The world of Big Data has unlocked new opportunities to optimize and automate processes – increasingly, from data generated at the edge. However this opportunity comes with a unique set of challenges, including processing exponentially more data without exhausting our global energy supplies. Simply put, our demand for compute is unsustainable. Yet, digitization also holds the potential to create new levels of efficiency in our most consumptive sectors and integrate more sustainable technologies into our grids.
This was the focus of the sustainable innovation discussion at yesterday’s HPE Discover CIO Summit, where HPE Chief Sustainability Officer, Christopher Wellise, and ABB Chief Sustainability Officer, Michael Cooke, explored the opportunities for our technologies to enable financially and environmentally viable growth.
As our customers’ industries transform to capture and process more and more data, they are looking for a set of partners that bring more efficient, effective, ready-to-deploy solutions that help them do more with less:
- less energy,
- less equipment,
- less resources.
No matter the maturation of our customers’ IT organization, we’re hearing the same thing: they want to reduce and manage energy consumption more efficiently – whether that’s in the factory floor, a power grid, or the data center.
Together with ABB, we are doing just that: shaping a digital industrial future where everything computes, equipping machines with intelligence to collaborate, allowing plants to flexibly adapt to changing demands, and enabling global supply chains to instantaneously react to incidents.
From the data center to the edge, we deliver greater operational efficiency by accelerating the integration of operational technology (OT)—including robotics, industrial control systems, and IoT devices—with IT: the technology needed to ingest, manage, analyze, share, and store critical machine, operator, system, process, and environmental data.
Optimizing the data center
In the data center, ABB-HPE joint solutions will enable power, cooling, and building systems to automatically adapt to changing IT demands or incidents. Sensors embedded in HPE servers gather key parameters such as temperature and workload, and HPE advanced orchestration sends this data to ABB power management software, which analyzes the data and responds as needed to optimize power usage. Customers gain a real-time view of data center power demand based on workload, directly linked to the cost and source of energy. The goal is to create a data-driven, intelligently automated solution that balances operations with the most cost-efficient power sources in real time to maximize data center power efficiency for our customers.
Combining ABB AbilityTM and HPE OneView, offers a holistic view of IT infrastructure for automation. We aren’t talking about a single pump or asset here – rather sensorizing and activating an entire system to optimize equipment, from coolers to motors and pumps. A simple example: suppose CPU is low; automatic action can be taken to reduce cooling and increase ventilation, which is far less expensive and resource-intensive.
A real-time view of data center operations also opens new ways of consuming IT. Like many, we believe the future of the data center is consumption-based. These models free up capital by allowing customers to pay for only what they need and avoid the need for overprovisioning – which yield sustainability and financial benefits – while eliminating expenses for technology refreshes.
Transforming industrial efficiency
The real-world sustainability benefits of converged OT and IT are already being felt across industries and companies are investing in new solutions that digitize their industrial equipment and integrate it with their broader IT environments.
Organizations can reap the full value of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) by:
- opening new revenue streams,
- improving production efficiencies by an order of magnitude while reducing operational costs,
- lowering energy consumption footprints,
- and improving employee safety.
Launched in November, the HPE Edgeline Converged Edge System solutions speed the deployment and simplify the management of edge applications, enabling customers to act on the vast amounts of data generated by machines, assets and sensors from edge to cloud. Based on an open platform, enterprises can seamlessly integrate a broad ecosystem of applications and operational technology (OT) devices for edge deployments driving efficiency and innovation in industries like manufacturing, energy, and telecommunications.
Manufacturers are constantly looking to improve operational efficiency and reduce cost. The ability to continuously sense, analyze, and act on edge data not only reduces energy consumption but can also help companies take preventive measures to avoid product defects and extend asset life. Imagine, for example, using predictive maintenance to extend the lifetime of machinery; automating disassembly and remanufacturing; or using robotics for efficient material recycling, including safer handling and improved reliability of capturing and sorting valuable metals. HPE’s concept of closed-loop manufacturing can help companies more effectively use data generated throughout the manufacturing process and enable participants across the organization to feed it back into their processes – resulting in better design, efficiency, and reuse.
It’s clear that OT/IT critical to capturing the potential of our data and applying it to drive smarter operations – from the datacenter to the industrial edge. Sustainable digitization is imperative to transform our industries to meet the increasing demands of a growing, consumptive population. With the convergence of OT/IT, autonomy is coming—and it may be just in time.
Watch the video featuring ABB to learn more about our partnership:
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