A History of the Industrial Internet of Things

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a modern framework for business proficiency and predictive maintenance, analytics, and insights. It is a key feature in the modern Industry 4.0 framework that underpins utilities, supply chain management, and the manufacturing sector, but the Industrial IoT goes beyond simply establishing a framework for productivity. IIoT functionality features prominently in the business operations of firms that range from retail to robotics programming and AI development.

IIoT technology isn’t particularly new to the world of industry. The Industrial Internet of Things is essentially an offshoot of the Internet of Things (IoT) as a nuanced framework for building networked consumer applications that make life easier. IIoT technology aims at providing the same abundance of opportunity that comes from IoT connectivity and analytics, yet focuses on the business side of the coin rather than featuring in consumer discretionary products and services. When asking “What is Industrial IoT?” it’s best to start at the beginning for a fuller picture of the layout, offerings, and future of the IIoT framework.

The internet was conceived to make work and collaboration easier than ever before.

img

The internet was built as a framework for connecting physical computer devices that operated in different parts of a city, state, country, and even world. The first packets sent over a computerized network—or node-ton-node—were received in 1969 on the Arpanet. From then on, digital communication and the networked capacity of computerized devices have been growing in magnitude and capability. Back then, computers were built from a vast array of chips, drives, and wiring. This remains largely the same, but the size of a single device has been scaled down from the size of a moderately large room to a front pocket on a pair of jeans.

Devices are capable of synchronized communication and internet-enabled devices are coming to include dishwashers, coffee machines, and cars in the modern age. These connectivity ratings place consumer electronics within the realm of the Internet of Things (IoT), meaning that they can communicate with one another and be remotely activated in order to make the consumer’s life that much easier.

The internet was built to facilitate cooperative work capabilities within teams and devices, and so the Internet of Things and Industrial Internet of Things is simply the next iteration of these advances in communicative technology.

Analytics and IIoT technology go hand in hand in the modern world of big data and cyber-physical systems.

img

The IIoT network is a tangled web of smart devices that are linked through networking utilities and databases. The Industrial Internet is an infrastructure that resembles the traditional IoT, yet it’s function is less about making consumer ease a priority and more about finding and circumventing problems before they become larger issues in the ongoing pursuit of operational efficiency and minimal downtime. An IIoT device is one that is linked into the overriding network and provides consistent feedback and data through the use of various sensor devices.

The insights gained with an Industrial IoT setup can help businesses that utilize robots, production lines, and much more. Identifying trouble in the industrial network is crucial to securing an ongoing competitive advantage over your industry’s main points of competition. Eliminating downtime with the use of predictive maintenance and scheduled operational breaks for performance checks are just some of what makes the IIoT framework special.

With the advanced analytics that businesses are able to bring to bear, maintaining efficiency standards, high-quality output, and maximum safety for employees are a standard component of the workplace rather than a goal that may be hard to meet.

This is truly the future of work and productivity in action.