Connecting with everything: General Industry Coverage

For a guy like me who remembers when a landline telephone was the only practical way for an individual to share information immediately over long distances, today’s world of infinite connectedness still has an otherworldly, “Alice in Wonderland” feel to it. But after watching the Internet, cell phones and Wi-Fi take hold and become old news, and after seeing newer concepts like cloud computing and the Internet of Things develop and grow, it’s clear that everyone and everything will be connected in the years ahead.

Take the Internet of Things, which connects Wi-Fi-enabled devices via sensors that transmit data. In 2012, there were more than 10 billion of these devices, and by 2020 there will be more than 50 billion, according to Paul Miller, content director for the ARC Advisory Group Inc., Dedham, Mass. In addition to smartphones, the list of connected devices includes cars, home appliances and industrial machinery, such as machine tools.

Likewise, cloud computing appears to be making big inroads and is being used in manufacturing, among many other industries. The cloud, where companies’ data and software programs are hosted on third-party servers and accessed via the Internet, is changing the way companies large and small manage information technology. It’s touted as a way to rapidly roll out and use new technology, reduce IT capital investments and increase access and mobility for data users.

An article by Michael Lyle of InfinityQS International, Fairfax, Va., states that cloud-based IT is more cost-effective than on-site systems, eliminates the cost of setting up and maintaining servers, and allows automatic upgrades of key software.

The ability to continuously upgrade software will grow in importance because software’s role in metalworking, and machine tools in particular, is expanding, according to Rainer Glatz, president of the electrical automation and software associations in VDMA, the German engineering federation. According to Glatz, software is the central component of Industry 4.0, an initiative by the German government to promote the computerization of traditional industries, such as manufacturing.