Industrial Transformation Blog

Last April, we wrote about the market twists and turns in the dynamic cybersecurity software market and the challenges and barriers to progress. More recently, we published an M&A update that noted the acquisition of PAS Global by Hexagon AB. Recent conversations with end-users, cyber-software, and automation vendors have highlighted the importance of not just the software but of the associated set of services so vital to implementing and maintaining cyber protection. This raised the question of the best way for most end-users to approach this, get the right help, and bridge the cyber gap between IT and OT. The answer is less a technical discussion than it is about strategy, standards, policies and procedures, and partnering services.

Four recent M&A announcements have prompted us to catch up on our view of where the industry is heading and follow up on our earlier predictions for 2021. They are:

In our December 2020 blog on AWS℠ Industrial, we noted that AWS and the other hyperscalers have always had the ambition to move up the value proposition and delivery stack. The hyperscaler’s objective is simple: to maximize the volume of dollars and services running through their platform. And, they incent their partners and their own salespeople to do so. They aim to win no matter which route one takes, directly through them or via their partners. We said that all roads lead to Rome.

LNS Research has long followed the open and interoperable systems movement, first in IT components and systems and now in automation systems through the initiatives of the International User Association of Automation Technology in Process Industries (NAMUR) and the Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF), of which LNS Research is an Open Group member. Both organizations have proposed standards that leverage existing standards to speed and ease adoption. The purpose of this blog is not to argue the pros and cons of the initiatives whose two groups, by the way, cooperate. Rather, we posit that:

Recent moves by some of the market's major players are beginning to confirm what LNS previously identified as a trend toward renewed interest in and a fresh approach to what LNS calls Operational Excellence 4.0 (OE 4.0). We are seeing new partnerships as well as M&A between suppliers of APM, EHS, Quality, and Connected Worker applications.

LNS Research has been following industrial control system (ICS) cybersecurity for some time now and believes that as we emerge from the grasp of COVID-19, this is a good time to revisit what has and continues to be a very dynamic part of the industrial software market.

AVEVA just announced that they had completed the acquisition of OSIsoft. The announcement was made in an analyst conference on Friday, March 19, 2021, with a one-hour webinar featuring AVEVA CEO Craig Hayman and OSIsoft’s Pat Kennedy, plus Rob McGreevy of AVEVA and Gregg Le Blanc of OSIsoft. AVEVA worked on the acquisition for over a year, and OSIsoft also had help from their investors and former SAP pitchman and entrepreneur, Shai Agassi. Interestingly enough, Michael Siemer, OSIsoft’s president, was not on the call.

LNS Research’s initial work outlined the three architectural approaches to Industrial Transformation (IX). We also detailed the advantages and disadvantages for industrial users of each of these architectural paths and the underlying IX Infrastructure. We are now extending our research to advanced analytics. So, in this blog, we define Industrial Transformation (IX) Analytics and how LNS classifies its use.

Two subjects that are not new but have generated strong interest due to the COVID-19 pandemic are remote operations and the autonomous plant. While neither is hardly a new concept, our ability to actually make them a reality has changed with the disruptive digital technologies associated with Industrie 4.0. LNS Research has recently conducted a survey of these concepts with some 300 respondents across the process, hybrid/batch, and discrete industries. Our research focuses primarily on the plant, though the subject carries across the entire value chain. The results are both informative and insightful and highlight the difficult road ahead, especially for autonomous operations. Let’s begin the discussion by defining what we mean by remote operations and autonomy.

When we last visited with IBM in April 2019 at their first annual IoT Exchange event, we came away with renewed confidence that IBM was stepping up their game, freshly re-organized into a dedicated ISV-like unit, and investing heavily in Maximo, TRIRIGA, and the Engineering Lifecycle Suite to catch up to, if not outright out-innovate their competition.