Wind River Blog Network

A Practical Approach to the Internet of Things

The market opportunities around the Internet of Things (IoT) are substantial for Intel,  McAfee, Wind River, along with their ecosystem and the industry at large. But in a practical sense, how should businesses approach IoT? How can they start optimizing their processes and how do they ensure security? I recently caught up with a couple of experts to find out: Adam Burns, Director of Strategic Planning and Business Development of Intelligent Solutions at Intel, and Santhosh Nair, General Manager, Intelligent Systems Group at Wind River. Check out their great insights below, along with a video of Adam discussing the opportunities and a very cool IoT Infographic from Wind River. Let me know how you’re approaching IoT. – Valerie Scarsellato, aka @Intel_Chick, Marketing Specialist, ISG

Val: So, first things first, how should businesses approach IoT?

Adam Burns: I think the first thing really for businesses to think about is the top business problem they want to solve. What are they going to do to get meaning out of their data and what business problem is it solving for them? Given that, they should ask what systems they need to connect and instrument or what new capabilities to put in place to optimize or even transform their business.

 

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The Future of the RTOS is Driving the Internet of Things

By Bill Graham

Real-time operating systems (RTOS) are having to become increasingly sophisticated – they must satisfy performance demands, offer hard real-time response and handle memory constraints, but increasingly they also need to deliver capabilities demanded by the new, highly connected, security conscious, remotely managed world of machine to machine (M2M) networks and the Internet of Things (IoT).

Intelligent devices and systems make up IoT, and the majority of the billions of these “things” that make up the connected world are embedded systems, many of which are running an RTOS. It is critical that these embedded systems are connected, scalable, secure, safe and reliable.

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A Whole New 'Internet of Things' World

By Jens Wiegand

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming not only businesses, but also our lives. The ability of intelligent devices to perceive and respond to the environment around them makes them incredibly valuable for complex decision-making in a broad range of industries. The growth potential is explosive: billions of units are generating more than $1 trillion in revenue today, and according to market analysts, the market for intelligent systems will reach nearly four billion units by 2015, representing more than $2 trillion in revenue. And many experts predict that there will be anywhere from 20 to 50 billion connected devices by 2020. In addition, the evolution of Machine-to-Machine (M2M) concepts into IoT concepts is greatly increasing and growing the market opportunity into billions of connected devices at work in a myriad of applications.

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Analyze this…Accelerate that…

By Steve Konish

In just three short months, the engineering team at Wind River has added new, amazing capabilities to the Wind River Intelligent Network Platform.  These enhancements to the platform allow applications to go even deeper and faster than ever before.    

When we first launched the platform, it included two data plane engines for packet acceleration and pattern matching.  The two engines together created an incredible software-enabled solution to provide high-performance deep packet inspection (DPI) for network applications.  We’ve now added a third data plane engine, the Flow Analysis Engine (FAE), which allows applications to incorporate even greater network intelligence.  The Flow Analysis Engine offers complete visibility into network traffic in real time, including flow classification, protocol and application identification, and metadata extraction.

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Industrial Automation and the Cloud

By Alexander Damisch

We’re hearing so much about the cloud lately – and I get asked often what cloud computing means in the context of industrial automation and about the benefits delivered, so I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my thoughts on the cloud as it pertains to industrial automation.  It's a topic I recently covered in a Q&A session for the Intel Embedded Community.

As embedded devices are increasingly connected to the enterprise, arguably the most cost-effective way to implement these systems is via cloud architecture. Within industrial automation, clear targets for a cloud architecture are typical IT components like manufacturing execution systems (MES) and production planning systems (PPS).  There is no need for discrete servers in industrial automation environments that perform functions for only a few machines or manufacturing processes, when they can be performed as cloud services, and thus operated more efficiently.

In industrial automation, the shift to cloud computing is causing a disruption in the embedded space by changing key paradigms regarding data and the location of intelligence.  Specifically, the cloud is affecting the architecture of IT structures (moving from a fixed client server architecture, to a distributed architecture with local and global intelligence), and it is also impacting machine-to-machine (M2M) communication in the embedded cloud. 

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An M2M Step in the Right Direction

By Brian Vezza

Today is an exciting day for companies looking to implement M2M-based devices and services, as well as for Wind River.  We have announced a collaboration with Digi International to deliver a new family of Digi-branded machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions that will enable us to significantly expand our M2M footprint.  Digi M2M Solution Builder kit will be based on Wind River software, Intel architecture and the iDigi Device Cloud.  Digi is a recognized leader in the M2M space and we are extremely pleased to be working with them.

I’ve written in past blog posts about “do-it-yourself” (DIY) M2M, the complexity involved, and hinted about a “better way.”  Today’s announcement is a big step in that direction.  Together, Digi, Wind River, and Intel are making it much easier for companies to cost effectively develop and deploy M2M-based (or “intelligent connected embedded”) solutions. 

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