Integrating IoT applications to make smart factories more efficient

This strategic alliance will start with smart factory applications and expand to other vertical application markets such as transportation, healthcare and smart logistics in the future, providing impressively integrated industrial cloud platform services.

Gartner, the international research and consulting firm, predicts that the number of endpoints in the global IoT market will reach 5.8bn in 2020, a 21% increase from 2019. The continuous growth of connected devices is accompanied by problems in device integration and management. Accelerating the implementation of AIoT applications and maximising the benefits will require the critical support of industrial cloud platform services.

Advantech has actively promoted the development of the WISE-PaaS industrial IoT ecosystem in recent years. It provides flexible cloud-native platform environment with Kubernetes and microservices architecture, and continues to improve the platform's product diversity and integration capabilities through an industry co-creation model. 

This time, Advantech worked with Apacer to develop a version of the WISE-PaaS / DeviceOn device management service that includes a plugin known as the Double-barrelled Solution: Cloud Edition. Providing data collection and visualisation functions, it is equipped with a user-friendly dashboard. It features real-time monitoring of SSD health statistics, such as: remaining life span, temperature, and number of unexpected power outages. 

Its applications are not restricted by specific cloud environments, and it works on public cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google. It also makes building high-performance IoT systems in private cloud farms easier than ever.

This collaboration is the first developed to meet the needs of smart factories. SSD or system damage caused by unstable or abnormal power supply can be unfortunately common to factories, and will slow down the production line. The WISE-PaaS / DeviceOn IoT device management platform with DBS Cloud Edition provides real-time monitoring of SSDs 24/7, allowing for the quick detection of unexpected power outages. 

Engineers can observe the network from inside the smart factory war room, or through communication software such as LINE, WeChat, or e-mail and SMS when out of office. This allows support teams to react quickly when abnormalities occur, which can greatly reduce labour or system maintenance costs.

Cindy Huang, the Senior Director of Apacer’s Sales and Marketing Centre, has said that in the future Apacer will maintain a close technology development partnership with Advantech. This will be based on deep industrial storage experience and will allow the technology to develop in ways that meet the needs of different vertical application markets, such as transportation, healthcare and smart logistics. 

The goal is develop highly customised solutions, expand and deepen AIoT applications from the edge to the cloud, enhance the added value of both products, and achieve mutual progress and mutual benefit.