Jim Pinto, over at Automation World, recently wrote an article about some innovative new ideas for manufacturing: Cloud computing.

Use of “the cloud” is a transformative approach that provides more than just the conventional data center model. It fundamentally changes how masses of data can be stored for interaction. It offers services on demand at the infrastructure, platform and software levels. Big data, the cloud and analytics combine to offer breakthrough productivity solutions.

According to Pinto’s article, cloud computing can help companies retrieve information from their data centers, which are repositories for important information about the manufacturing process.

David Greenfield wrote, “Databases are the refrigerators of the industrial world.” They store information that is important, but only some of the data is used. Without a way to utilize accumulated data, it becomes outdated and useless. The problem is that it is not truly exploited. The cloud is the missing link.

The cloud pushes away from fixed client-server architectures to a distributed architecture with local and global intelligence. In industrial applications, clear targets are manufacturing execution and production planning systems. There is minimal need for discrete servers that perform functions for only a few manufacturing processes when those can be operated more effectively as cloud services.

The introduction of cloud computing to the manufacturing process could be an important part of helping to revive the manufacturing industry in the U.S.

Read the entire article here: http://www.automationworld.com/operations/industrial-automation-and-cloud

Eagle Technologies Group is an industry leader in the design and installation of factory automation systems worldwide.