Siemens has announced the latest release of its cloud-based Internet of Things (IoT) operating system, MindSphere. Currently available in select preview and set for general release in January 2018, the latest version of MindSphere will be hosted for the first time on Amazon Web Services (AWS).
“We’ve listened to our customer’s demand for high availability and global scale, and are embracing a new AWS first approach to MindSphere,” said Steve Bashada of Siemens. “Thanks to our collaboration with AWS, Siemens customers and partners will have access to one of the best Industrial IoT Application Programming Interfaces from Siemens, coupled with direct access to AWS services for faster application development.”
As Bashada suggests, MindSphere is targeted toward Industrial IoT (IIoT) applications in industries such as aerospace and defense, energy and utilities, and everything 4.0. MindSphere provides diverse options for connectivity protocols and champion analytics in a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) approach to IIoT solutions.
A cornerstone of MindSphere, according to Siemens, is a commitment to openness. The company recently demonstrated this commitment in an impressive display at EMO 2017, where it used MindSphere to connect over 240 different machine tools from more than 140 different manufacturers. Small wonder that Siemens describes MindSphere as “something of a Swiss Army Knife for all connected machines and devices, regardless of supplier.”
Amazon Web Services has been no stranger to IoT solutions themselves. Earlier this year, AWS announced a new service called Greengrass designed to give IoT engineers more flexibility on the edge. With MindSphere and AWS side by side, both parties believe they’ve provided a fertile breeding ground for business-ready IoT solutions.
“We are excited to be working with Siemens to host MindSphere on AWS,” said Terry Wise of AWS. “Siemens’ deep industrial domain knowledge and experience, coupled with the global scalability and security available through AWS, provides its customers with increased capabilities to bring industrial IoT to businesses of all sizes.”
To learn more about Siemens’ MindSphere, check out our whitepaper MindSphere: The Cloud-Based, Open IoT Operating System for Digital Transformation.