FEATURE Industry 4.0
The eff ect of service buses
M
arket analysis fi rm IDC reports that 60% of business executives believe the Internet of Things (IoT) will
play a critical role in their digital strategy – with big data and analytics among the top technologies already implemented to support this. However, the communication layer of yesterday has evolved to become even more intelligent. Therefore, industry now needs to add intelligent logic between data endpoints to enable IoT applications.
Architectural development The core concept of the enterprise service bus (ESB) architecture is that it enables easy integration of multiple applications by putting a communication bus between them. This is crucial in increasing organisational agility by reducing time to market, making it one of the key reasons that companies implement an ESB as the backbone of their IT infrastructure. This is down to an ESB architecture providing a simple, well-defi ned, “pluggable” system that is also highly scaleable. From the ESB followed the need of an event-driven architecture (EDA) to further leverage insights. This meant integration of large enterprise systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM). ESB is regarded as the most promising strategy for integrating business applications across distributed and diverse frameworks and platforms today. Using ESB as a middleware layer creates a superset of both service-orientated architecture (SOA) and EDA. As a result, ESB provides support for transforming messages, live streaming data, smart routing and protocol transformation.
Service bus layers The promise of Industry 4.0 sets new expectations for the traditional service bus architecture. This means the service bus now needs more functionality than ever before. An intelligent integration layer
36 February 2023 | Automation
The promises of the Fourth Industrial Revolution are significant, but there are several traps that companies need to avoid in order secure the long- term outcome of their digitalisation projects. The solution is a flexible, future-proofed data architecture, writes Martin Thunman, CEO and Co- Founder of edge analytics company Crosser
is necessary to not only move messages between endpoints, but run real-time applications and workfl ows with full data analytics capabilities included. In eff ect, the service bus of tomorrow needs to be adopted in all three major communication layers: the traditional ESB, a Cloud-based service bus and the manufacturing service bus (MSB). A Cloud-based service bus is built for messaging-as-a-service and is typically used for integrating microservices and cloud applications. On the other hand, the MSB describes the communication and abstraction layer on the factory fl oor – ideal for integrating machines, sensors, systems and services. MSB can be compared to an intelligent edge layer that provides advanced analytics, machine learning, common data models and other necessary features to provide data to the rest of the network.
Smarter future
Industry 4.0 is igniting change across industry, both technically and organisationally, resulting in new requirements on all data layers. Firstly, connected machines require data in milliseconds, driving the need for real- time, event-driven communication. Secondly, acting reactively is moving towards being more predictive, creating
a need for machine learning abilities within both the MSB and the ESB layers. Lastly, a common data model or a unifi ed namespace is also required, to enable data comparison and usage of all asset data. Crosser’s edge platform is purpose built to meet the needs of data-driven facilities, by off ering Cloud-based innovation, management and orchestration of all Industry 4.0 applications. Its unique hybrid-fi rst ability is the only currently available solution that runs in the Cloud, on-premise and at the edge, with the same software. Crosser covers all three integration layers with the same platform and supports real-time integrations for machine-to-machine communication, reducing silo complexity and supporting simpler digitalisation. As manufacturers continue to digitalise, it’s vital they have access to architecture that can handle their demands. Service buses provide crucial layers of communication for streamlined operations. Investing in an intelligent architecture that provides functionality across all layers of an enterprise will be a crucial step in taking data-driven ambitions into reality.
CONTACT:
Crosser
www.crosser.io
automationmagazine.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50
