The Experton Group’s independent survey of vendors provided two key revelations. The first is that the expectation to see many new IoT platforms being launched in this market segment in recent months proved to be unfounded. On the contrary, market consolidation has happened much faster than anticipated, with more exits than entrants. The second is that a new market segment for Industrie 4.0 platforms that automate production processes is in the process of being established. MES products are often central to self-optimizing production concepts that can process data in real time and deliver greater flexibility. Analytics/Big Data capabilities, cloud-based scalability and the establishment of micro-service structures are the current challenges in this connection.
iTAC Software AG has the capabilities to meet all these challenges, which is why it was named a leader in the category of ‘Industry 4.0 Platforms’ along with Bosch SI and Beckhoff. One of the reasons why the Experton Group chose iTAC as a leading vendor is that it has been a Cloud MES pioneer since 2011. The iTAC.IoT.Suite can also run as a docker container on leading horizontal IoT platforms such as Microsoft Azure, AWS and IBM Bluemix. This makes it possible to use the platforms’ big data analytics services and machine learning functions.
“Technology leader iTAC has proven that cloud-based NRT production control is feasible. What’s more, the new IoT services are all available via docker containers. OPC-UA connection is also already possible today“, explained Arnold Vogt, Senior Advisor at Experton Group AG.
The Experton Group also views iTAC’s current collaboration with the Fraunhofer Institute to develop a Machine Learning-as-a-Service (MLaaS) solution for the iTAC.IoT.Suite as a positive development.
iTAC was also highly ranked alongside Microsoft in the category of ‘Industrial Big Data Analytics’. “iTAC’s MES roots and continuous technological advancements make it one of only a few vendors today with data analytics capabilities extending beyond those of an enhanced MES,“ explained Arnold Vogt.