Manufacturing in the Cloud

The global industrial cloud market is in the nascent stage of development, yet as companies increasingly become aware of its growing importance, a gap remains in understanding the implications for their businesses. The focus of this research on the industrial cloud market is to present the analysis from a vendor’s standpoint. The study could be extremely helpful to the current set of market participants who seek to understand what their competitors are doing in this space. The research can also serve as a major point of reference for all other market participants who are not aware of the immense benefits the industrial cloud is creating or for those who are on the verge of making a move in the market. The study aims to ascertain the importance and role of cloud in the manufacturing and process industries as well as to analyze the market forces, trends, challenges, and opportunities from 2016 to 2021.

The cloud models considered in this research include software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Industrial cloud providers include traditional IT vendors who are looking to provide cloud services in the industrial domain as well as the traditional industrial companies who are diversifying to provide cloud services to industrial companies. The race for industrial cloud market dominance between these two sets of participants makes this study a must read.

The research includes a detailed analysis of the industrial cloud products offered by the major participants in the market (i.e., General Electric Co., Siemens AG, Robert Bosch GmbH, IBM, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services, and Hitachi). A comparative study of products is also included to help understand the competitive forces. Factors like the importance of cloud in manufacturing and how are industrial companies adopting the cloud are few other topics included.

Key questions answered in this study:
1.      What is the significance of cloud in manufacturing and why?
2.      How is the competitive landscape shaping up for industrial cloud?
3.      OT or IT: Which technology will win the race to market dominance?
4.      How does one measure ROI for industrial cloud?
5.      What are the roadblocks for cloud adoption in manufacturing?
6.      What is the industry doing to overcome challenges in cloud adoption?
7.      What is the way forward for industrial cloud?