Internet of Things Inspires a Marriage Between OT and IT

Paris, France/Vianen, Netherlands, 6/24/2014 – The global trend lab VINT, set up by Sogeti to explore the impact of new technologies, is launching its third report in a four-part series on Internet of Things. In this report VINT gives insight into the Fourth Industrial Revolution; the marriage between factory automation, aka Operational Technology (OT) and Information Technology (IT), in which the industry is taking the lead. This marriage is realized by Internet of Things; the evolution making everything and everyone connected to the internet.

According to VINT, the integration of OT and IT will be a key driver for fast changes: intimate customer interaction, machine-to-machine communication, and a completely different approach for maintenance of equipment. VINT has also identified various challenges that have to be faced to succeed the marriage between OT and IT. The authors argue for the establishment of a new education discipline to break down the barrier between operational technology and information technology. The title of this latest VINT report is: “The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Things build a bridge between OT and IT”.

Fourth Industrial Revolution
Menno van Doorn, Director of VINT and one of the authors of this Internet of Things report commented:

“This marriage between OT and IT is a new step in the industrial revolution, hence the Fourth Industrial Revolution and it is already visible in many ways. For example, in London people buy pay-as-you-go tickets for public transport. Passengers who are held up by delays automatically pay less for their train, subway, or bus ticket than passengers who leave on time. This Internet of Things application combines information from the operational systems of the train traffic with the data from the passenger information systems. Automobile manufacturers or oil refineries can save billions when they deploy fitbit-sensor technology that predicts the failure of machine parts. It is expected that this so-called Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication market will eventually exceed the size of the mobile phone market.”

3 Concrete Recommendations
Menno van Doorn continues:

“Companies can significantly benefit from the integration between OT and IT. However, engineers and IT-professionals speak different languages so there is still a long way to go before this marriage is successful. Operational Techno-logy is mainly incident-driven. Technology is embedded and technicians are focused on machine-controlling. Nothing like IT, where everything has to communicate with everything else, and one functional executive ensures that everyone with a device (smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop pc) can do their job."

In the report, VINT researchers make three recommendations to speed up the integration between OT and IT.

” First, we advise companies to look at their operations in relation to the telecommunication sector, which has successfully bridged time and distance with machine protocols (M2M). Secondly, we are advising them to give top priority to the integration of OT and IT on their digital transformation agenda. Bringing these totally different worlds together, mentally and physically, is key. In doing so corporate culture is the main challenge. Lastly, and most importantly for the future, we have emphasized the need to establish a new way of education. We need to develop accelerated initiatives to bridge the gap between OT and IT in educational programs,” concluded Menno van Doorn.

The Internet of Things Series
The Fourth Industrial Revolution, Things build a bridge between OT and IT is the third in a four-part series of Internet of Things reports from VINT. The first was published in the fall of 2013, under the title Things – Internet of Business Opportunities. The second, Empathic Things, about the internet in, on and around the human body, was released at the start of this year. The final report in these series is to be Smart Cities, looking at the future for high-tech home and living environments.

The authors of the report are Menno van Doorn, Sander Duivestein, Erik van Ommeren, David Excoffier and René Maas. They are now working on the last report in the Internet of Things series, which will be published in the fall of 2014.
 
About Sogeti
Sogeti is a leading provider of technology and software testing, specializing in Application, Infrastructure and Engineering Services. Sogeti offers cutting-edge solutions around Testing, Business Intelligence & Analytics, Mobile, Cloud and Cyber Security, combining world class methodologies and its global delivery model, Rightshore®. Sogeti brings together more than 20,000 professionals in 15 countries and has a strong local presence in over 100 locations in Europe, USA and India. Sogeti is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cap Gemini S.A., listed on the Paris Stock Exchange. For more information please visit www.sogeti.com.

About VINT
The Sogeti trend lab VINT (Vision - Inspiration - Navigation - Trends) is a part of SogetiLabs, a network with Sogeti’s top technology leaders around the world, always have an eye on the horizon looking for evolutions driven by new technology. In recent years VINT did research into Open Source Innovation and Crowd Sourcing (2006), Social Media (2008), Crisis and Paradigm Shift (2010), The App Effect (2012),  The Connected Workforce (2013) and Big Data (2013). VINT was set up in 1994 and has to date published more than 10 books and a large number of video productions. For more information please visit www.sogeti.com/vint.