Trends
Despite the adverse weather conditions, February has brought with it rejuvenated aspirations for the year ahead. In this blog we take a look at some of the more innovative trends we expect to make waves in the automation industry this year.
Understanding and analysing trends helps CD Automation deliver competitive advantage to its customers. To enable us to do this, we've looked high and low, visited international trade exhibitions, gauged senior expert opinion and researched academic publications.
We kick things off by visiting an industry favourite; the Internet of Things (IoT). This concept has been around for many years. However, the interconnectivity of information systems in modern industry and the ability for machine to machine (M2M) interaction has driven management's desire to extract meaningful information from complex systems.
In 2013, the IoT became a popular topic in the wider automation industry and I can certainly envisage a situation in which the gathering and analysis of big data in automated temperature control makes it relevant to our sub sector.
However, growth of the IoT has been heavily driven by consumer spending. Because enterprise and consumer IT are often precursors to industrial implementation, this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas provided an enlightening roadmap of where we might be heading. The event demonstrated a growing trend towards mobility in the form of wearable devices, ranging from smart watches and fitness monitors to augmented reality glasses.
Although it won't be launched until later this year, Google's Glass gives the user a seamless integration of real life with the online world. Heads up notifications mixed with voice activated pictures and video content overlaid onto real surroundings, offers an insight into the future of augmented reality.
In an industrial context, wearable devices such as Glass present the opportunity to provide immediate diagnostic information as well as allowing engineers to walk through the factory floor and see any fault or alarm events overlaid onto machines in their field of vision. This can further optimise three dimensional rendering of factory planning to increase cost effectiveness of implementation.
Of course, it was only during 2012 and 2013 that most industrial businesses began providing mobile and tablet optimised versions of their software, so don’t expect Glass optimised versions until the technology is mainstream.
The second big trend can be found in clean energy. Vijay Ullal, chief operations officer at Fairchild Semiconductor recently outlined his company’s increased investment into this growing sector. As government legislation, such as subsidies and cash-back schemes, tilt the market in favour of direct investment, corporate customers are increasingly looking for turnkey solutions, which provide high efficiency and better return on investment.
At CD Automation we are already working hard in this segment of the market. Our range of EMI filters for photovoltaic and wind turbine inverters offer customers an innovative and efficiently designed route into inverter based, renewable projects.
Cloud computing
Last but not least, we come to the third big trend for this year; cloud computing. Forbes magazine has touted the expansion of the personal cloud and there has been a gradual shift in industry over the last two years towards putting, even quite intensive, management applications into the cloud.
Companies like Apple and Google are urging customers to use services like iCloud and Google Drive on smartphones, tablets, laptops and TVs. Our photography, office work and shared files are all migrating.
This seismic shift in our computing culture is placing a huge burden on the IT and automation infrastructure that supports this trend. To cope with increased demand, companies like Facebook and Google are experimenting by moving their servers and miles of data centres to colder regions such as under Arctic ice and subsea in the Atlantic Ocean, providing enhanced cooling.
So, that's a roundup of the biggest trends faced by the industry in 2014. We look forward to the challenges and working to innovate in the industry. What issues do you expect to be big in 2014?