its-kind, non-intrusive breach attack simulator that takes into account the business importance of each site so the CISO can find the most vulnerable points on their industrial automation networks across all their sires, allowing them to practice the most effective mitigation tools.

The ability to configure business importance for each site and benchmark top sites in a central dashboard – while allowing site managers to view their individual risk posture and optimise their security roadmap – is  a major step in securing potential vulnerabilities across multiple facilities. Allowing CISOs to continuously monitor and simulate vulnerabilities, based on recent attacks that have been attempted in their industry or location, has a significant impact on the quality of OT monitoring, without slowing down or stopping critical infrastructure.

“CIARA is now a central environment where CISOs can evaluate proven security techniques against the latest threats without tampering with their existing network”, said Ilan Barda, founder & CEO of Radiflow. “Using the revolutionary all-in-one dashboard to keep an eye on all global operations is a critical step to preventing any cyberattack on vital OT facilities.”

Based in Tel-Aviv, Radiflow work directly with managed security service providers to oversee the discovery and management all relevant data security points. The company’s solution is currently installed in over 5,000 sites worldwide.

Its newest CIARA software release was recognized as a vendor in the Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) risk management category, which is in the Innovation Trigger of the Gartner® report titled, “Hype Cycle for Cyber and IT Risk Management”, 2021. Since its release, CIARA has earned acclaim for its capabilities in providing a data-driven approach to OT Security, especially following multiple major OT attacks, such as on the Colonial Pipeline and JBS.

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These are the findings of the 2020 Report on Threats Affecting ICS Endpoints released today by Trend Micro researchers who warned of the  growing risk of downtime and sensitive data theft from ransomware attacks aimed at industrial facilities.

"Industrial Control Systems are incredibly challenging to secure, leaving plenty of gaps in protection that threat actors are clearly exploiting with growing determination," said Ryan Flores, senior manager of threat research for Trend Micro. "Given the US government is now treating ransomware attacks with the same gravity as terrorism, we hope our latest research will help industrial plant owners to prioritise and refocus their security efforts."

Flores is referring to the cyberattack on Colonial Pipeline at the US East Coast  that locked down its systems last May for several days, causing a spike in gas prices, fuel shortage and panic buying in affected areas. US authorities suspected Russian hackers behind ransomware attack. In response, the U.S. Department of Justice, last month, was reported to have issued a guidance elevating investigations of ransomware attacks to a similar priority as terrorism.

Downside of IT/OT convergence

The growing trend towards Internet of Things (IoT) has accelerated the coupling of IT and OT networks. While great business and operational benefits are derived from being able to access data from connected devices, it also unfortunately expanded the enterprises’ attack surface. And it has been recognised for several years now that ICS endpoints are the weak links in the chain.

IT/OT networks use ICS endpoints in the design, monitoring, and control of industrial processes. These endpoints are a crucial element of utility plants, factories and other facilities.

According to the Trend Micro research paper, there has been a significant rise in ransomware activity affecting industrial control systems in 2020, mostly due  to increased Nefilim, Ryuk, LockBit, and Sodinokibi attacks from September to December. Together, this  group of ransomware makes up more than half of ransomware attacks affecting ICSs last year.

The US is by far the country with the most ransomware detections affecting ICSs, with India, Taiwan, and Spain a far second.

“The US is a big country, with a vast number of organizations that can fall victim to ransomware. If we take the percentage of organizations running industrial control systems that had ransomware affecting their systems, Vietnam, Spain, and Mexico actually makes up the top three,” Trend Micro researchers said.

They added that Vietnam’s ransomware detections were residual infections of GandCrab, a ransomware that  was seen targeting Vietnam in 2018. but has since been mainly out of sight — likely because of its distributor’s arrest in 2020.

Legacy malware thrive

Legacy malware such as Autorun, Gamarue, and Palevo became rampant in 2013 and 2014 but have since waned as security policies that disable autorun have become widely adopted.

However, Trend Micro researchers pointed out that they still thrive in IT/OT networks. While they are found in less than 2% of organisations, they are detected frequently and on several endpoints within the same network, signifying a localised outbreak.

“There are a couple of practices that contribute to the situation. First, transferring files and data via USB thumb drives is usually performed as a convenient solution for bridging air-gapped networks; however, this allows the propagation of such legacy worms.

“Second, asset owners create system backups or cold standby terminals and store them in removable drives but do not perform security scans against the package that might harbour malicious software,” the researchers said, adding that their continued presence in IT/OT networks suggests inadequate security and poor maintenance of data backups and removable drives.

Other threats

According to Trend Micro, coinminers are another financially motivated malware affecting ICSs. While a coinminer’s code is not designed to destroy files or data, the mining activity’s CPU utilisation can  adversely affect ICS endpoint performance.

“In our factory honeypot research, we have experienced  unresponsive ICS endpoints after attackers installed coinminers in them. Indirectly, a coinminer can cause loss of control and view over an ICS, especially if those computers have low CPU capacity and/or running outdated operating system, a setup that is not rare in industrial environments,” researchers said.

The top coinminer family found on ICS endpoints for 2020 is MALXMR, a post-intrusion coinminer. It was usually installed through fileless techniques, but starting in 2019, we have seen MALXMR infections that use Equation group tools to exploit the EternalBlue vulnerability to aid distribution and lateral movement.

Of the countries with MALXMR running on ICS endpoints, India accounts for more than a third of detections. However, this does not mean that India is specifically being targeted by MALXMR gangs to run their cryptominers. A look at WannaCry ransomware infections showed that India also had more than a third of WannaCry infections on ICS endpoints.

“This suggests that India has the most MALXMR infections because a lot of computers running ICS software are vulnerable to EternalBlue, as Equation group tools used by MALXMR and WannaCry both exploit the said vulnerability. This data shows how a country’s general patch level makes it susceptible to certain threats,” they said.

Meanwhile, Trend Micro still sees Conficker (aka Downad) as a persistent threat for ICS endpoints. First discovered back in 2008, this computer worm is still being persistently detected on 200 unique endpoints.

“We found that at least 94% of the endpoints we analysed were running Windows 10 and Windows 7 operating systems. The most widely known propagation method of Conficker is exploiting the MS08-067 vulnerability that could allow remote code execution if an affected system received a specially crafted Remote Procedure Call (RPC) request. But MS08-067 does not apply to Windows 10 and Windows 7, which leads us to the conclusion that these infections are propagated using either removable drives or dictionary attacks on ADMIN$ share,” researchers said.

Trend Micro said security should be a major consideration when interconnecting the IT network with the OT network. Specifically, security issues that are used by both the legacy malware and the latest attack trends should be addressed.

“We recommend that IT security staff approach ICS security by understanding the unique requirements these systems have and why they were set up that way. With that in mind, IT security staff should work with OT engineers to properly account for key systems, identify various dependencies such as OS compatibility and up-time requirements, and learn the process and operational practices to come up with a suitable cybersecurity strategy to properly protect these important systems,” researchers said.

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As enterprises accelerate their digital transformation, and with it, the shift to the cloud of many of its core technologies, it becomes quickly imperative for organisations to revisit their security strategy, else they come the next victim to the increased cybercrime activities observed that started in 2020 and continues today.

Traditional firewall solutions have proven to be difficult and cumbersome to dynamically scale up to meet unpredictable traffic patterns, as seen with Denial of Service (DoS) attacks, new product launches, breaking news, or other sudden increase in demand for firewall processing capabilities.

This Check Point Software Technologies white paper, Making the jump to hyperscale network security, offers a detailed and practical look at the technical and operational challenges that enterprises looking to tap the hyperscale growth must address.

Click on the link and download this Check Point whitepaper to learn Check Point Maestro addresses current and future network security requirements in the cloud.

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The new funding will also be used to accelerate the company’s expansion into new verticals and regions.

“Our mission is to drive visibility, continuity, and resiliency in the industrial economy by delivering the most comprehensive solutions that secure all connected devices within the four walls of an industrial site, including all operational technology (OT), Internet of Things (IoT), and industrial IoT (IIoT) assets,” said Yaniv Vardi, CEO of Claroty. “With this new investment, we have the financial runway to execute on our proven product strategy in a hyper-growth market, with a world-class leadership team and a strong ecosystem of partners to take us there.”

That latest round of funding is led by Bessemer Venture Partners’ Century II fund and 40 North, alongside additional strategic investors such LG and I Squared Capital’s ISQ Global InfraTech Fund. All previous investors, including Team8 and long-time customers and partners Rockwell Automation, Siemens, and Schneider Electric, have also participated. The round brings the company’s total funding to US$235 million.

According to Cybersecurity Ventures, global ransomware damage costs are predicted to exceed US$265 billion by 2031, up from US$20 billion in 2021. As these incidents show no signs of slowing, Claroty’s new investment has firmly placed the company at the forefront of the market with the resources, experience, and capabilities needed to shore up industrial cyber defences for the future.

Claroty protects organisations’  industrial assets, connections, and processes, with deployments in thousands of locations and facilities across 50 countries in all seven continents. For one, the company has worked closely with Pfizer to secure its COVID-19 vaccine supply chain in its race to meet unprecedented global demand.

Other customers include General Motors, BHP, Coca-Cola EuroPacific Partners (Australia, Pacific, Indonesia), IRPC Public Company Limited, Aboitiz Power, Rockwell Automation, Siemens, and Schneider Electric.

The company’s  platform connects seamlessly with customers’ existing infrastructure and programs while providing a full range of industrial cybersecurity controls for visibility, threat detection, risk and vulnerability management, and secure remote access—all with a significantly reduced total cost of ownership.

To date, Claroty has deployed its solution in a range of verticals, including pharmaceuticals, food & beverage, automotive, chemicals, mining & materials, manufacturing, medical devices & life sciences, oil & gas, electric, water & waste.

Meanwhile, the Claroty Research Team continues to lead in investigating potential risks to industrial control systems (ICS). The team is known for its development of proprietary threat signatures, protocol analysis, and discovery and disclosure of ICS vulnerabilities. Equipped with the industry’s most extensive ICS testing lab, the team works closely with leading industrial automation vendors to evaluate the security of their products. To date, the team has discovered and disclosed more than 120 ICS vulnerabilities.

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Inbavanan Rathinam, senior director for solutions & services , Asia-Pacific at Rockwell Automation, said the new services enables customers to  be future-ready through the convergence of IT and OT by incorporating agility and flexibility in both infrastructure and processes.

“Industrial players in Asia face the dual challenges of upgrading and integrating legacy infrastructure while building a more sustainable operations framework. LifeCycleIQ Services enables our customers to better plan and service every aspect of the plant, from design to safe operations, enabling reduced energy usage, minimised wastage, and maximised output,” Rathinam said.

The new services represents the expanding ways that customers can engage with Rockwell Automation technology and highly trained professionals to improve their performance and reimagine what’s possible across their industrial value chain.

By combining digital technologies with expansive human know-how, the services help companies work faster, smarter and with greater agility at every point in their business cycle. The services can help companies realise the power of a Connected Enterprise during the design, operations, and maintenance stages in greenfield and brownfield facilities.

In the Asia Pacific, LifecycleIQ Services hopes to bring its transformative partnership with enterprise customers in key areas such as automotive, chemicals, food and beverage and life sciences.

According to Rockwell Automation, the new services can help industrial companies on the following:

• Capturing more value from digital transformation initiatives: Using the knowledge and experience within LifecycleIQ Services, companies can strategically plan, implement and scale their digital initiatives. Support can begin with defining strategic objectives, identifying use cases and quantifying business value. Rockwell Automation can then continue to support customers through implementation, ongoing maintenance and continuous innovation.
• Reducing risk with comprehensive cybersecurity support: Fewcompanies have specialists with both information and operations technology (IT/OT) security knowledge. Rockwell Automation is uniquely equipped to address complex security challenges in IT/OT environments. The company understands the OT environment and how it interfaces with IT and follows industry security standards.

LifecycleIQ Services can help companies adopt a proactive cybersecurity approach and address the entire attack continuum – before, during and after an event. Also, as more companies connect their plants to remote workers and partners like original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), it can help protect those connections with secure remote access and security posture assessment services.

• Improving workforce support: LifecycleIQ Services can help companies address their unique workforce challenges and gaps by assessing needs, identifying priorities and creating workforce development programs. Rockwell Automation also uses remote support capabilities and augmented reality technologies to help companies interact virtually with support engineers, strengthen skills with virtual training, and provide safety and security services without sending people into plants.

Meanwhile, LifecycleIQ Services is  introducing a new way to receive multiple services in one contract. An Integrated Service Agreement allows companies to select a package of offerings to simplify their support needs and have just one number to call to access experts and receive priority service. Companies can get 24x7 technical support, repair services, reports and analytics, field services and more, all in one integrated contract.

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The introduction of the new family of products comes a little more than two weeks after the company launched its first IoT modem solution that is equipped with 5G connectivity and optimised for Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications. The Qualcomm 315 5G IoT Modem-RF System is a modem-to-antenna solution designed to support the IoT ecosystem in building upgradeable LTE and 5G devices for IoT verticals.

The newly released chipsets span across entire market segments from entry level to premium tier, and purpose-built to support emerging IoT devices and solutions designed for industrial and commercial applications.

“We have two variants of products. One classified  under the QCS family, which is an application processor with WiFi connectivity; and the other is classified under the QCM, which is an application processor with an integrated cellular connectivity,” said Nagaraju Naik, senior director for product development at Qualcomm.

He added: “With the understanding of the IoT portfolio across industrial and enterprise applications, there is a need for extended hardware availability as well as extended software support. So, we have defined that as a programme. All the new chipsets are extended life chipsets with a minimum hardware availability of at least eight years; and we have an extended software support programme that is very well established, which offers security bug fixes on a quarterly basis.”

The new Qualcomm IoT chipsets are:

• Qualcomm QCS8250 | Target applications: connected healthcare, digital signage, retail, and video collaboration

This premium-tier offering is optimised to deliver maximum performance to enable compute intensive AI at the edge with support for Qualcomm® Wi-Fi 6 solutions and 5G connectivity. It offers a new Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for ultra-intuitive AI in addition to machine learning for compute-intensive IoT applications to enable smart cameras, video collaboration, AI hubs, connected healthcare and smart retail. Purpose-built for industrial and commercial applications, this platform delivers ultimate performance experience with flexible options enabled by Qualcomm’s 3rd party ecosystem to accelerate deployment and commercialisation at scale.

• Qualcomm QCS6490/QCM6490 | Target applications: connected healthcare, logistics management, retail, transportation, and warehousing

With the Kryo 585 CPU architecture this solution delivers powerful performance and is purpose-built for industrial and commercial IoT applications such as transportation, warehousing, connected healthcare, logistics management and across retail point of sale (POS) kiosks. Equip to support 5G mmWave/Sub-6 GHz and Wi-Fi 6E, this solution helps enable the latest generation of ruggedised handhelds and tablets, industrial scanners, and human machine interface systems. Through powerful connections, reduced latency, along with dynamic triple ISPs and advanced Edge-AI and compute based on 6th generation Qualcomm AI Engine, this solution delivers astonishing performance at reduced power compared to previous generation solutions.

• Qualcomm QCS4290/QCM4290 | Target applications: cameras, industrial handhelds, and security panels

These chipsets offer maximum mid-tier benefits. With the Kryo260 CPU architecture for increased speeds and robust on-device performance, in addition to the 3rd generation Qualcomm AI Engine, this platform delivers powerful performance, dynamic camera capabilities and broad connectivity options (LTE Cat13, Wi-Fi 6-Ready),ideal for industrial and commercial IoT applications such as industrial handhelds in logistics and warehousing, security panels and cameras. For increased intuitive on-device intelligence, devices based on this new solution will help enable productive and efficient work environments.

• Qualcomm QCS2290/QCM2290 | Target applications: camera applications, industrial handhelds, retail and tracking

These are robust entry-level offerings, enabling reliable performance and power-conservation with LTE connectivity, upgraded features and memory support for low power consumption. Equipped with the Cortex A53 CPU architecture, the entry-level platform is a cost-effective solution, delivering greater performance, higher graphics capabilities, better quality images, and improved power performance. This platform is well-suited for, retail point-of-sale (POS),industrial handheld, tracking and camera applications. Also, QCS2290/QCM2290 baseband chip is pin-to-pin compatible with QCS4290/QCM4290 which helps customers use hardware and software across various IoT devices to reduce cost and time to market.

The Qualcomm QCS8250, Qualcomm QCS4290/ QCM4290, and Qualcomm QCS2290/ QCM2290 solutions are available now. The Qualcomm QCS6490/ QCM6490 solution are expected to be available in second half of 2021.

Enabling the IoT ecosystem

With its latest family of IoT chipsets, Qualcomm hopes to enable its more than 13,000 IoT customers accelerate their development of connected products.

“We uniquely positioned to lead the IoT ecosystem forward with our systems-level approach. Along with the recently announced Qualcomm315 5G IoT modem, these new IoT solutions further exemplify our commitment to driving global digital transformation and providing a portfolio of solutions to transform industrial and enterprise IoT applications to achieve cutting-edge performance and seamless connectivity,” said Jeff Lorbeck, senior vice president and general manager of connected smart systems at Qualcomm .

He added: “We believe in the power of technology to enrich lives through purposeful innovation with solutions to support the ecosystem in reimagining how the world connects, works and communicates. These new IoT solutions are a step towards achieving that goal.”

A number of the company’s customers and partners have expressed optimism about the new IoT chipsets.

“The announcement of Qualcomm Technologies’ newest IoT solutions is an exciting step forward in the global proliferation of next-generation IoT devices. Coupled with Fibocom’s end-to-end IoT modules and wireless communications solutions, these new solutions will enable powerful, intelligent, and revolutionary IoT solutions across a variety of industries and vertical applications,” said Lingpeng Ying,chief executive officer, Wireless Inc.

"As a leading IoT solution distributor in Taiwan, we have strong application insights and support customers from concept to design to manufacturing. The Qualcomm QCS8250 is a leading AI computing platform, and we are pleased to be collaborating with Taiwan customers to enable the high-performance, low-power computing IoT platform in 1H2022, including a SMARC module from biases and video conference solution from Aver," said Eric Cheng, president, Hongtech Electronics.

“Qualcomm Technologies’ newest IoT solutions are a strong step forward for the retail market and IoT ecosystem to enable the global proliferation of next-generation devices. We are proud to work with Qualcomm Technologies to continue to enable the growth of this market and ecosystem.” said Tom Luo, executive vice president, PAX Computer Technology (Shenzhen).

“Based on our long strategic relationship, we congratulate Qualcomm Technologies on the launch of these cutting-edge solutions,” said Julie Johnson, vice president of product management, Zebra Technologies. “This innovation gives us more flexibility than ever before to build the right technology solutions for our customers based on their specific needs.”

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This is one of the major pieces of advice given by Frost & Sullivan in its latest analysis of the global critical infrastructure cybersecurity market. Segmented into oil and gas facilities, utilities (electric and water), maritime (ports and entry points), and airports, the research firm estimates the market will reach US$24.22 billion by 2030 from US$21.68 billion in 2020.

Despite the ever-increasing threat landscape and their incredibly high-risk profile, the Frost & Sullivan study pointed out that critical infrastructure organisations remain far behind where they should be in their cyber maturity and digital resilience strategies, necessitating a rapid push to fortify cyber defenses and manage their cyber-risk profiles.

"While oil and gas facilities will continue to remain, the largest segment investing in cybersecurity solutions, airports will prove to be the fastest-growing one, with a CAGR of 10.1%. Spending is expected to reach US$1.87 billion by 2030," said Danielle VanZandt, industry analyst for security at Frost & Sullivan.

"This is driven by the ongoing construction of new facilities, significant digitalization upgrades within existing airports, and the incremental updates being made to cybersecurity systems to keep up with the changing cyber-threat landscape and improve detection capabilities," she added.

Besides ensuring that their data traffic monitoring for OT systems are up to scratch, the Frost & Sullivan analysis said cybersecurity vendors should focus on the following in order to tap into a potentially lucrative market:

• Network topology solutions for vulnerability and risk assessment: Market participants seeking to provide network topology capabilities need to ensure that they can identify and discover the variety of information technology (IT), Internet of Things (IoT), and operational technology (OT) devices within an organization's network architecture to begin building the topological model.
• Continuous discovery for organisational assets: For security vendors, emphasizing continuous monitoring and automatic discovery tasks will help attract new customers and improve their market share.
• Predictive analytics and threat intelligence for incident detection: Cybersecurity solutions providers must emphasize automatic and predictive capabilities in their system tests and proofs of concept with customers to show how these systems will not overwhelm their existing security functions.
• Secure-by-design initiatives for operational technology assets and systems: Security operators that want to update older OT assets and devices should look at any components that are not engineered via secure-by-design manufacturing.

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"This strategic partnership allows Johnson Controls to offer our customers increased peace of mind by mitigating the risk of costly operational interruptions due to cybersecurity attacks while providing resilient, trusted smart building solutions that use the most advanced PKI technology from DigiCert, the clear leader in its field," said Mike Ellis, executive vice president and chief customer & digital officer at Johnson Controls. "Our domain expertise in healthy, secure and smart buildings, combined with DigiCert's trusted digital identity and automated certificate management capabilities, will further enhance our OpenBlue suite and offer a clear advantage for smart building operations."

Johnson Controls-DigiCert PKI solution elevates operations within the Operational Technology (OT) and Internet of Things (IoT) space to ensure that hardware, software and communication remains trusted throughout the lifecycle of the smart building. This approach brings modern PKI security as well as advanced expertise in managing digital certificates to provide device authentication and identity, data encryption and integrity for each component of the ecosystem.

"Johnson Controls is taking an important leadership stance in providing building owners confidence that their devices are safely and securely connected to the network using robust PKI solutions," said Mike Nelson, vice president of IoT security at DigiCert. "DigiCert ONE singularly offers container-based, cloud-native technology for fully automated certificate management with flexible deployment and secure and simple integration with the OpenBlue ecosystem. DigiCert ONE's IoT Device Manager provides complete IoT device lifecycle management that, together with OpenBlue, will ensure secure digital transformation of smart buildings."

DigiCert's vigilance in addressing the current and future landscape of digital identities and cryptography combined with Johnson Controls unmatched experience across all building systems will allow for OpenBlue to provide and maintain trusted smart building solutions within an ever-changing cybersecurity landscape.

Johnson Controls also recently announced its partnership with Pelion, to accelerate innovation in connectivity, security and intelligence at the edge for Johnson Controls OpenBlue technology. Pelion's device and edge management capabilities will be used with DigiCert services to ensure digital identities maintain the most stringent level of trust in OpenBlue solutions.

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The deal is expected to accommodate future network expansion and will further deepen the partnership between the two companies, which have already collaborated on LTE, 5G and digital projects.

Indeed, this latest partnership between the two companies further cements their intention to empower enterprises in South Korea to use 5G to deliver new smart digital services and to further advance industry 4.0 across the country.

“Nokia’s AirScale system will help provide seamless 5G connectivity in indoor locations and environments. Its cost-effective, flexibility and compact design enables us to enhance our 5G offering,” said DaeHee Kim, senior vice president and head of Network Infra Technology Group at LG Uplus.

Being the first deployment of its kind in South Korea, Nokia will install its cost-effective, next-generation small cell AirScale Indoor (ASiR) systems in a range of indoor locations including shopping malls and office buildings. Composed of Nokia’s Digital Baseband unit and ASiR-pRRH solution (pico Remote Radio Head), the system features multi-operator and multi-band support and will enable LG Uplus to provide 5G connectivity.

The compact and flexible nature of the ASiR indoor system means it can be deployed quickly in strategic locations when additional capacity is required and is ideal for both consumers and enterprise customers. ASiR facilitates a simple service upgrade to 5G New Radio with minimal on-site working if required, and features a web-based manager, enabling remote configuration without need for a separate application - making it an ideal replacement for traditional, complex and expensive distributed antenna system (DAS) systems - with flexibility further enhanced by cell combination and splitting.

“We are delighted to have been chosen by LG Uplus to provide infrastructure that will be critical to a seamless 5G experience. Having worked with LG Uplus on a number of other recent projects, we believe the AirScale system is the right Tommi Uitto, president - mobile networks  at Nokia.

Enabling smart digital services with 5G

The latest equipment deal between the two companies follows on the heels of another agreement announced last month that Nokia will conduct a 5G Business-to-Business (B2B) digital platform trial for LG Uplus.

Once deployed, the platform will allow LG Uplus to reduce time-to-market for launching 5G-powered services to its enterprise and business vertical customers. The platform will also enable LG Uplus to address new business segments, including Industry 4.0, and smart factory.

After deployment, the solution will promote the use of 5G by enterprises and verticals to grow their business, aligning with the South Korean government's Digital New Deal initiative.

The proof-of-concept test of the 5G B2B digital platform will be completed in two phases starting in February. While the first phase involves a demonstration in the Nokia Lab, the second phase with a field trial is planned in the LG Uplus Regional Operation Center in KyungNam.

"We are committed to providing best-in-class and innovative services to our customers and this trial is a crucial step in this direction. Once deployed, Nokia’s 5G B2B digital platform will help us expand our enterprise business by allowing us to provide new use cases rapidly. Nokia is our trusted partner and we look forward to working with them on this important trial,” said Jaeyong Seo, vice president of Smart Infrastructure Business Unit at LG Uplus.

Nokia's 5G B2B digital platform is based on multi-domain technology and ensures full automation and near real-time delivery of services. The solution includes a service platform powered by Nokia’s Digital Operations software, Cloud Operations Manager, Network Exposure Function, Registers, Cloud Packet Core, Software Defined Networking, and gNB (5G version of eNodeB), across Nokia’s cloud platform.

LG Uplus will use the platform to cost-efficiently automate the design and deployment of 5G network slices for the delivery of new services. In addition, LG Uplus' enterprise customers will be able to leverage 5G capabilities to enhance their business and operational efficiency leading to overall economic gain.

The service will give LG Uplus customers the flexibility to directly control and manage the platform to meet their needs. Further, it will help LG Uplus offer newer use cases such as smart factory and smart harbour with 5G wireless connectivity and associated services like network slicing.

We are excited to conduct this pathbreaking trial for LG Uplus to enable its enterprise customers to improve business processes with 5G,” said Kevin Ahn, head of Korea, at Nokia. “Nokia’s 5G B2B digital platform will allow LG Uplus to transform its B2B service creation with agility and automation and delight its enterprise customers with new use cases and operational excellence.”

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