Enterprise Landscape
Historical Perspective
The Industrial Automation Market has historically been very slow to adopt new concepts and technologies, trailing the commercial sector by ten or more years. This is largely due to the conservative nature of the Fortune 500 customer base and lack of Venture Capital infusion.
The first PLC, a significant improvement over relay banks was introduced by Modicon over fifty years ago. The DCS by Honeywell a few years later. A few companies like Triconex, Wonderware, Intellution and ObjectAutomation paved the way for innovation, but were few and far between.
In the early days of hardware transition from relays and hardwired panels, there was great resistance to their replacement. The president of Honeywell was quoted in 1983 to say that the PC and ethernet networks would never be adopted by industrial users on the factory floor. Less than forty years ago.
IIoT Trends, impact on industry
All of that has changed with the emergence of the Industrial IoT. Existing automation companies are rushing to compete in the new world. Many new organizations have been formed to tackle the IoT paradigm. But legacy operations will have difficulty adopting to the new way of doing business. And upstart companies are typically staffed with IT professionals lacking experience in the Industrial Automation Market. This will present short to mid term issues as companies compete for market share.
The upside is that significant funding is being and will continue to be injected in the IIoT market, a first for automation. This capital investment from corporate sponsors and V.C.’s will have a dramatic impact on the industry as we know it. Despite media reports, the IIoT market is still in its infancy, with a weeding out of many of the initial players. All said, the next twenty years will prove to be a growth opportunity for enterprise software unlike the industry has ever seen, and IOI is positioning itself to be a predominant player.
Next Industrial Revolution
The next industrial revolution is coming, and fast. We have come a long way, but have a ways to go. The Industrial Automation Market has transitioned dramatically looking back to the first and second industrial revolution. There are numerous predictions looking forward to the third or possibly the forth industrial revolution, all from reputable global sources≥
There is a great deal of hype around IIoT, however one thing is clear. Industrial IoT will drive this effort. The enterprise automation world will changing forever. By 2040 the landscape will look completely different and for the better. And the IOe was specifically designed to maximize value recognizing these changes.