Schneider Electric connects the dots
01 July 2017
Schneider Electric has introduced EcoStruxure for Industry, a technology platform that brings together energy, automation, and software to make industry simpler and more profitable.
It is designed to bring together industry’s broadest portfolio in one architecture to deliver end-to-end operational efficiency with more dynamic control for better business results, says a spokesman for the global specialist in energy management and automation.
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT)-enabled, open and interoperable system architecture for plants and machines leverages the company’s next-generation System Platform 2017. Powered by Wonderware, System Platform is today running in more than 100,000 sites worldwide and includes an ecosystem of 4,000 system integrators and implementation partners and 160,000 developers.
The platform provides new capabilities for building new and/or customised applications to optimise industrial processes and assets and to leverage applications developed by third-party software partners and developers as well as Schneider Electric.
With an open development environment and an interoperable interface, users can gain wider visibility into industrial operations to deliver enhanced business value around safety, reliability, efficiency, sustainability and connectivity, the spokesman adds.
According to the spokesman, EcoStruxure for Industry is the result of a multi-billion-dollar investment in research and development (R&D) and acquisitions over the past three years. The architecture helps its customers unlock the potential of digitisation and IIoT to accelerate open, standards-based development and offer industrial customers a more flexible alternative to today’s model, where multiple and disparate systems within a process often require complex and significant engineering to leverage the IIoT opportunity.
EcoStruxure for Industry enables industry customers to make the most of new opportunities created by digitisation, and provides an integrated framework for industrial customers to tackle the increasing complexity of industrial operations, to optimise assets and to increase the speed of adapting to changing business conditions.
“EcoStruxure for Industry is the next evolution in our long track record of delivering new and increasing value to our customers and transforming the industrial world with technology,” says Peter Herweck, executive committee member and executive vice-president, Industry Business, Schneider Electric.
“We have always focused on the efficiency of industrial operations through open and interoperable technology and hardware agnostic software. Industrial users can now take advantage of these new technologies and smartly digitise their businesses for increased end-to -end operational efficiency leading to increased profitability.”
Also with the new platform, Schneider sees a specific opportunity to address the challenges unique to hybrid and continuous customers. In the past, data from continuous processes were difficult to extract, integrate and analyse, says the spokesman. “But with EcoStruxure for Industry, Schneider can connect edge and cloud computing to allow data analytics to drive smarter processes in continuous assets and facilities. The company has leveraged its strength in this space to work closely with hybrid process operators. Customers in process and hybrid processes enjoy unmatched end-to-end operational efficiency with Schneider Electric’s IIoT-enabled, future-proof solutions that foster open innovation and enable more dynamic control for better business results.”
The announcement of EcoStruxure for Industry came as Schneider announced a major advancement in its strategic collaboration with Microsoft that significantly enhances the value the companies can offer businesses and organisations across multiple industries.
Customers can now gain access to multiple cloud-based applications from Schneider’s EcoStruxure architecture that utilise the full capabilities of the Azure cloud platform, as well as next-generation capabilities like mixed reality to bring new levels of decision making capabilities, productivity and efficiency.
EcoStruxure has been deployed in over 450,000 installations, with the support of 9,000 system integrators, connecting over one billion devices.
