Global tech market advisory firm ABI Research notes that as manufacturers integrate IT and OT systems, they increasingly rely on Industrial IoT (IIoT) platforms dedicated to smart manufacturing to manage their devices, connectivity, infrastructure, and data. These IIoT platforms also help manufacturers implement applications, derive insights, and deliver those insights to the correct stakeholders.
As observed by the firm: "Consequently, IIoT platforms come in a variety of flavors to meet a range of needs. The most suitable definition, however, is that of an Application Enablement Platform (AEP)." More than US$32 billion will be spent on these types of platforms annually by 2025, forecasts ABI Research in its new white paper entitled, The 36 Transformative Technology Stats You Need to Know for 2021.
By way of an executive summary for the new report, Ryan Martin, Industrial and Manufacturing Research Director at ABI Research, explains:
"AEPs provide a solution for importing data, but they often require partners to provide gateways. Some AEPs, such as Siemens MindSphere, Emerson Plantweb, and PTC ThingWorx, provide a 'one-stop shop' that can take data from devices and work like an Operating System (OS) with an app store. Some one-stop shops focus more on extracting data and getting data to the cloud, while others focus more on delivering the data to other manufacturing and enterprise systems. If app development remains open, applications can be built by the AEP provider, from partners (which may also be called platforms), end users, or independent developers, much like smartphone app stores."
Among the industrial and manufacturing trends highlighted in the whitepaper: Smart glasses will no longer be a novelty on the factory floor through the forecast period, expects the analyst, with the number of connections forecast to grow ubiquitously from 1.4 million in 2019 to 20.9 million in 2025 at a CAGR of 57%.
"The rapid growth in connections reveals that solutions based on AR are fast becoming a mainstream technology on the factory floor," explains Michael Larner, principal analyst at ABI Research. "The glasses can increasingly be part of manufacturers' plans for onboarding staff, for providing top-up training in context, and for enabling more experienced staff to remotely support juniors. As well as maturing use cases, the growth in connections is evidence that the glasses will become comfortable enough to wear over an extended period and that investments in cellular networks means that the embedded software can support the staff in real time."
About the whitepaper, Stuart Carlaw, ABI Research's Chief Research Officer says, "We have selected, from among the many millions of data points ABI Research creates each year, to focus on some enlightening data points that matter in the year ahead. Aspects like Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML), private cellular networks, Open Radio Access Network (RAN), blockchain, smart manufacturing platforms, and even connected cows point to how technology advancements are allowing our physical world to be better connected, managed, and efficient. The forecasts presented in this paper may be easy to dismiss but are very important directional indicators of the technology-enabled world of the future."