Sifting through vast amounts of data is a mammoth task, especially in the industrial arena where legacy systems and long update cycles are commonplace. Changes are afoot, however. What some call the fourth industrial revolution, or industry 4.0, is deemed “the next phase in the digitization of the manufacturing sector” and coming up fast. Bain & company believes that the enterprise and industrial markets are poised to become the biggest areas for IoT to grow, with over £200 billion in anticipated revenues by 2020. For IoT deployment to succeed, controlling these devices and taking advantage of the data they produce quickly are key for businesses to generate new revenue streams and improve their business practices.

In manufacturing and industry, edge analytics can be applied to areas where these IoT devices are found. By bringing data analytics to localized levels, companies in this arena can fill the gaps in everything from security to information processing, improving the efficiency of software, embedded systems and existing services.

If manufacturers are going to take advantage of new technologies to improve their businesses, vendors need to show the worth of edge computing as a crucial ingredient for future business success to entice companies which may be only toying with the idea of IoT at this stage to take the plunge. Top priorities for industrial enterprises considering edge include:

• Maintenance
• Resource allocation & management
• Security
• Quality control

The Role Service Providers Should Play

Today’s industrial players are facing global competition and may be grappling with the influx of new technologies on the market ? Such as iot and edge computing ? As well as struggling to cope with turning vast amounts of data into actionable intelligence. It is up to vendors to not only educate customers in the potential benefits of edge computing, but justify investment by way of a reduction in data storage and processing costs, increased visibility into networks and systems, and the rapid extraction of data that edge computing promotes in order to improve efficiency and potentially tap into new revenue streams. Replacing legacy systems can be time consuming and difficult, and to jump immediately from old systems to iot and the edge – while ignoring the cloud – will have to be proven as the right course of action, whether through proof of concepts, research, or by offering alternatives to overhauling a complete system, such as bolt-on applications which demonstrate potential of edge computing. There is also the prospect of investing now to future-proof a business. With ai slowly creeping into industry worldwide, adopting iot and edge computing now could give companies a head start in utilizing future technologies.