Johannesburg, 24 Jan 2017
The original Industrial Revolution in the late eighteenth century changed the world we live in by harnessing the energy of water and steam to power machines that enabled workers to produce goods much more quickly.
The second Industrial Revolution followed with the introduction of mass production lines. By the time information technology began to automate production in the twentieth century, the third Industrial Revolution had arrived, says Pascal Giraud, Senior Director IAAS Foundation and Cloud Platform Oracle EMEA.
Now, the fourth Industrial Revolution is gathering steam thanks to developments in Internet of things (IOT), automation and robotics. These technologies, along with big data and analytics, are key elements in this new industrial revolution, commonly called Industry 4.0.
This is driving developments in a range of sectors. In manufacturing, smart factories with automated maintenance and significant improvements to efficiency are becoming a reality. In the financial services sector, automation is being used to cope with an ever-increasing volume of data, whether for customer service or shifting focus to areas such as security and risk.
No matter what industry you're in, cloud technology is a critical enabler of the next Industrial Revolution, by providing the means for businesses to innovate around these technologies. Central to this is the close integration of compute services (infrastructure as a service) and cloud platforms (platform as a service).
The Oracle report, Cloud: opening up the road to Industry 4.0, revealed that of the 1 200 technology decision-makers surveyed across EMEA in midsize and large companies, 60% said an integrated cloud approach will unlock the potential of disruptive technologies, such as robotics and artificial intelligence.
The compute, storage and networking capabilities provided by compute services form the foundation of this integrated approach. It's where data - the raw material for innovation - resides and can be processed. Importantly, compute services will support workloads from the increasingly diverse ecosystem of devices that Industry 4.0 brings. In the terms of the first Industrial revolution, compute services are the water wheel or steam engine, harnessing the power of the resources available.
However, the true potential of cloud to support the fourth Industrial Revolution can only be realised through the integration of compute services with a cloud platform. By tapping into the power of compute services, cloud platforms support innovative and disruptive applications.
Without the water wheel or steam engine, an engineer wouldn't be able to develop a powered weaving loom. Likewise, without compute services, cloud platforms wouldn't have the power to bring together automation, robotics or IOT to deliver new and innovative applications.
Industrial equipment maker GE is using Oracle Cloud Platform technology to develop a platform that securely ingests and analyses industrial device data to automate and optimise business processes, enabling a more efficient supply chain and providing predictive maintenance. As with all Industry 4.0 projects, a modern ERP system is a key element in providing the management needed for GE to optimise and automate processes across the integrated cloud layers.
Compute services also allow innovative new applications developed on an integrated cloud platform to be scaled, paving the way for them to be truly disruptive. This can be done in an elastic fashion, providing predictable performance in the face of an explosion of interconnected things.
Again, there are echoes with the early days of industry, when mass production lines enabled cottage industries to become global concerns. In the fourth Industrial Revolution we're currently witnessing, the cloud will provide the means for both mid-size and large enterprises to leapfrog rivals through innovation.
The fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us, and like the previous three, it will be driven by the integration of resources and new technology. By integrating critical cloud technologies, businesses will be able to develop new applications and services to prosper in the future - and in some cases, take them to an entirely new level.
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