Cloud Computing & Open Standards – What’s the Link?
Like any emerging change in technology, cloud computing has had its share of controversy, confusion, being overhyped and then under hyped. Many people (myself included) have an initial reaction of skepticism when first hearing about the cloud, due to the large amount of publicity. But one should remember that all technologies go through a “hype lifecycle”. One must take a deeper look to determine when change is really occurring, and not get stuck in the “trough of disillusionment”, lest one risk missing the ride.
Part of the problem with cloud computing has been inconsistent definitions, with vendors being the main culprit. Does cloud computing mean virtual servers at a remote location providing utility computing over the Internet? Or does it mean a website hosted at a remote location which you access via your browser (such as salesforce.com)? Neither of these concepts is new, and neither is what makes the cloud different. Cloud computing builds on prior concept such as SaaS, SOA, Web 2.0, and utility computing; but addresses their shortcoming and roadblocks.
Why do we need Open Standards in the Cloud?
Cloud computing does incorporate virtualization and in some cases off-premise services hosted over the Internet. However, one of the fundamental aspects of the cloud, for it to truly deliver value in a way that differs from prior concepts such as SaaS and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), is that services hosted in the cloud should be interoperable. This is a point that IBM made in its recently released “Open Cloud Manifesto”, a document that generated a lot of controversy since it was created behind closed doors while purporting to embrace openness. In spite of its secretive origins, the manifesto does a good job of emphasizing the importance of openness and interoperability in the cloud.
Without interoperability, we would have a bunch of self-contained, stovepipe applications, each with their own silo of data. As IBM points out in the manifesto, “it’s important that both data and applications expose standard interfaces… Cloud providers need to support interoperability standards so that organizations can combine any cloud provider’s capabilities into their solutions” (italics mine).
Now let’s look at this in the context of manufacturing. Why are interoperability standards and interfaces important? Because customers are fed up with having a hodgepodge of plant and enterprise software packages that fail to interoperate. This lack of interoperability leads to different departments (such as engineering, operations, maintenance, reliability) having completely different views of the plant, which leads to faulty decision making and inefficiencies.
What is happening with the cloud is that both big and small suppliers are lining up behind the cloud and truly embracing its principles in a way that hasn’t happened before. Where open standards come in to play is ensuring interoperable services and applications, breaking down the infamous “silos” and “islands of automation”.
Some of the key standards involved from a manufacturing perspective are OpenO&M (including MIMOSA, OPC, and B2MML), and ISO 15926. ISO 15926 standardizes as-designed and as-built information from design vendors such as Intergraph and Bentley Systems. OpenO&M standardizes the operations & maintenance information from plant automation, MES, EAM, and ERP vendors. This marriage is helping to provide visibility into what ARC Group calls the “Design-Operate-Maintain” lifecycle of plants.
Will Open Standards really work?
One reason some standards have failed in the past is because large vendors each create competing and overlapping standards, and use them to battle each other. One example of this was the Fieldbus wars, where overlapping standards like Foundation Fieldbus, HART, and Profibus were each backed by different vendors.
Why are we confident this won’t happen again? One of the unique things happening with OpenO&M is that open standards committees are working together instead of against each other. And in addition to evolving the specifications, there are actual vendors that are putting together interoperable applications and services, demonstrating them at tradeshows such as ISA Expo, and evolving into interoperable software products in the marketplace.
Some large vendors that have historically kept at arms length, such as IBM, SAP, and Microsoft, have officially joined MIMOSA (one of the key OpenO&M organizations), and are participating. A number of vendors have been working on an integrated demo showing how the plant design information (coming in through ISO 15926) can be integrated with operations & maintenance information (coming in through OpenO&M), providing unprecedented visibility to decision makers, opening a treasure trove of savings opportunities.
Cloud Architectures
There are several ways that cloud computing can be applied. Cloud computing does not require off-site servers; it depends on what type of cloud architecture is being used. Let’s review the different cloud architectures:
- Public cloud – aka external cloud, resources/services are provided over the Internet by an off-site provider
- Private cloud – aka internal cloud, resources/services are provided locally on a private network
- Hybrid cloud – combination of internal and/or external clouds
Figure 1. Private Cloud
Figure 2. Public Cloud
Figure 
Figure 3 Hybrid Cloud
Some organizations are looking to get started with private clouds, perhaps due to security concerns with off-site data storage that occurs with public clouds. Others are using a hybrid, leveraging some on-premise solutions at the plant or at headquarters, and some off-premise solutions as well.
Plant-to-Business Integration
How will all this impact the elusive plant-to-business integration, long promised but seldom delivered? Most owner/operators in manufacturing and process industries are still plagued by a barrier between their plant and business.
Open standards consortiums such as OpenO&M have been attacking the problem, coming up with standardized protocols and information models, and ensuring compliance among participating suppliers.
Externally hosted (SaaS) business systems add another complication to the problem. SAP recently announced their plans to offer ERP/EAM as a hosted SaaS solution, and IBM is offering a SaaS version of Maximo. Even the big vendors are backing SaaS.
Some owner/operators have selected SaaS hosted solutions for EAM and ERP.
So it will become more common to see externally hosted solutions for business systems.
With externally hosted business systems such as ERP and EAM, will it be even harder to achieve any level of integration?
The marriage of the cloud and open standards plays a key role in solving this problem. And it will be critical to solve, so that SaaS customers aren’t back to the old days of “black box” software packages, limited to the vendor features with no ability to integrate and no real extensibility. These applications were referred to as “stovepipe”, “blackbox”, terms that reflected the fact that they were closed.
Closed systems contradict one of the key tenets of the cloud – openness. Closed business systems would be a step backward for manufacturers that are already leveraging (or have plans to leverage) some form of plant-to-business integration.
Practical Applications in Plant-to-Business
Many forward thinking manufacturers have already taken steps to integrate their plant and business systems. Some practical examples of this include:
- Integrating real-time plant process data with MES systems so that the MES gets feedback about actual quantities produced, and can handle variances
- Integrating real-time plant process data with EAM systems, to enable runtime maintenance (trigger PMs based on actual runtime utilization instead of calendar) and condition based maintenance (detecting equipment degradations and performing maintenance on right equipment at the right time)
- Integrating real-time plant process data with the ERP, so the ERP knows actual quantities produced (for example SAP PP-PI)
These are just a few high level examples, there are numerous applications based on integrating the plant with MES, EAM, and ERP systems. With the increasing adoption of off-premise SaaS solutions, it’s important not to lose out on the benefits of plant-to-business integration.
Optimal Decision Making
Every day decision makers in manufacturing are forced to make decisions without all the relevant information. A malfunction causes a line to drop to 66% of its normal throughput – should the line be halted for maintenance, or continue to operate? What are the tradeoffs involved from an economic perspective, short and long term? These questions simply cannot be answered when all the data is silo’d across different vendors and across corporate firewalls.
Ultimately, having complete information at one’s fingertips to make optimal decisions on a day to day, month to month basis is one of the key goals of the open standards movements.
Cloud computing contains a delivery vehicle for the promise of open standards to be delivered. We are finally getting closer to having interoperable services that can integrate and share data, whether in a private cloud or public cloud; and to customers having freedom of choice in their vendor selection, with the standards compliance ensuring plug-and-play compatibility. Look for major advances in this area in coming years.
References:
Open Cloud Manifesto, IBM
About the Author:
Alex Bates
CTO Mtelligence Corporation
Alex has a decade of experience spanning industrial optimization and enterprise software development. Early in his career Alex applied statistical and machine learning techniques to the diagnostics of human health disorders, publishing several scientific papers on the topic. This work on diagnostics was later applied to industrial diagnostics and condition based monitoring. He joined an industrial optimization company called Inovec (acquired by Invision/GE), where he developed optimization software for the forest products industry.
Following his move to San Diego, Alex helped launch Mtelligence Corporation. His responsibilities at Mtelligence include technical roadmap and strategy. Alex is an active member of the ANSI/ISA SP95 committee (Maintenance Operations Working Group) and serves on the Board of Directors of the MIMOSA/OpenO&M Organization. He is helping define the next generation of intelligent, interoperable manufacturing systems.