The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) is an international non-profit organisation formed to accelerate cooperation around the development and widespread adoption of what they dub the "Industrial Internet".
Founded in 2014 with AT&T, Cisco Systems, General Electric, Intel and IBM as the initial members, the IIC coordinates the development and promotion of the Industrial Internet concept, bringing together stakeholders in industry, government and academia in an open-membership organisation.
The "Industrial Internet" refers to the use of machine-to-machine communications and Internet-of-Things technologies in industrial applications, using interconnected machines and devices along with intelligent analytics to improve the performance and efficiency of industries - this focus on industrial applications is distinct from consumer-focused IoT technologies and services, which the IIC is not involved with.
For example, intelligent machines and devices in industrial processes can govern themselves, taking corrective action to avoid unscheduled breakdowns of machinery. Predictive analytics can be used to manage spare parts and prepare for maintenance and equipment failure in advance, minimising downtime.
Data from smart energy systems can be collected and leveraged to increase efficiency and decrease costs, and real-time data from connected systems can be used to increase efficiency in logistics and transport. These concepts are just a few examples of the benefits of Industrial Internet systems which the IIC aims to promote and to help standardise, delivering benefits across many sectors such as energy, manufacturing and transport.
The Industrial Internet Consortium itself is not a standards organisation, however it strongly advocates for open standards in order to ease the wide deployment of Industrial Internet technologies.
The IIC maintains active relationships with standards bodies, technology consortia and other organisations involved in the Industrial Internet, and the IIC's Working Groups help identify the requirements for open interoperability standards, evaluate existing standards, and relate standards to their desired criteria for internet and industrial systems.
With a belief that organisations need to be able to more easily connect and optimise their assets and operations to drive agility in industry, the IIC believes that this need increases in importance as information and communications technology becomes more ubiquitous across all industrial sectors.
With an aim to bring together the organisations and technologies necessary to accelerate the growth of the Industrial Internet by identifying, assembling and promoting best practices – the group members hope to develop technologies and innovations that are safe, secure and interoperable as well as being based on open standards.
Furthermore, the consortium aims to identify desirable requirements for open interoperability standards and to define common architectures to connect smart devices, machines, people and processes, helping to accelerate uptake of Industrial Internet and big data solutions in industry, delivering increased efficiency and business value.
Rather than being a standards development organisation, the consortium was formed to bring together industry players - multinational industrial corporations along with academia and government - to accelerate the development, adoption and widespread use of Industrial Internet technologies, in part by influencing and cooperating with the development of standards by the standards-building organisations.
Specifically, the goals of the IIC are to drive innovation through the creation of new industry use-cases and test beds for real-world applications; to define and develop the reference architectures and frameworks necessary for interoperability; to influence the global standards development process for internet and industrial systems; to facilitate open forums to share and exchange real-world ideas, practices, lessons and insights; and to build confidence around new and innovative approaches to security.
By establishing a formal liaison with the Industrial Internet Consortium, companies and organisations can engage directly with their Working Groups and gain faster access to the development of standards and technologies helping to advance the Industrial Internet across a range of different industries and applications.
The consortium maintains a number of core Working Groups, such as the Technology Working Group, the Security Working Group and the Use Cases Task Group. The Use Cases Task Group identifies the architectural requirements and gaps that are yet to be filled in Industrial Internet applications and user scenarios.
The IIC’s Security Working Group was created to develop a common security framework and a rigorous methodology to assess security in industrial internet systems. This common security framework aims to identify and describe the consequences in security terms of connecting different security domains, such as industrial controls, analytics and cloud.
This focus on security with one of the core Working Groups reflects the high priority the consortium places on collaboratively building a safe, reliable and secure Industrial Internet.
The IIC Technology Working Group expects to ratify an Industrial Internet reference architecture this year, which will define functional areas and the technologies and standards for them, from sensors to data analytics and business applications, with a focus on open architecture. This will be published as a working technical paper, and will continue to be updated as it is applied and explored by consortium members.
IIC membership is open to all stakeholders interested in advancing the adoption of the Industrial Internet, including small and large technology innovators, vertical market leaders, researchers, universities and government organisations. You can learn more about the IIC through their website - http://iiconsortium.org/.
With experience in the entire process of connected product development for the Internet of Things and the Industrial Internet, the LX Group is ideally placed to help bring your existing or new product ideas to life. Getting started is easy – click here to contact us, or telephone 1800 810 124.
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Published by LX Pty Ltd for itself and the LX Group of companies, including LX Design House, LX Solutions and LX Consulting, LX Innovations.
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