Last week, Claroty announced it had raised $100 million in strategic growth financing. Building on $635 million in previously-raised funding, Claroty will use this new round‑led by investments from Delta‑v Capital, SE Ventures, and Rockwell Automation, among others‑to scale the company’s solution offerings, expand in emerging regions, develop core and adjacent technologies, and strengthen its partnership ecosystem. Learn more
In recent years, growth within the market for Industrial IoT Platforms has been driven in large part by the increasing availability of affordable processors, sensors, and other hardware components. This, in turn, has lowered IIoT adoption barriers for small to midsize industrial organizations. Initiatives driven by economic‑ and labor‑related factors have contributed to a growing interest in automating various operational processes‑such as those for quality assurance and remote monitoring‑further fueling market growth. Learn more
Honeywell (NASDAQ: HON) welcomed more than 200 customers, partners, industry analysts, and media members to this year’s Honeywell Connect conference, a software‑ and digital transformation‑focused event held last week in Dallas, Texas. The event featured a wide range of executive presentations, customer success stories, roundtable discussions, expert‑led breakout sessions, and technology demonstrations in which Honeywell Connected Enterprise (HCE) emphasized its identity as a software company by highlighting its quickly‑maturing capabilities in the areas of industrial cybersecurity, industrial IoT, and sustainability. Learn more
Emerson (NYSE: EMR) announced last week that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire NI (NASDAQ: NATI) for approximately $8.2 billion, reportedly outbidding Fortive and Keysight Technologies, among others. Emerson expects the acqusition to close during the first half of its 2024 fiscal year, which begins in October 2023. Learn more
The global market for data acquisition (DAQ) solutions‑technologies used to convert physically or electrically measured signals such as temperature or pressure into digital output suitable for computer processing‑will continue to expand as business leaders worldwide increasingly emphasize the importance of data‑driven decision making. Learn more
Claroty made a pair of significant announcements on Wednesday, sharing news of a new $400 million round of Series E funding, while also disclosing an agreement to acquire Medigate, an IoT security company serving the healthcare industry. This round of funding—which brought Claroty’s total to $635 million—was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, Schneider Electric, and SoftBank, among others; financial terms of the Medigate acquisition were not disclosed. Learn more
Colonial Pipeline, which operates the largest fuel pipeline in the country, shut down its operations on Friday following a ransomware attack. The attack ― which the FBI has attributed to a Russian criminal group known as DarkSide. Learn more
AMETEK announced on Monday that it had acquired Magnetrol International and two other companies―Crank Software and EGS Automation―for a total of approximately $270 million. Both Magnetrol and Crank will join AMETEK’s Electronic Instruments Group, while EGS will become part of the company’s Electromechanical Group. Learn more
Industry 4.0 makes it possible for industrial organizations to dramatically increase profitability by realizing unprecedented levels of production efficiency and flexibility, supply chain control, and worker safety. Learn more
Following months of speculation, Microsoft, announced on Monday its acquisition of CyberX, a cybersecurity startup that provides a continuous monitoring and vulnerability management platform built for OT networks. Terms of the deal were not officially disclosed, though several media outlets, including TechCrunch, reported the acquisition will cost Microsoft approximately $165 million. Learn more
The global economic turbulence and uncertainty incited by the coronavirus pandemic has affected businesses of all shapes and sizes. In the manufacturing sector, organizations have struggled to balance their business and operational needs with the health and safety of their workers, most of whom are unable to work remotely due to the inherently physical nature of their positions on the factory floor. Learn more
The global market for process level measurement instrumentation is well-established, yet diverse and still evolving. While many of the older, mechanical-style devices maintain extensive installed bases, newer technologies such as laser and radar have been the target of continued innovation from some of the world’s largest industrial automation suppliers. Learn more
Siemens welcomed more than 700 attendees to this year’s Automation Summit, an annual event held last week at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Denver, Colorado. Siemens’ objective for the conference is to inspire, enable, and support its customers’ automation initiatives by fostering collaboration among users, third-party solution partners, and Siemens experts. Learn more
Dragos, Inc., a provider of industrial cybersecurity software and services, announced on Monday its acquisition of NexDefense, the provider of an asset discovery and identification tool for industrial control system (ICS) networks. Upon announcing this acquisition, Dragos revealed that the NexDefense tool, Integrity, would be packaged with another Dragos tool, CyberLens, and offered free of charge as part of Dragos Community Tools. Learn more
VDC recently concluded its latest survey of the industrial automation community, receiving more than 215 web-based responses from a worldwide panel of industrial professionals in engineering, logistics, R&D, and executive leadership roles. Learn more
Cybersecurity is particularly critical for industrial systems due to the potentially life-threatening consequences of system failures as compared to other classes of connected systems. Combined with the financial and operational implications of stopped manufacturing lines—lost production, scheduling delays, scrap, overhead—the consequences of even a temporary disruption can be disastrous. Learn more
Despite its vast potential, the IIoT is still in its infancy. According to results from our 2018 survey of the industrial automation community, just 40% of respondents indicated their organization is currently deploying IIoT capabilities, as shown in the graphic below, with another 19% expecting to begin deploying such capabilities within the next year. However, approximately 80% of respondents believe their organizations will be utilizing IIoT-related functionality within three years at the latest. Learn more
What Happened?
Two significant announcements from global automation suppliers hit the wires on Wednesday, October 3rd:
Among the most insightful questions asked within VDC’s annual surveys targeting engineers and other end users in industrial and other IoT‑related communities delves into the importance of different selection criteria when evaluating and selecting various system components. Learn more
Sensors Expo & Conference 2018, an event focused exclusively on sensors and sensor-integrated systems, took place from June 26th through June 28th at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, CA. The exhibition hall featured more than 300 exhibitors from around the world, and was co‑located with the Medical Sensors Design Conference and the Autonomous Vehicle Sensors Conference. Learn&nsbp;more
Direct sales over the internet currently generates less than 2% of the revenue for proximity sensors, photoelectric sensors, and limit switches. But use of this sales channel is forecast to grow at an average of 24% annually through 2022. This rapid expansion in the use of e‑commerce by proximity sensor suppliers is disrupting market dynamics of a segment that has long been slow to evolve. Learn more
Hannover Messe 2018 took place from April 23rd through April 27th at the Hannover Fairground in Hannover, Germany, and was held in conjuction with CeMAT 2018, a trade fair centering on intralogistics and supply chain management. This year’s show drew approximately 210,000 attendees and featured 5,000 exhibitors from 75 countries including the 2018 official partner country, Mexico. Though attendance was down from last year’s record 225,000 visitors, the fairground’s five million square feet of exhibition space remained jam‑packed from open to close each day. Learn more
VDC Research will once again be attending Hannover Messe, the world’s leading trade show for industrial technology. This year’s show—which takes place from April 23‑27 at the Hannover Fairground in Hannover, Germany—will feature more than 5,000 international exhibitors, 1,400 lectures and panels, and 200,000 attendees. Among the industry trends expected to emphasized by exhibitors, lecturers, and panel members at Hannover Messe 2018 are Industrie 4.0, integrated energy, smart supply, predictive maintenance, cobots, lightweight construction, and the digital twin. Learn more
VDC recently concluded its latest survey of the industrial automation community, receiving more than 225 web-based responses from a worldwide panel of industrial professionals in engineering, logistics, R&D, and executive leadership roles. In support of our findings, I am pleased to share a 3-part webcast series in which I discuss some of the key takeaways from our coverage on the Industrial Internet of Things. Part 1, which can be viewed here, previews the full set of results and takes a look at Industry’s progress toward Industry 4.0. Learn more
The market for security solutions serving embedded systems has grown considerably in recent years, and will continue to do so as the expansion of Internet of Things intensifies. The demand for security solutions is especially strong in the industrial space, where spending on embedded security software trailed only that of the mobile phones industry according to research recently published by VDC. Learn more
I recently attended National Instruments’ annual customer conference, NI Week. Each year, NI augments hands-on training sessions, partner showcases, and customer success stories with a series of announcements regarding new or enhanced product offerings. This year, as detailed by my colleague Dan Mandell, the focal point of these announcements was very clearly the unveiling of LabVIEW NXG. However, NI also revealed some important enhancements within its suite of CompactDAQ solutions, centered on the concept of Time Sensitive Networking (TSN). Learn more
As a first time attendee at Hannover Messe, I was simply blown away by its scale. This year’s show drew an unprecedented 225,000 attendees and featured 6,500 exhibitors from more than 70 countries. The Hannover Fairground—the largest exhibition ground in the world, with more than 5 million square feet of covered exhibition space spread across 27 halls—was sold out down to the last square meter. The largest single exhibitor, Siemens, constructed a “booth” that was nearly the size of a football field. Another exhibitor, FANUC, featured a massive robotic arm lifting and spinning a full‑size sport‑utility vehicle as if it were a Matchbox toy. Learn more
Manufacturers’ ability to effectively harness the power of Big Data to maximize operations will be the single biggest Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) trend to watch in 2017. Though nearly two%#8209;thirds of respondents within the Industrial Automation segment of VDC’s Voice of the IoT Engineer survey reported their organization’s customers are not currently realizing the full benefits of IoT connectivity, this will be a major emphasis this year. Learn more