The Power of the Industrial Internet: Turning Data Into Insight and Action

Abstract

Talent & Technology Over the past 200 years, since the days of the Industrial Revolution, we have experienced several waves of innovation, which have had a profound effect on our everyday lives. Today, across the oil and gas industry, we are on the cusp of a new transformative era, with the potential to radically change the way we do business and interact not just with the physical world, but also with the world of analytics. In the latter part of the 18th and early part of the 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution represented the first wave of advancement, with innovation and technology primarily applied to agriculture, manufacturing, and energy production. It delivered a period of unprecedented growth and changed people’s lives significantly. The second wave took place at the end of the 20th century, at a much faster rate—over a period of approximately 50 years—and was characterized by the emergence of the Internet. With fewer than 300 computers connected in 1981, that earliest manifestation is unrecognizable to today’s, where connectivity is almost ubiquitous and the Internet is responsible for providing billions of people with instant access to massive amounts of information, changing the way we shop, socialize, and execute much of our business. Today, we are experiencing a third wave, the emergence of the “industrial Internet,” a place in which the physical and analytical worlds collide. The industrial world is being digitized and reshaped by “big data,” opening up new and unprecedented levels of productivity. Data coupled with expertise- driven knowledge are important to a company’s ability to achieve improved outcomes. Essentially a convergence of machines and intelligent data, the industrial Internet is enabled by advanced computing, data analytics, low-cost sensing, and new levels of connectivity, all permitted by the Internet. It is a deep meshing of the digital world with the world of equipment and machines; one that, by 2020, will see an estimated 50 billion devices connected and communicating, not only with their owners, but also with each other. This revolution holds the potential to bring about a profound and significant transformation of global industry and, in turn, changes to many aspects of daily life, including the way we work. A large proportion of the devices connected to the Internet now are smartphones, tablets, and computers. In the future, almost all technically active devices will be connected to the Internet, limited not just to a range of consumer devices such as TVs or refrigerators, but also including a broad range of industrial equipment, such as gas turbines, wind turbines, and the full range of subsea systems.