Know when, why and how to apply cloud architectures in your plant and enterprise, keeping in mind that on-site and edge-based servers keep you up and running on a stormy day.
Food Engineering’s January 2018 cover story is a deep dive into IIoT technologies and the potential they have to improve business analytics and maintenance activities, fine-tune processes and extend communications across two or more plant locations in an enterprise for food and beverage processors.
However, IIoT relies on one important concept—and that is the “cloud.” The cloud provides storage space, communications, analytics and much more. But knowing the cloud’s limitations in terms of reliability, security and performance—and what your expectations are—will play a major role in how you design and implement a cloud-based IIoT system. What it may come down to isn’t the quality, reliability or security of cloud-based applications, but the reliability of your own internet connection(s) in and out of your facility—and how you compensate for connectivity losses, either caused by power interruptions, outages or security breaches in your equipment.