With the use of enabling technologies, as well as technological improvements within company production systems as key players, we are definitely facing a real transformation of the industrial ecosystem.
As a matter of fact, the evolution of production systems is oriented towards the implementation of the 4.0 paradigm. The Covid-19 pandemic and the incentives to invest in production assets have certainly accelerated this type of project, with realities cabable of implementing it greatly benefiting from it.
In this context, the concept of Industry 4.0 is a real goal for companies, a model to refer to, regardless of the concerned field of work. What is it all essentially about? What are the requirements for achieving this level of business?
What does it mean to be a 4.0 company today?
The expression Industry 4.0 refers to the process of digitization of the organizational mode of production of goods and services, and the integration of plants with 3.0 technologies, that is, those that are already active but not yet interconnected. Such organizations, have better flow management, reduced risk and waste, and have all information available in real time. Therefore, they are referred to by expressions such as smart industry, smart factory, advanced manufacturing, smart or innovative factory, and others.
The ultimate goal of Industry 4.0 processes is to create an environment in which business processes are fully automated, able to exchange data with other systems, monitor themselves and act accordingly, creating added value for the company itself.
The resulting benefits are: improvements in planning, greater process flexibility, and a consequent increase in revenue thanks to the reduced costs. Such an approach can also ensure business continuity, achieved through functional disaster recovery plan.
The Cloud for Industry 4.0 and the Internet of Things
Closely linked to the Industry 4.0 scenario is the essential role of the Internet of Things (IOT). The Internet of Things, in a nutshell, consists in the connection of objects, devices, tools and internet infrastructure. This makes it possible to create automated and interconnected production models.
In this context, the Cloud is becoming the enabling factor for the implementation of Industry 4.0. It is precisely the intrinsic characteristics of the Cloud that make it indispensable: greater flexibility in production, unification of technologies, better connectivity, all combined with objective simplicity of use.
In the process of digitalisation that Industry 4.0 requires, the Cloud can be a driver of a wider transformation in the company.
Choosing and using the Cloud brings considerable improvements and advantages on many fronts.
For any business activity that involves the exchange and storage of information, as well as for executive roles that are in charge of operations, the use of the Cloud allows greater flexibility, enabling all users to move with agility within archives, projects and data.
The use of the Cloud opens up new opportunities for innovation, innovation that couldn't be achieved with traditional organisational systems.
Content management through the cloud: what are the possibilities? What are the doubts?
Choosing Cloud services and accessing the Cloud is only the first step in the path to undertake towards Industry 4.0.
One of the main advantages of choosing cloud-based content management is that cloud-based systems are constantly updated and monitored. This does not only make them secure, but also difficult to compromise and to attack. Compared to traditional tools, Cloud solutions are more effective and at the same time more reliable, since they are able to adapt to changing needs over time.
This ability to evolve and change at the pace of the new challenges that each business has to face is one of the key features of Industry 4.0.
The flexibility of cloud services and the cost of use are also relevant factors in favouring the Cloud over traditional systems.
Often, the reservations that companies have about the Cloud can be traced back to a certain difficulty in controlling the reliability and governance of data, the fear of multi-tenant sharing of infrastructure with multiple customers, the distributed geographic location of data, and, very often, a certain mistrust about the distribution of responsibility between customer and provider regarding data security.
These concerns are understandable, especially considering that we are still in a process of changement. Transitions to more advanced tools can be complicated to encompass, especially during the first steps. What certainly makes the difference is choosing the right Cloud Provider.
In this article we have profiled the main Cloud Providers, describing what they do best and how to choose the right one for each reality.
Generally speaking, if you rely on quality and highly competent cloud providers, you can minimise all these fears.
The Cloud is ultimately the most sensible solution to start the process of transforming Italian firms into Industry 4.0. It is in the interest of all the companies that haven't yet chosen the Cloud to understand this approach.
Incentivizing the as-a-service mode of cloud-based software as a business model has also been intervened by the National Industry 4.0 Plan, the first brick on which the Italian Recovery Fund is based.
As the website of the Ministry of Economic Development reports, "The investment consists of about 24 billion euros for a measure that becomes structural and sees the enhancement of all deduction rates and an important advance in the timing of use. The new National Transition 4.0 Plan has two key objectives:
- Stimulating private investment;
- Give stability and certainty to businesses with measures that take effect from November 2020 to June 2023."
Small and medium-sized Italian companies can take advantage of significant tax breaks for technological innovation activities aimed at creating new or substantially improved production processes. Never before has thus the choice of the Cloud been considered such a winning option against the entire IT solution.
A step towards Industry 4.0, a step towards the future.
