Fairfield-based GE said it is entering the cloud services market with Predix Cloud, billed as “the world”™s first and only cloud solution designed specifically for industrial data and analytics.”
Predix Cloud will drive the next phase of growth for the industrial Internet and enable developers to rapidly create, deploy and manage applications and services for industry, GE said in a statement. A pay-as-you-go system that uses it could be available commercially next year.
GE”™s ledgers featured $4 billion in software revenues in 2014 and the company projects software revenues of $6 billion this year. It said the Predix Cloud ”“ a “platform as a service” or PaaS) is a continued move in that direction. It will, the company said, “capture and analyze the unique volume, velocity and variety of machine data within a highly secure, industrial-strength cloud environment.” The announcement was made from the company”™s New York offices.
“Cloud computing has enabled incredible innovation across the consumer world,” said Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE. “With Predix Cloud, GE is providing a new level of service and results across the industrial world. A more digital hospital means better, faster health care. A more digital manufacturing plant means more products are made faster. A more digital oil company means better asset management and more productivity at every well. We look forward to partnering with our customers to develop customized solutions that will help transform their business.”
Predix Cloud will enable operators to use machine data faster and more efficiently, saving billions of dollars annually, GE said. In conjunction with other technologies, GE expects Predix to lead to advanced tools like asset connectivity, machine data support and industrial-grade security and compliance.
The system is already a hit in the neighborhood.
“Like GE, Pitney Bowes is in the midst of its own physical and digital transformation,” said Roger Pilc, chief innovation officer at Stamford-based Pitney Bowes, in a statement. “With our APM apps running on Predix Cloud, we’re able to extract and analyze data from our assets faster than ever, and use that insight to drive real business outcomes for Pitney Bowes and its clients, including lower operational costs, greater productivity and output and higher service levels.”
GE said the industrial Internet is generating data twice as quickly as any other sector and its success depends on what the company termed “a collaborative ecosystem of partners.”
Predix Cloud is purpose-built from the ground up, GE said, but it will also run on other cloud fabrics if required by a customer.
GE businesses will begin migrating their software and analytics to the Predix Cloud in the fourth quarter of this year, and the service will be commercially available to customers and other industrial businesses for managing data and applications on Predix Cloud in 2016.
