"Internet Protocol" entries

The Industrial IoT isn’t the same as the consumer IoT

We need a better approach to build bridges to the IIoT.

Reading Kipp Bradford’s recent article, The Industrial Internet of Things: The opportunity no one’s talking about, got me thinking about commonly held misconceptions about what the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is — as well as what it’s not.

Misconception 1: The IIoT is the same as the consumer Internet of Things (IoT), except it’s located on a factory floor somewhere.

This misconception is easy to understand, given that both the IIoT and the consumer IoT have that “Internet of Things” term in common. Yes, the IIoT includes devices located in industrial settings: maybe a factory floor, or perhaps as part of a high-speed train system, or inside a hotel or restaurant, or a municipal lighting system, or within the energy grid itself.

But the industrial IoT has far more stringent requirements than the consumer IoT, including the need for no-compromise control, rock-solid security, unfailing reliability even in harsh (extremely hot or cold, dusty, humid, noisy, inconvenient) environments, and the ability to operate with little or no human intervention. And unlike more recently designed consumer-level devices, many of the billion or so industrial devices already operating on existing networks were put in place to withstand the test of time, often measured in decades.

The differences between the IIoT and IoT are not just a matter of slight degree or semantics. If your Fitbit or Nest device fails, it might be inconvenient. But if a train braking system fails, it could be a matter of life and death. Read more…