Application consolidation can be accomplished using middleware, which acts as a bridge between different systems, or using a single, integrated software platform that combines the functionality of multiple applications. This can be done across different departments, such as production, logistics, maintenance, quality, HR, accounting, and so on.
The goal of application consolidation in Industry 4.0 is to eliminate data silos and improve communication between different systems, leading to increased automation, better decision making, and greater overall operational efficiency.
For successful consolidation, proper planning, mapping, and integration steps must be followed to ensure the continuity of the business and not disrupt any operations.
Industrial machines have traditionally used separate, proprietary digital systems that are both physically and logically isolated from one another. These systems communicate through digital links, which also are often proprietary. This leads to high maintenance costs, increased complexity, and difficulty in scaling to accommodate growth. Consolidating workloads onto fewer platforms can address these issues by reducing costs, increasing operational efficiencies, and enabling agility. This is achieved through the elimination of dedicated, costly hardware components, standardization of platforms, simpler overall architecture, and the ability to upgrade functions through software rather than hardware. Advances in technology, such as multicore CPUs, real-time operating systems, and virtualization, have also made it possible to have an evolving, modernized solution stack for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
By consolidating workloads onto a single platform, equipment developers can improve the responsiveness of virtualized systems and enable performance solutions. This creates a credible path to streamlined operations, improved productivity, and reduced cost and complexity. Additionally, consolidation can help to prevent vendor lock-in around proprietary hardware, increase the range of hardware choices, and reduce total cost of ownership (TCO).
In summary, a consolidated approach to industrial operations can help to reduce costs, increase operational efficiencies, and enable agility by eliminating dedicated, costly hardware components. This standardizes platforms, simplifies the overall architecture, and simplifies upgrading functions through software rather than hardware. Advances in technology such as virtualization, multicore CPUs, and real-time operating systems have made it possible to have an evolving, modernized solution stack for the IIoT. Consolidating workloads onto a single platform can improve the responsiveness of virtualized systems and enable performance solutions, leading to streamlined operations, improved productivity, and reduced cost and complexity.
A workload consolidation stack boosts the responsiveness of virtualized systems and enables performance solutions. Equipment developers can now consolidate deterministic and nondeterministic applications onto a single board. This is detailed in the following table
Application workloads | Virtual PLCs - Analytics - HMI - Legacy Apps (Historian, SCADA) | |
— | Industrial platform offerings | Litmus Automation, Software AG, Telit deviceWISE, Cognex Vision Pro, Deep Learning Studio, Cognex runtime, XMPro, Claroty, Hitachi Lumada |
Infrastructure | Orchestration layer | VMware vSphere, Cloud Foundation, OpenStack, Docker, Kubernetes, Apache Mesos |
OS, Virtualization | VMware ESXi, NSX, KVM, Docker, Azure Stack, AWS Greengrass | |
Hardware | Solution Accelerators | Sensors, Actuators, Edge Gateway, Intelligent Edge Nodes. |
Silicon | VxRail, Dell PowerEdge with Intel processors |