Any vendor saying they can do it all for the Internet of Things (IoT) is either lying or delirious… this could not have been clearer in our Dell World IoT booth earlier this fall. One of the biggest reason that a single vendor cannot do it all is because the IoT is really a grouping of many (maybe hundreds) different use cases which require connecting to different things, deploying different architectures, and engaging different partners.
We displayed this at Dell World with 15 use case demonstration all wrapped around the story of how the IoT helps ice cream get made and delivered more efficiently. Across these 15 use cases we actually had 22 different partners from the Dell IoT Solutions Partner Program in our booth with us showing connectivity, analytics, security, and even augmented reality software solutions built on top of our edge computing product offering.
To help our customers address the diverse use cases of the IoT we develop what we call Blueprints. To build these Blueprints, we select the right infrastructure products from our broad Dell Technologies portfolio, identify the best software partners who bring best practices and deep use case expertise, and finally validate the solution in our IoT labs. We do all of this work so customers don’t have to build a solution from scratch, but rather customize a tested offering, and get to ROI faster.
So, I am sure you are dying to know at this point what the 15 different use cases were that we showcased around ice cream. The storyline actually started with all of the energy production to power the ice cream factory and supply chain. SAP showed how real-time analytics on an oil rig can improve safety and efficiency for Oil and Gas operations and Emerson, OSIsoft, and Microsoft demoed solution for remote critical equipment monitoring focused on valves in a refinery, and ThingWorx and Vuforia (PTC Companies) showed how augmented reality enabled field maintenance improves operator precision. Continuing with energy FogHorn Systems proved that wind energy asset management can improve energy production predictions and finally ELM FieldSight presented its Microgrid energy management to automate and optimize the use of solar, battery, and grid power.
Along with energy, another key part of the ice cream manufacture is data (or IT) infrastructure. Tridium Niagara (a Honeywell Company) and Controlco demoed its solution for IT Critical Infrastructure Management which ties together the facility data with IT equipment data to improve asset uptime.
The next ice cream use case was around agriculture efficiency and quality where Bosch showed how farms are the next smart factories. From here the energy and the raw ingredients each flow into the smart factory where we showcased 4 different manufacturing use cases. Kepware and SoftwareAG demonstrated how they could consume streaming data from an industrial mixer and complete Predictive Maintenance to identify potential maintenance events and plan downtime accordingly. To measure overall equipment effectiveness and improve return on assets (RoA) IBM showcased its factory optimization offering. To ensure quality of the ice cream packaging rolling of the factory floor Eigen Innovations exhibited its real-time quality control solution. The last use case in the smart factory portion of our booth was Wurldtech (a GE Company) showcasing Operational Network Security for the IIoT to ensure that all the data from the industrial equipment was secure.
Ice cream is only good if the refrigerated warehouses and trucks keep it frozen. IMS Evolve demonstrated its Cold Chain Logistics offering to ensure that the supply chain is using energy for refrigeration as efficiently as possible. To make sure the ice cream gets there quickly and the fleet of delivery vehicles is as efficient as possible, Nokia presented its Fleet Management solution.
The final stage in the supply chain is the environment of the smart city where Riptide provided Smart Retail Facilities Management helping the retailer reduce operating costs while maintaining a high quality product offering. We all want to be safe when we are buying ice cream so V5 Systems demoed its Video Surveillance and Gunshot Detection solution which is solar powered and installs in an hour or so.
There you go, 15 diverse use cases requiring connectivity to different things, deployment of different architectures, and engagement with 22 different partners. For those thinking the IoT was mostly theoretical, the IoT showcase demonstrated real-world solutions. We did not actually have a partridge in a pear tree in our booth because we ran out of space with all our use cases, but we did give away 2,000 ice cream treats, which I think is better anyways.
