Business View Magazine | December 2019

31 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019 ACCELERATING THE ADOPTION OF IIoT THROUGH END USER PROGRAMS, THOUGHT LEADERSHIP By Bill Hoffman, President, Industrial Internet Consortium T he Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC™) is an international organization with members from more than 30 countries, including technology vendors (both large and small), academics, government organizations and end-users of IIoT technology. We work to accelerate the adoption of the IIoT by identifying the requirements for technology standards and by defining common architectures and frameworks to connect smart devices, machines, people and processes. The IIC recently launched its IIC Accelerator Program, which encompasses several initiatives for end users of IoT technology who want to discuss challenges with their peers, get advice from IIC experts, or seek guidance to solve complex technical problems. These include Test Drives - proofs of concept that are available for technology end users to employ and adopt in their own environments; IoT Challenges – public contests aimed at solving real problems and advancing the validation of industrial internet applications and solutions; and Testbeds – experimentation platforms for conducting rigorous, transparent and replicable testing of new concepts, new business models and emerging technologies. In addition, the IIC has published six technical reports with input from 61 authors at 42 different companies that now serve as de-facto IIoT industry guidelines on architecture, security, vocabulary, analytics, connectivity and business strategy, as well as numerous white papers on a variety of extremely important topics. One of our most recent white papers, Data Protection Best Practices, covers multiple adjacent and overlapping data protection domains, for example data security, data integrity, data privacy, and data residency. The paper’s authors warn stakeholders involved in cybersecurity, privacy and IIoT trustworthiness that failure to apply appropriate data protection measures can lead to serious consequences such as service disruptions that affect the bottom- line, serious industrial accidents and data leaks that can result in significant losses, heavy regulatory fines, loss of IP. The Data Protection Best Practices White Paper is one of many white papers published by IIC members. To stay up do date on IIC events, resources and publications, click here. To become a member, click here.