4 Cloud Computing and Condition Monitoring
Utility companies have been exploring more advanced architectures for real-time
performance management such as data sources going via a WAN (wide area
network) to the database system and then a telemetry portal allowing access on
demand, e.g. through a web browser. Future operational applications will allow
data to be processed locally or remotely on the cloud to provide exception alert
generation or other information involving more than one signal using peer-to-peer
technologies. Water utilities have been slow to utilise cloud hosting and services
due to perceived concerns about security. Security should not be a reason to not
adopt cloud-based solutions – if the correct platforms are being leveraged.
Placing workloads in the cloud does not require a security trade-off, with enterprises
actually benefitting now from the security built into the cloud, often resulting
in fewer security incidents than when using traditional data centres.
By 2020, at least a third of all data will pass through the cloud. Cloud
technology can provide a catalyst for innovation in business and a transformation
of traditional ways of operating. Users can run services on data over the cloud,
moving processor-intensive operations away from the desktop into disparate remote
locations. A benefit of cloud hosting is ‘time to value’. By having infrastructure
available on demand, new innovations can be developed, tested and launched much
faster than in comparison to deploying traditional IT infrastructure. It is also easier
to cope with spikes in demand or unplanned growth. Further, with cloud-hosted
desktops, lost or compromised hardware no longer poses the same security threat, as
data is not on the device. This extra layer of protection ensures that critical data
is only stored inside the data centre (where it is more easily managed, protected
and recovered). Cloud native applications are designed to be self-healing, able to
seamlessly adapt to loss of infrastructure components with no human intervention
required.
Cloud computing offers an opportunity to make the results of condition
monitoring readily available to a range of stakeholders responsible for the
maintenance of an asset. Data from sensors distributed across one or more assets
at one or more sites are uploaded to the cloud compute resource for continual
analysis. Users can then run services on data over the cloud, using the computational
and data processing power of grids and moving processor-intensive operations
away from the desktop into disparate remote locations. A shared environment
allows engineers to access data, tools and analysis in real time and to collaborate
on diagnostic decisions relating to the condition of a remote monitored asset.
5 Digitalisation
The ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ and ‘The Second Machine Age’ are used
to describe current efforts to digitise sectors, from government to healthcare
to education to manufacturing to business services. Digitisation is transforming
12
S. R. Mounce
Utility companies have been exploring more advanced architectures for real-time
performance management such as data sources going via a WAN (wide area
network) to the database system and then a telemetry portal allowing access on
demand, e.g. through a web browser. Future operational applications will allow
data to be processed locally or remotely on the cloud to provide exception alert
generation or other information involving more than one signal using peer-to-peer
technologies. Water utilities have been slow to utilise cloud hosting and services
due to perceived concerns about security. Security should not be a reason to not
adopt cloud-based solutions – if the correct platforms are being leveraged.
Placing workloads in the cloud does not require a security trade-off, with enterprises
actually benefitting now from the security built into the cloud, often resulting
in fewer security incidents than when using traditional data centres.
By 2020, at least a third of all data will pass through the cloud. Cloud
technology can provide a catalyst for innovation in business and a transformation
of traditional ways of operating. Users can run services on data over the cloud,
moving processor-intensive operations away from the desktop into disparate remote
locations. A benefit of cloud hosting is ‘time to value’. By having infrastructure
available on demand, new innovations can be developed, tested and launched much
faster than in comparison to deploying traditional IT infrastructure. It is also easier
to cope with spikes in demand or unplanned growth. Further, with cloud-hosted
desktops, lost or compromised hardware no longer poses the same security threat, as
data is not on the device. This extra layer of protection ensures that critical data
is only stored inside the data centre (where it is more easily managed, protected
and recovered). Cloud native applications are designed to be self-healing, able to
seamlessly adapt to loss of infrastructure components with no human intervention
required.
Cloud computing offers an opportunity to make the results of condition
monitoring readily available to a range of stakeholders responsible for the
maintenance of an asset. Data from sensors distributed across one or more assets
at one or more sites are uploaded to the cloud compute resource for continual
analysis. Users can then run services on data over the cloud, using the computational
and data processing power of grids and moving processor-intensive operations
away from the desktop into disparate remote locations. A shared environment
allows engineers to access data, tools and analysis in real time and to collaborate
on diagnostic decisions relating to the condition of a remote monitored asset.
5 Digitalisation
The ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ and ‘The Second Machine Age’ are used
to describe current efforts to digitise sectors, from government to healthcare
to education to manufacturing to business services. Digitisation is transforming
12
S. R. Mounce