The Birth of the Connected Platform

Transcription

1 Jue 2011 ThigWorx Foudatios: The Birth of the Coected Platform Sposored by ThigWorx

2 Cotets Executive Summary 1 The Madate for a Coected Platform 3 Questios Facig Every Busiess 5 The Aatomy of a Coected Applicatio 6 The Lessos of the Coected Era 8 The Aatomy of a Coected Platform 11 A Coected Way of Workig 13

3 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 1 Executive Summary ThigWorx has created the first applicatio platform desiged to meet the eeds of the coected world, a world of smart thigs talkig to people ad to each other, where a explosio of data about the state of the world floods through etworks, where every perso or thig has the potetial to liste ad to react to every other perso or thig. I the coected world, we have smartphoes i our hads, smart appliaces i our homes, smart devices i our offices, ad smart systems i our factories ad warehouses. The coected world has opeed up ew frotiers for collaboratio ad collective itelligece, for process automatio, for operatioal iovatio, ad for squeezig the most out of limited resources. With ThigWorx, a ew kid of applicatio ca be created, oe that coects people, systems, ad itelliget devices i ways ever before possible. Challeges Facig Every Busiess Several developmets poit out the eed for a ew platform that ca cojure value from the data ad itelligece that is sproutig i virtually every area of busiess ad everyday life. First, the rise i smart devices a estimated 1 trillio by 2020 begs several importat questios: What will we do with the itelligece of these devices? How will the data comig from these devices create value? What sort of itelligece is eeded to coordiate these devices? O their ow, smart devices perform oe fuctio, oe step, isolated from the larger cotext of a busiess. If smart devices are used this way, the people usig them i a arrow cotext may get some beefit, but the larger potetial remais utapped. For smart devices to lead to a smarter world, some sort of brai fuctio must be created that uderstads the vast amout of data smart devices are broadcastig ad the orchestrates may devices ito coordiated actio. The coected platform is the foudatio where such brais will reside. Secod, busiess is becomig more complex ad must maage fiacial performace while optimizig electrical power, water, ad carbo, ot just iside oe compay but also across a etire supply chai. Busiesses eed to have all hads o deck helpig to maage this vast complexity. Collaborative approaches to capturig ad usig tribal kowledge are eeded so that resposes ca take place faster ad with more

4 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 2 precisio. Everyoe must be able to explore data ad see what is happeig i the etire system, to record ad broadcast their thoughts, to assemble iformatio ad create aalysis ad automatio to meet their ow eeds, ad to share approaches that work. Just as crowdsourcig has ulocked the power of large groups to lear from each other ad solve problems, so must a ew kid of coected platform allow people i a compay to work together i a cotext of security, compliace, ad data itegrity. Third, operatioal chage has accelerated to the poit that the desig-develop-deploy cycle of traditioal software just ca t keep pace. The pervasive complexity of today ad tomorrow s world will ot be coquered through a top dow desig process ad a semi-aual release cycle. The amout of data ad the pace of chage have overwhelmed the ability of existig processes ad support applicatios. is locked away ad iaccessible. Compaies eed stadardized software for well-kow processes, but this must be supplemeted with software that ca quickly optimize complicated real-time operatig scearios. The world is cotiually chagig ad the platform that we use for moitorig, maagemet, ad automatio must be built for costat adaptatio. Capabilities of ThigWorx The capabilities of ThigWorx were ispired by the explosio of smart thigs ad the flood of data flowig from them ad applyig the lessos of social etworkig, cosumer techology, ad user empowermet to haress a coected world. ThigWorx allows the creatio of idustrial social etworks that allow people ad smart thigs, smart devices, ad smart systems the kid of equipmet arrivig i factories ad operatioal ladscapes i icreasig volumes to sed ad receive messages from each other, effortlessly raisig the level of awareess across the orgaizatio. ThigWorx applicatios are built to match the ease-of-use ad uiversal accessibility of the cosumer world so that the most appropriate device for the task at had whether desktop, tablet, smartphoe, or other device ca be the iterface to the applicatio. The ThigWorx applicatio platform eables developers to compose applicatios quickly, allows advaced users to mash up ew solutios, ad allows casual users to search activities of people ad thigs. Puttig these tools i the hads of users elimiates bottleecks ad drives iovatio by sheddig light o ukow ukows.

5 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 3 ThigWorx chages how data from devices is captured, stored, ad searched. Every data item is tagged i multiple ways so that it ca be retrieved quickly, to meet the eeds of differet types of users ad applicatios. I most applicatios built before the coected era, data was stored i structured ways to aswer predetermied questios. Sice most applicatios were desiged to aswer a sigle questio ad storage was expesive, a limited amout of data was captured. ThigWorx allows data to be collected i great quatities without kowig how it will be used, but it also allows data to be stored ad tagged to meet predetermied uses. Whe a ew use is foud or a ew patter discovered, a search ca locate the data or tags ca be exteded to historical data to support ew uses ad iovatios. As more data ad observatios are collected, ThigWorx applicatios become more valuable, just as social etworks become more valuable whe more people joi them. The Madate for a Coected Applicatio Platform The world is awash i techology. Ayoe suggestig that we eed more techology must be ready to defed that assertio. I most compaies, someoe will reasoably ask, Ca t we use the techology we have already paid for, ad kow how to use, to do the same thig? I short, the aswer is No. The curret geeratio of techology caot hadle the explosio of smart devices, the eed to capture ad leverage the kowledge of the orgaizatio, ad the eed to chage applicatios quickly. The Explosio of Smart Devices Cisco estimates that oe trillio devices will be coected to the Iteret by We already see the thi ed of this wedge with smartphoes, webcams, tablets, ad other geeral-purpose devices. A explosio of special-purpose devices will follow, especially i idustrial settigs. If these devices all trasmit data, how ca we keep track of all these data sources? How ca we track whe ad where data was collected? How will we use these ew sources to create a competitive advatage? How ca we make the data searchable so that users ca fid what they eed o their ow? Traditioal data warehouses are ot up to hadlig this data challege.

6 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 4 Itelliget devices oly exacerbate the problem. To provide value i a coected world, a platform must hadle a spectrum of devices from the completely iert to the highly itelliget. See Figure 1 for a iformal categorizatio. Thigs are basic buildig blocks with varyig degrees of power Iert Thigs: No voice, o ears, o memory, o brai, o idepedece Baby Thigs: Talk ad tell us about themselves Teeager Thigs: Talk, liste, remember, do simple tasks Adult Thigs: Talk, liste, remember, act o their ow Figure 1. The Cotiuum of Itelliget Devices A coected applicatio must supplemet the itelligece of a device ad add ay missig capabilities to address the busiess situatio at had. If a itelliget device ca report its temperature ad ca respod to speed up ad slow dow commads, what happes whe you eed to keep track of the devices upstream ad dowstream? Speedig up a device could mea sedig too much material to the ext device. Should t the device be able to fid out the speed of the ext device i lie before speedig up? What if more tha the temperature eeds to be adjusted? A coected applicatio must be able to surroud ay itelliget device with ew ways to store data ad ew fuctioality to allow its itelligece to be put to work effectively i a specific situatio. Operatig i a Resource-Costraied World The tred toward usig metrics such as Power Usage Effectiveess to track sustaiability i data ceters, which are major cosumers of power, is reachig every domai. Cosumer product compaies are trumpetig efforts to protect the eviromet. Busiess advocates such as Jack Welch, former CEO of Geeral Electric, advise busi-

7 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 5 esses to make the most of gree treds because cosumers wat better evirometal performace, ot oly because of regulatory madates. How will optimizatio of power, water, ad carbo be achieved? Will a ERP-like applicatio emerge to provide a solutio that ca be tailored to every operatig eviromet? Not likely. The oly way to track ad optimize the use of resources is through coected applicatios that accept data from thousads of sources, preset it to a large group of people who work together to make sese of it, ad the take actio to improve performace. While stadard software provides high-level models of iformatio related to sustaiability, sustaiability software will require coected applicatios to address the complexity of real-world operatig eviromets. Busiess Applicatios Are Showig Their Age ad Iflexibility Most compaies were trasformed by the arrival of stadard busiess applicatios like ERP ad CRM. These systems of record itroduced ew forms of automatio, but problems related to total cost of owership ad lack of flexibility became evidet years later. These applicatios are complex ad evolve over years. Cofiguratio is expesive ad time-cosumig. The desig-test-deploy cycle of applicatios prevets them from respodig to rapidly chagig operatioal requiremets. They were ot built to chage at the pace of today s coected world. Retrofittig them to support textig, mobile devices, social etworkig, ad collaboratio rarely creates satisfyig results. Coected applicatios icorporate all these elemets at the platform level. Questios Facig Every Busiess I most idustries, especially coected idustries such as maufacturig, life scieces, oil ad gas, logistics, food, ad power geeratio, smart devices are arrivig at a acceleratig rate. But i order to make use of these devices, compaies must fid aswers to the followig questios: How ca we make use of smart devices ad smart systems? How ca we coordiate smart devices with existig systems ad devices? How ca we use the flood of data from smart devices ad systems? How ca more people help us maage ad optimize our busiess?

8 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 6 How ca we empower people to desig their ow solutios? How ca we maitai agility without sacrificig compliace ad security? How ca we build a operatig eviromet that ca rapidly adapt ad evolve? Compaies that aswer these questios will be the first to fid their way to the pervasive visibility, flexible automatio, ad collective itelligece of the coected world. Packaged applicatio vedors wo t be able to show the way. Iovatio must be created by adaptig the uique processes ad operatig eviromets of each busiess. The Aatomy of a Coected Applicatio ThigWorx is fouded o the premise that solutios for the challeges of the realworld idustries will come from coected applicatios with the followig characteristics: from smart devices ad systems must be recorded ad tagged with as much cotextual iformatio as possible The fuctioality ad memory of smart systems ad devices must meet the eeds of multiple busiess scearios People ad smart devices ad smart systems coect to form idustrial social etworks People ad smart devices add cotet ad cotext to the system, creatig a ever-icreasig repository of collective itelligece People ad smart devices ad smart systems ca subscribe to messages from each other Messages ca cotai structured payloads that reflect the complexity of their iformatio set Search must be exteded beyod keywords to iclude tag-based query ad aalysis capabilities Each group must have a developmet eviromet tailored for its eeds: Developers eed tools to create applicatios ad buildig blocks Subject matter experts eed to mash up solutios Casual busiess users eed to search for relevat iformatio

9 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 7 Security ad compliace policies must be eforced to restrict access to sesitive data ad fuctioality A coected applicatio resembles a etwork with distributed fuctioality i may odes as show i Figure 2. It is ot like a moolithic applicatio where all fuctioality ad data reside i a cetral locatio. That said, each ode might have a special purpose, to moitor may other odes or to provide some special-purpose fuctioality. Coected Applicatio Oe Coected Applicatio Two Additioal Thig A Additioal Fuctioality Activity Streams Tagged Items Perso 1 Additioal Thig B Additioal Fuctioality Idustrial Social Networks Search Perso 2 Additioal Thig C Additioal Fuctioality Perso 3 Figure 2: The Aatomy of a Coected Applicatio A coected applicatio icreases the awareess of every ode i the idustrial social etwork. People ca be proactively otified of activity. Smart devices ad smart systems ca be made aware of what others are doig. A coected applicatio is much more like Facebook or LikedI tha ERP or CRM. A stream of activity is geerated by all the applicatios ad users ca move from a otificatio to a applicatio to take actio or to a search iterface to fid more data.

10 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 8 Users ca adapt coected applicatios themselves. I this way, coected applicatios become a repository ot oly of data but also of tribal kowledge about how to maage a busiess. A coected applicatio is a powerful ew way of servig the eeds of busiesses ad aswerig the questios facig every busiess (listed earlier i this paper). I the ext sectio, we take a step back ad look at the broad effects of coected applicatios. The Lessos of the Coected Era It is importat to uderstad what has bee leared i the past twety years about how to make software work to support a busiess. Each of these lessos had a major impact o how ThigWorx built its platform to meet the eeds of the coected world. The lessos iclude: How big data is chagig the way we ru our busiesses How user-drive iovatio, the practice of puttig the tools to costruct solutios ito the hads of ed users, creates better solutios faster How agile developmet methods, the practice of buildig solutios i small icremets, have evolved to shorte time to beefit ad to spur iovatio How collective itelligece ca be applied i a corporate settig to icrease awareess ad let people participate i capturig kowledge, diagosig problems, ad desigig solutios How the rise of mobility ad cosumerizatio exteds ambiet awareess, icreasig resposiveess ad spurrig iovatio The Challege ad Opportuity of Big Most compaies have igored oe of the most valuable sources of big data: web server logs. It turs out that by lookig through web server logs, compaies ivolved i ecommerce ca get a real-time widow o how cosumers use websites. But web server logs arrive i huge volumes. The records must be sifted to fid the meaigful bits that explai what cosumers are doig.

11 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 9 Now imagie hudreds or thousads of such sources of data. That is the case at compaies with may smart systems ad devices. Eve with the perfect tools for siftig through this data, it is a massive task to uderstad what is importat ad what is ot. To hadle big data, powerful tools for relatig, taggig, searchig, ad uderstadig data must be put ito the hads of as may people as possible. User-Drive Iovatio: Coquerig Sticky Kowledge MIT Professor Eric Vo Hippel has show i his research that puttig the tools to create solutios i the hads of ed-users leads to dramatically higher levels of iovatio. Vo Hippel explais that requiremets for the solutios ed-users eed are locked i their brais. He calls this pheomeo sticky kowledge. Whe users ca costruct their ow solutio, they do t have to commuicate this sticky kowledge to others ad ca experimet util they fid exactly what they are lookig for. Eviromets as diverse as BI dashboards, mashups, ad tradig systems have show the power of direct cotrol by ed-users. The solutios ed-users build become a repository of kowledge about specific tasks. I additio, systems that support user-drive iovatio dramatically wide the populatio of people who ca build solutios. The Evolutio of Agile: Operatig Eviromets Built for Chage Agile developmet methods have become quite popular because they employ a icremetal developmet process that is improved through direct feedback from the ed-users of the system. Agile developmet methods preserve stability i the face of rapid chage. While traditioal applicatios evolve ad are updated i product cycles that last moths or years, coected applicatios are costatly movig forward ad chagig. Ispired by agile methods, it is possible to create systems that ca chage rapidly but also preserve operatioal reliability. The example of Etsy, a cosumer ecommerce site, shows how these priciples ca be put ito practice. Etsy allows people to sell craft items, ad the site takes i more tha $300 millio i reveue each year. The egieerig departmet uses a cotiuous deploymet model to costatly chage ad update the site. Code is deployed o the site more tha 2,400 times per year. While Etsy is a extreme case of rapid chage, it does illustrate a importat patter for coected applicatios: you have to evolve fast if you wat to stay ahead of the competitio.

12 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 10 Collective Itelligece ad the Power of Ambiet Awareess Social etworkig i our persoal lives has show how beig preseted with a costat stream of activity collected from may people i our etwork makes us more aware of what others are doig ad thikig. I a corporate cotext, this idea has bee geeralized to the cocept of a activity stream, which iforms us of much more tha fried requests ad who likes what, but also tells us about busiess activity such as chages i the status of deals, meetigs that occurred, ad the problem at the plat i Ohio. Activity streams expad awareess ad improve commuicatio. Every perso i a social etwork becomes more aware of what is happeig ad ca take more effective actio ad make better decisios. ThigWorx takes this idea oe step further ad adds smart thigs to the etworks. Whe you allow people ad thigs to share ad commet o each other s activities, whe all of the data i the streams is easily searchable, you empower a wide rage of users to discover patters ad add iformatio to the system. The fouders of ThigWorx describe these broader applicatios of social etworkig mechaisms as collective itelligece. Coected applicatios are built to take advatage of the mechaisms that create collective itelligece such as activity streams. Each user of a coected applicatio ca see the importat messages from the thigs ad people that are usig the same applicatios, ad ca commet o them. It is the possible to go from a otificatio ito a applicatio to help uderstad more deeply what is happeig or to search for more iformatio. At first the effect of collective itelligece is a ambiet awareess that helps existig busiess processes ru more efficietly. As time goes o, the amout of data ad commetary icreases to the poit that awareess leads to ew ideas for how to reegieer processes. With coected applicatios that are tradig messages with payloads of iformatio back ad forth, ew forms of automatio become possible. Collective itelligece works because it dramatically expads the umber of participats i a operatioal system. Whe more people joi the actio, results improve. Whe the world becomes more complex, more people must joi the process of observig ad maagig that complexity. Mobile Cosumerizatio The rise of smartphoes ad tablets ad ubiquitous access is trasformig the way people live ad work. With mobile devices expected to represet more tha 50% of

13 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 11 all Iteret access by 2013, coected world applicatios must embrace mobility, ot as a afterthought but as part of their architectural DNA. Whe cosumers fid they ca use their , caledar, ad cotacts from a service like Yahoo! or Google o the web, o their phoe, ad o a ipad, it raises the bar for busiess solutios. Solutios that are ot ready for multi-device flexibility ad do ot make a effort to imitate the ease-of-use i the cosumer world are beggig for trouble. The payoff for mobility ad ease-of-use is a expasio of the ambiet awareess that uderlies collective itelligece. Ay solutio o the drawig board right ow must take ito accout most or all of these lessos. ThigWorx created a Coected Applicatio Platform that takes all of these lessos ito accout. The ext sectio explais how that platform works. The Aatomy of a Coected Platform A coected applicatio platform must work differetly from existig software. To uderstad what a coected applicatio platform is ad how it works, let s review the differeces betwee traditioal ad coected applicatios. Coected applicatios are more like etworks tha black boxes. Ofte we thik of a applicatio as a black box (Figure 3). I such applicatios, data storage, applicatio logic, ad user iterfaces are collected i oe uit ad desiged for a very specific purpose. This architecture was a importat step forward i its day but has led to the rigid stove-pipe/siloed ature of applicatios today. This is ot how coected applicatios work. Traditioal Applicatio User Iterface Applicatio Logic Storage Figure 3. A Traditioal Applicatio Is Like a Large Black Box

14 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 12 A coected applicatio is a collectio of distributed compoets that commuicate with each other. Some compoets are the data ad fuctioality surroudig a smart thig or smart device. Other compoets moitor activity ad otice if somethig importat happes. Still other compoets collect importat evets ad preset them to a user. Ay oe compoet i a coected applicatio may participate i may differet applicatios. Coectios betwee compoets ad applicatios are based o streams of messages so that decisios about which applicatios are coected to which ca be made as ew ideas occur. I traditioal applicatios, most decisios are made at the time of iitial desig, which reduces adaptability (see Figure 4). Ed-User Applicatio A Ed-User Applicatio B Ed-User Applicatio C Activity Streams Search Iterface ThigWorx Coected Applicatio Platform Additioal Thig Shape Thig Shape Thig Shape Additioal Fuctioality Additioal Additioal Fuctioality Additioal Thig A Thig B Thig C Additioal Fuctioality Figure 4. The Distributed Architecture of a Coected Applicatio Search is ever far away i a coected applicatio. Most traditioal applicatios could be improved with better search. The problem is that the way data is stored i traditioal applicatios ad the capabilities of most search tools are ot well matched. Search would be useful but it is hard to make it work. I a coected applicatio, search is always preset. The thigs that are part of the applicatio ad the data it creates are tagged ad recorded multiple ways. Do you wat to see all warig messages from a certai type of device durig a certai time period for devices located withi 100 miles? That is a simple search for a begiig user. I a coected applicatio, search leads to greater isight ad ofte to addig ew capabilities to the applicatio or to the fuctioality or data surroudig a thig.

15 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 13 User iterfaces are decoupled, leadig to greater choice ad adaptability. I traditioal applicatios, user iterfaces are part of the black boxes. You may be able to cofigure them, but it is ot easy to chage them dramatically. I a coected applicatio, compoets such as thigs ad people commuicate i streams of messages. Other compoets moitor data, uderstad it, ad sed their fidigs out i messages. This meas that applicatios ad people decide which streams to liste to ad how to make sese of them. If you add i the fact that these applicatios are much easier to build, it becomes affordable for each perso i a operatioal process to have their ow applicatio. Coected applicatios have a pulse; they come to you ad say hello. Oe of the most valuable cocepts i social etworkig is the ews feed, which has bee geeralized for broader use as the activity stream. Users of coected applicatios get iformed of importat evets by followig activity streams that are relevat to their curret iterests. A Coected Way of Workig Whe a compay starts usig coected applicatios, may thigs chage: The umber of people ivolved i helpig to maage tasks usually grows because the eeded iformatio is easier to assemble ad provide through a applicatio Thigs become repositories of iformatio about specific types of equipmet that may be scattered over may systems. By usig a thig to assemble this distributed iformatio, it becomes more useful The speed of applicatio developmet icreases because the populatio of developers is larger ad the way thigs model activity i a operatioal eviromet meas most applicatios have a ruig start. After buildig a few applicatios, it becomes much easier to build additioal applicatios The umber of applicatios grows, allowig more of the tribal kowledge of maagig a operatig eviromet to be captured i applicatios. Users ca mash up their ow apps, leadig to a explosio i iovatio Applicatios get better the more they are used, as they capture kowledge ad activities from people ad thigs. The desity of the iformatio shadow becomes greater ad the iformatio cotaied withi it becomes more valuable, providig a foudatio for collective itelligece

16 ThigWorx Foudatios The Birth of the Coected Platform 14 The details of what is happeig are ever far away or is the iformatio eeded to diagose problems ad optimize processes. As a result, the speed of work icreases Coected applicatios work because they were built to meet the eeds of today s operatig eviromets ad to icorporate the lessos leared about how to make techology provide the most value. CITO Research CITO Research is a source of ews, aalysis, research, ad kowledge for CIOs, CTOs, ad other IT ad busiess professioals. CITO Research egages i a dialogue with its audiece to capture techology treds that are harvested, aalyzed ad commuicated i a sophisticated way to help practitioers solve busiess problems. This paper was sposored by ThigWorx ad created by CITO Research.