Moxa provides a full spectrum of products for industrial networking, computing, and automation, and maintains a distribution and service network that reaches customers in more than 70 countries. Its products have connected over 50 million devices worldwide in a wide range of applications, including factory automation, smart rail, smart grid, intelligent transportation, oil & gas, marine, and mining. Here, Robin Duke-Woolley (RDW), CEO of IoT industry analyst firm Beecham Research, interviews Stefan Palm (SP), business development manager – Embedded Computing at Moxa.
RDW: The convergence between operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) has meant a significant change for industrial environments. What is Moxa’s approach to bridge the gap between these two worlds?
SP: Actually, it is a change for the people in the IT environment, too, because both worlds are moving closer together – and OT as well as IT people have to leave their comfort zones as they are being confronted with the reality that has developed outside of their scope.
For both kinds of experts it can be compared with starting to learn a new foreign language. OT people are used to Fieldbus protocols that are often based on serial communication principles. They have developed efficient ways to pass the information gathered by sensors on to the management level, for example via SCADA systems. Yet, they are not very familiar with systems in an enterprise environment that use TCP/IP based protocols to efficiently transfer information over the Internet, store it in datacenters and manage the Big Data in a way that enables them to retrieve information through the visibility of a much bigger database.
This is the expertise and domain of the IT people who are usually unaware how the data from a single sensor finds its way into the enterprise world. As an expert in acquiring data in the field, converting it from one protocol to another and then transferring it securely and reliably, Moxa bridges the gap and makes the data available in a format that IT people are used to and can deal with.
The same happens in the other direction when it comes to giving commands towards devices in the field as a result of complex analyses done in data centers. These commands, of course, also need to be converted into a format OT people can understand and manage.
Moxa´s core business is to build the foundation for successful IIoT and Industry 4.0 implementations by connecting even legacy devices and making the data available and understandable for people in both worlds.
RDW: In the industrial IoT space, what do you see as the main challenges and how should they be addressed?
SP: Industrial IoT (IIoT) is currently facing three major challenges: 1. Connecting devices in the field and making the data available and usable in private and public clouds to be utilised by OT and/or IT systems 2. Making sure the acquired and transferred data is protected and will be available for the intended user only 3. Assuring that the data transfer happens in a deterministic way and in real time to enable full control even in critical situations
To master challenge 1, devices are necessary that can forward the data acquired in the field on sensor level and even translate them in a way that they can be understood by the big number-crunchers up in the cloud – which will then eventually come back with some meaningful actions to optimize the processes monitored by the sensors. The major obstacle is the lack of standards that can be applied to streamline the access methods. Currently, this point is being addressed, and the effort is progressing as we speak. There are promising candidates like MQTT, Restful API or OPC-UA that have the potential and are widely accepted by the industry. However, this is work in progress and we may see more in the future.
