GE enters the cloud services market with Predix Cloud-- a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for the real-time capture, storage and analysis of data generated by Internet of Things (IoT) devices within industrial environments.
Aimed primarily at globally regulated industries (such as aviation, healthcare, transportation and utility providers), the Predix Cloud promises to make unforeseen problems and missed opportunities a "complication of the past" through advanced tools such as asset connectivity, machine data support, and industrial-grade security and compliance.
"Predix Cloud will unlock an industrial app economy that delivers more value to machines, fleets and factories-- and enable a thriving developer community to collaborate and rapidly deploy industrial applications in a highly protected environment,” the company claims.
It builds on Industrial Internet, the GE data analytics platform. Launched 2 years ago in partnership with Amazon, Accenture and Pivotal, Industrial Internet is a "cloud agnostic" means for linking smart devices, sensors and analytics. Unlike Industrial Internet Predix Cloud runs on a "highly secure, industrial-strength" GE cloud, but being Cloud Foundry-based it should also play nice with other cloud fabrics if customers require it does so.
GE should start migrating own software and analytics to the Predix Cloud in Q4 2015 before it starts offering the service on a commercial basis from 2016.
