It's really too bad that the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) includes the word "Internet." For process industry practitioners tasked with keeping industrial processes running safely and securely, the word sometimes conjures images of process-critical systems connected directly to the public cloud—and the cyber nightmares that come with such scenarios.
The process industries, in particular, embarked on their own IIoT journey to realize the power of networked digital systems long before the advent of the consumer and commercial Internet. Today, increasingly capable networked devices and sensors, together with powerful software applications, continue a slow but inexorable transformation of process operations begun decades ago.
Some progressive industrial enterprises already have begun to realize the IIoT's promise of data-driven decision-making to optimize processes and predictive diagnostics. And, more often than not, they rely on a robust, reliable and secure infrastructure of communication technologies developed over the years to meet the specific needs of process automation, notably the HART protocol, Foundation fieldbus and FDI—all of which are now managed on behalf of industry by the FieldComm Group.
To learn more about IIoT, read “A Robust Foundation for the Industrial IoT” from Control.
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