Recapping Arraya’s Delaware Valley Manufacturing IoT Summit

Representatives from across the manufacturing vertical gathered at the Sheraton Valley Forge in King of Prussia on Wednesday, 12/2, for the Delaware Valley Manufacturing Internet of Things (IoT) Summit. This event, which was a joint venture of Arraya Solutions, Cisco and MapR, was designed to showcase some of the latest technologies allowing manufacturers to better serve their customers and in the process gain a competitive edge over competitors.

Ryan Benner, Arraya’s Director of Enterprise Infrastructure, kicked off the half-day summit with some brief opening remarks before segueing into a presentation on the crossover between the digital world and manufacturing. In his presentation, Benner covered what it means to be a digital manufacturer, the upshots of making this transition and how companies can go from offline, to the Connected Factory, through the Connected Enterprise and all throughout the supply chain – and how Arraya can help.

“Manufacturers are now technology companies that also happen to manufacture a product,” said Benner. “It’s something you need to embrace. You need to embrace the idea that technology is the engine that’s going to drive your company.”

Benner also laid out the current state of the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry and where insiders expect to be in 2020. Benner presented statistics from Cisco which showed that as of now, nearly 20% of manufacturers felt they fell into the “offline” category. By 2020, that number is expected to drop to about 5%. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, less than 15% of organizations feel they’ve currently extended connectivity through their supply chain. By 2020, that number is expected to skyrocket up to closer to half.

Following Benner’s presentation, Doug Guth, a Solutions Architect for Arraya, took to the stage to discuss Connected Factory technology. His presentation served as an introduction to both Connected Factory tech as well as the way in which it could benefit an organization. He highlighted connected plant Ethernet and wireless technology and what it would take to become a truly connected factory. On top of the value this technology can bring to manufacturers, Guth’s other main take-home message was the need for a strong partnership between the manufacturing side and the IT side. Without this bond, manufacturers will struggle to meet their IoT and connectivity goals.

Of course, no discussion of IoT would be complete without some time spent on addressing the security concerns raised by increased connectivity. This particular focus area was covered in a presentation by Dan Madey, a Consulting Systems Engineer for Cisco. Madey described the threat landscape currently facing those in industrial networking, as well as the security provided by migrating to Cisco IoT and security tech such as ISE and SourceFire. His presentation also touched on what needs to be done in order to design an effective industrial security strategy. One of Madey’s overarching themes was the need for hardened security which didn’t slow down operations.

The day’s presentations concluded with a discussion lead by Steve Murray and Chris Matta of the MapR team on how manufacturers can leverage Hadoop to drive business value. They opened by introducing Hadoop to attendees and the way in which it enables companies to not only store big data, but to bounce questions off that data to provide greater analytical capabilities. Murray and Matta demonstrated the power of Hadoop by way of multiple real world use cases covering companies from various segments of the manufacturing industry.

As Ryan Benner pointed out during his opening remarks: “This technology isn’t just about fixing problems in the plant. It’s capable of fixing issues across the entire enterprise and the supply chain.” The power of the insight provided by this connectivity was echoed throughout the day’s sessions.

Weren’t able to attend? Here’s help

Overall, attendees saw great value in the Delaware Valley Manufacturing IoT Summit. In fact, over 92% of attendees described themselves as being “very satisfied” by the event. In addition, no one scored the overall quality of the presentations with a mark lower than “satisfied.”

Did you miss out on the IoT Summit but would like to learn more? For starters, click here to check out more on where Arraya stands with IoT and what we can help you achieve. Also, if you’d like a copy of any of the presentations featured at our IoT Summit, reach out to us at www.arrayasolutions.com/contact-us/. We can also be contacted directly through our Twitter account, @ArrayaSolutions. There you’ll also find special offers, industry insights and all of our latest blogs, covering topics such as IoT, security, mobility and more.