C-Labs’ Factory-Relay software will now be used in industrial automation products from AXOOM and Nebbiolo Technologies, C-Labs announced on Thursday. Factory-Relay software is used to put a user interface between the factory equipment and a smartphone, tablet, or PC, mirroring the HMI (human-machine interface) and allowing users to deploy factory IoT automation more quickly. It is designed to remove one step in integration, making the process of adding IoT automation to an industrial system quicker and simpler.
The deal comes at a time of growth for the industrial Internet of Things market. According to a Cisco survey, more than 7,000 executives polled around the world said that data and physical security were the most significant obstacle to adopting to IoT.
“Industrial IoT has proven its value for factories and industrial infrastructure, but companies need solutions that are secure and easy to deploy; that bridge OT, IT, and mobile environments; and provide rapid application development,” said Greg Gorbach, vice president of the analyst firm ARC Advisory Group.
“Customers told us they needed to adapt and extend IoT deployments without sacrificing security or requiring significant training for either operations technology or information technology (IT) teams,” said Chris Muench, CEO of C-Labs.
Florian Weigmann, managing director at German software company AXOOM, said that the multilayered security and simplified operations offered by C-Labs drew them to the Factory-Relay software. California-based Nebbiolo Technologies also praised the simplification elements. They will use C-Labs software in their Fog Computing System, intended as a layer between production machines and their process control systems in the cloud.
C-Labs is an industrial solutions company based in Washington.
Filed Under: M2M (machine to machine)