IoT builds resilience for industry

Following two years of unforeseen disruption, internet of things (IoT) technology is paving the way for post-pandemic resilience across multiple industries. From providing increased security to insulating supply chain protocols, here are the ways businesses are resilient to disruption in 2022.

(Almost) always on

The industrial internet of things (IIoT) is dependent on the proficiency of the data, instruments, and software that keep the supply chain running. Are these increasingly-leveraged applications truly resilient? Can these technologies recover from unexpected crashes quickly, and without losing the data they're relied upon to protect?

When it comes to the connectivity of smart devices the IoT is championed with offering, the answer is a resounding yes.

Zerynth reports that the constant availability of cloud services can be depended on with a 99.99% Service Level Agreement (SLA) certainty. This level of assurance accounts for a potential outage allowance time approximating 8 seconds per day and around 52 minutes per year.

The Zerynth report states that IoT cloud providers AWS and Azure offer a 99.9% SLA on their services, and the math amounts to approximately 9 hours per year of inaccessibility. Regardless of which metric is universally accepted, the fact remains that 2022 finds industries enjoying incredible levels of cloud dependability.

Supply and demand

The resilience of the supply chain is augmented through IoT applications. Sensor devices that track inventory movement between retailers, distributors and customers provide a clear line-of-site into issues like shipping delays.

The utilization of this technology may be applied to goods and services to great effect, but what about the staff that enables these industries to operate? Tools designed to monitor the proficiency of a workforce utilize machine learning (ML) in order to anticipate where staff or skill shortages could affect operations.

Plug-and-play operating systems such as the M-Box (Monitor Box) offer full IoT production monitoring capabilities that are easily installed and universally connectable. Everything from product counts to cycle times can be cataloged into aggregated data clusters that utilize ML technology to anticipate future production times.

Watchful eye

While this data is undoubtedly beneficial to organizations that seek to monitor the productivity of their workforce, a Towards Data Science report notes the potential for the technology to cross business ethics boundaries. Employees constantly produce data via smart connected workstations and traverse heavily-monitored manufacturing floors, all under the watchful eye of surveillance equipment and data collection systems.

The key to maintaining true industry resilience will rely on finding the balance between monitoring the efficiency of employees and protecting their rights. By extension, organizations insulate themselves from ethics violations that could result in litigation.

Perle systems remain at the forefront of increased efficiency assistance tools for business. Our case studies page showcases the variety of industries that have benefitted from Perle industrial switches and console servers. From industrial automation to oil and gas, our industry aiding products ensure resilience is commonplace virtually everywhere you find Perle systems technology.