PEER-TO-PEER FAQ

Big Data:You
What
can Is It and this
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How Is Industry
ebook Using
with your It?
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Explore the technologies that comprise industrial
Big Data and learn from your end user peers
and system integrators about how they’re using
these technologies to improve decision-making
around business and production operations.

• Recommendations and hands-on advice

from 70+ end users and system integrators.
• Explanations of the central technology
components behind industrial Big Data.
• Survey results highlighting the driving factors behind
industry’s application of Big Data and the main types
of Big Data technologies currently being used.
 PEER-TO-PEER FAQ SPONSORED BY

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
Explore the technologies that comprise industrial
Big Data and learn from your end user peers
and system integrators about how they’re using
these technologies to improve decision-making
around business and production operations.

• Recommendations and hands-on advice

from 70+ end users and system integrators.
• Explanations of the central technology
components behind industrial Big Data.
• Survey results highlighting the driving factors behind
industry’s application of Big Data and the main types
of Big Data technologies currently being used.
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ SPONSORED BY

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
4 SECTION 1.
Big Data and Its Associated Technologies Explained

15 SECTION 2.
The Current State of Industrial Big Data Collection and Analysis

28 SECTION 3.
Driving Factors Behind Industry’s Use of Big Data

33 SECTION 4.
Insights on the Types of Big Data Technologies Being Used

38 SECTION 5.
Big Data Implementation Recommendations
 SECTION 1.
Big Data and Its Associated
Technologies Explained
A look at the key technologies supporting industrial
Big Data, such as data acquisition systems, historians,
computerized maintenance management systems,
edge computing and advanced analytics software.
By Beth Stackpole, contributing writer, and David Greenfield, director of content

I f they’ve used it to any degree, it’s hard to f ind a company in any

industry that doesn’t extoll the virtues of Big Data or play up
the advantages that come with leveraging data for predictive and
real-time insights. Industrial Big Data in particular—specif ically the

4 large and diversif ied time series data emanating f rom Internet-
connected automation equipment f rom sensors to plant floor
machinery—has notable and demonstrable business value for
companies looking to distill data into insights that drive better
SPONSORED BY business and plant performance.

As trendy as it may sound, it’s only the name—Big Data—that’s of

PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
recent vintage. Companies have been collecting time series data
Big Data: What Is It and from factory floor and field assets for decades. However, much of
How Is Industry Using It?
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 SECTION 1 this data remains unused, trapped in siloed, proprietary historians
and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems that
often aren’t readily accessible much less available to meld with other
relevant business data to drive broad-based actionable insights. And
while plant managers and maintenance workers have analyzed data
Big Data and from specific plant floor assets—mostly with spreadsheets—this was
Its Associated rarely, if ever, done with wide business transformation in mind.
Technologies
That’s all changed thanks to the scale of what’s possible fueled by
Explained technology advances in edge and cloud computing, data acquisition
and historian tools, and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine
learning (ML) analytics. With these technologies, manufacturers
can transform siloed data and proprietary systems into flexible
and intelligent factory floor and industrial operations that can be
holistically automated and optimized in near-real-time. They are
building next-generation systems able to sift through the volume
and variety of industrial Big Data to uplevel operations and optimize
performance, including reducing maintenance costs, ensuring near-
zero downtime, boosting product quality, and driving additional
revenue streams through the introduction of new services.

6 Orchestrating a successful industrial Big Data analytics program

requires investment in a number of central technology components.
Critical to the mix are:
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Data acquisition systems

The first step in a Big Data initiative is identifying and capturing all
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relevant data. One way to do this is with a data acquisition (DAQ)
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 1 system, which processes sampling signals that measure real-world
physical entities and converts them to a digital form for use by various
computing systems. The digital acquisition components typically
comprise sensors that measure phenomena like temperature, voltage,
fluid flow, strain and pressure, and shock and vibration along with
Big Data and signal conditioning devices and analog-to-digital signal converters.
Its Associated The conditioning and converter devices work together to filter the
Technologies analog signals from sensors, converting them to a digital formal that
is compatible with standard computing resources for further analysis.
Explained

7
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Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 1 Most DAQ systems record, store, and visualize the data in addition to
providing some base level analysis and reporting capabilities. More
recently, data acquisition systems are being integrated with real-time
control applications, pairing the ability to acquire data quickly with
the possibility of reacting to events using highly deterministic data.
Big Data and These new capabilities also allow manufacturers to track and measure
Its Associated current performance against historical trends.
Technologies
Historians
Explained One of the more popular data collection technologies are historians.
After their initial development in the early 1980s, data historians have
found wide use across every manufacturing and processing vertical.
Essentially, a data historian is software that logs production data and
makes the data it collects easily accessible for analysis.

Though its function is not that different from a data acquisition

system, the difference lies in how they’re designed to collect data.
DAQs collect both high- and low-speed data from a variety of
sensors, and commonly have a very high-powered computing system
either built-in or connected to them. DAQs can also handle signal

8 conditioning—an essential capability for processing sensor data.

While historians can collect direct sensor data like DAQS, they can
also collect data f rom systems or equipment—however they tend
SPONSORED BY to do so at a slower rate than a DAQ system. While historians can
collect data in real time, their main purpose is to collect data over
longer periods of time—days, weeks, or months—rather than for
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specif ic, short time periods.
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 1 SYSTEM INTEGRATOR SURVEY
How do your clients collect and aggregate data from
these systems/devices for analysis? (select all that apply)

Big Data and Manually/handwritten and then entered in spreadsheet software such as excel

Its Associated 57%

Technologies Historians

Explained 57%

Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)

43%

Hybrid edge/cloud environment

29%

Cloud computing

14%

Other

14%
9 Edge Computing

0%

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PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 1 The two basic types of historians used in manufacturing are:
• Time-series databases, where data are logged with time stamps to
simplify tracking and monitoring; and
• Operational historians, which combine historian software and
time-series databases for fast retrieval of the large amounts of data
Big Data and collected for Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things applications.
Its Associated
Technologies CMMS (computerized maintenance
management systems)
Explained This software is widely used for its ability to centralize maintenance
information and automate or direct maintenance workforce tasks.
A capable CMMS can contain all of a manufacturer’s or processor’s
maintenance information such as work orders, preventive
maintenance schedules, assets, logs, work histories, parts inventory,
vendors, purchase orders, and maintenance reports. Algorithms used
in the CMMS can recognize and organize maintenance-related data to
provide insights on asset condition, lifecycle, and maintenance tasks.
A CMMS also typically notes the equipment, materials and resources
required for the specific maintenance tasks it recommends.

10 Like other data collection technologies, a database is at the core of

any CMMS, but it is more than a field data capture tool. The insights it
provides help reduce downtime and aids troubleshooting. That’s why
CMMS technology is often used for creating reports and identifying
SPONSORED BY key performance indicators.

Edge computing
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As more sensors, tags, PLCs, and other devices are connected to the
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 1 Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), there is a requirement to move
additional computing power closer to the source where data is
generated. Bringing computing capabilities closer to the edge of a
network—directly on the shop floor, for example, or at a remote oil rig
or wind turbine site—enables efficient processing of real-time data
Big Data and about the condition and performance of the industrial asset without
Its Associated the traditional latency challenges that arise when channeling data to
Technologies a central network system for monitoring, analysis, and even real-time
automation. Edge capabilities also enable IIoT-enabled use cases in
Explained instances where high-bandwidth connectivity is not readily available,
such as in rural areas or remote plant sites.

Edge capabilities are central to empowering new data-driven

use cases such as predictive maintenance or real-time quality
management. In these instances, plant floor equipment and
industrial assets are continually monitored and analyzed at the
edge, empowering corrective actions that could include diagnostic
checks, initiating maintenance work orders, even enabling a specific
condition-based maintenance action.

11 In most IIoT-enabled industrial Big Data use cases, it’s not a matter
of deciding between the edge or cloud-based systems to support
predictive maintenance or asset optimization applications. Typically,
companies turn to a combination of edge and cloud functionality,
SPONSORED BY with the cloud poised to deliver additional storage and compute
scalability while providing a way to aggregate data from myriad
industrial assets and edge computing systems, or even multiple plant
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
floor operations for analysis.
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 1 END USER SURVEY
How do you collect and aggregate data from these
systems/devices for analysis? (select all that apply)

Big Data and Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)

Its Associated 44%

Technologies Manually/handwritten and then entered in spreadsheet software such as excel

Explained 29%

Historians

29%

Edge Computing

27%

Cloud computing

26%

Hybrid edge/cloud environment

23%
12 Other

3%

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PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 1 Advanced analytics
It’s not enough to collect and process industrial Big Data—there also
needs to be capabilities in place to analyze and interpret the data,
potentially in near-real-time, to drive intelligent insights and initiate
closed-loop corrective actions. The incoming generation of analytics
Big Data and tools are powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and its subset of
Its Associated machine learning technologies, making them much more capable of
Technologies finding patterns in voluminous time series and other IIoT data for use
cases such as predictive maintenance, real-time quality control, and
Explained scenario testing for root cause analysis.

While operations personnel have had early successes building

analytical models, typically in Excel spreadsheets for a single machine

13
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Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 1 in a factory or for a particular use case, they have less experience
scaling those efforts to bring intelligence to the entire factory, let
alone to operations that span factories across the globe. The unique
nature of data collected in historians and SCADA systems is also
different than the more familiar enterprise analytics. While enterprise
Big Data and data in financial or customer systems is usually well structured,
Its Associated time series data lacks context for understanding how the raw data
Technologies can and should be applied to understand the state of a specific
process or the condition of materials on a manufacturing line. Next-
Explained generation analytics tools add modeling and machine learning
capabilities to uncover patterns, classify and contextualize process
and product data, and in some cases, create a digital twin of a factory
so anomalies can be spotted and downtime issues readily addressed.

Without the technologies that deliver such context, manufacturers

will be hard pressed to fully leverage data to drive Industry
4.0 applications such as continuous operational performance
improvements, condition monitoring, or predictive or prescriptive
maintenance applications.

14 Analytics software can be used a stand-alone technology, receiving

data from a variety of connected devices. It can also be included in
edge and cloud computing technologies wherein data collection
and analysis are conducted in one system. Many manufacturers use
SPONSORED BY a hybrid approach to edge and cloud technology use with analytics—
using edge computing to analyze real time data quickly for day-
to-day operational insights and cloud computing for longer-term
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
analysis for strategic operations and business applications.
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2.
The Current State of Industrial
Data Collection and Analysis
We connected with more than 70 end users and integrators to learn more about the state
of Big Data use across industry. The pages that follow contain insights on the:

• Recommendations around the selection of technologies for Big Data collection and analyses;
• Driving factors behind industry’s application of Big Data analysis;
• Difference in use of Big Data among industry verticals; and
• Types of Big Data technologies used

By David Greenfield, director of content/editor-in-chief

15 A s explained in the introductory section to this Peer-to-Peer FAQ, Big

Data is a term not connected to one specific technology. Instead,
Big Data is an overarching term that refers to how the vast and ever-
increasing levels of industrial equipment, device and systems data is
collected, stored, transmitted, and analyzed.
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To better understand how industry—across the discrete manufacturing

and processing industries—is collecting and analyzing data, the business
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
factors driving their decisions around data, the types of technologies
Big Data: What Is It and they use, and their recommendations around the selection and use of
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 SYSTEM INTEGRATOR SURVEY
Have you seen increased interest from your
clients to collect/analyze data for production
operations improvement over the last 5 years?
The Current
State of
Industrial Data
Collection and
Analysis
YES
(71%)

16
NO (29%)
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PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 END USER SURVEY

Do you collect/aggregate data from production

systems/devices to improve production operations?
The Current
State of
Industrial Data
Collection and
Analysis

YES
(86%)

17
SPONSORED BY NO (14%)

PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 data collection and analysis technologies, Automation World conducted
research to gather data from end users and system integrators.

While most end user respondents (86%) indicate they collect data
from equipment and devices specifically for production improvement
The Current initiatives, most have begun doing so only within the past five years. Only
State of 27% of respondents indicate that they have been collecting data for such
Industrial Data purposes for more than six years.

Collection and In line with these end user results, 71% of responding industrial system
Analysis integrators report seeing a noticeable increase in interest around data
collection and analysis from their clients.

18
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Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 An interesting point among the end user responses is that 98%
plan to gather even more data from their production systems
in the next two years. However, only 30% report having a plan to
do so for specific operational improvements.

The Current This could indicate that, of those who have been collecting
State of and analyzing data for a few years, many may have already
Industrial Data discovered numerous ways of improving their production
operations and could be looking to leverage the data they
Collection and collect for other, strategic business purposes.
Analysis
Two factors contribute to this assessment. First, Automation
World research on the use of cloud and edge computing for
data analytics in 2019 showed that 25% were already doing so
for production data analysis, 24% for equipment data analysis
such as capacity planning, and 36% for specific OEE (overall
equipment effectiveness) metrics.

19
READ MORE
See the full article on the study mentioned above
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PEER-TO-PEER FAQ

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 END USER SURVEY

Do you collect/aggregate data from production

systems/devices to improve production operations?
The Current
State of
Industrial Data 0-2 years
Collection and (30%)
Analysis

3-5 years
(43%)

6-10 years (10%)

20
10 years or more
SPONSORED BY (17%)

PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 Second, a 2020 Automation World report on the industrial data
analytics market found that, while manufacturers still want to
“analyze machine data to create production efficiencies, reduce
downtime, rein in costs, and promote better decision making, the
goal posts are shifting significantly when it comes to scale. Instead
The Current of a plant manager or maintenance worker analyzing historical data
State of from a specific asset in a spreadsheet to make a modest change
Industrial Data down the road, today’s manufacturers are striving for wholesale
transformation. Their aim is to create flexible and intelligent
Collection and operations where networks of assets and systems can be holistically
Analysis automated and optimized in near real-time.”

READ MORE
See the full article mentioned above

21 More on the driving factors behind industry’s application of data

analysis can be seen in the Driving Factors section in this report.
One takeaway from this, if you’re among those companies not actively
SPONSORED BY aggregating and analyzing data for production improvement, is that
most of your industry peers are also relatively new at it. However,
with so many businesses actively pursuing this, those companies not
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
already looking to improve production via data analysis are in a small
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 END USER SURVEY

Are you planning to gather more data from your

production systems/devices in the next 2 years?
The Current
State of
Industrial Data
Collection and
Analysis

YES
(98%)

22
SPONSORED BY
NO (2%)

PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2

The Current
State of
Industrial Data
Collection and
Analysis

enough minority to be considered laggards in this area. Meaning that

it will only become more difficult to compete as your data-analyzing
competitors discover ways to improve their production operations
before you can do the same.

Industry vertical differences

23 System integrators responding to Automation World’s Big Data FAQ

survey note a significant difference among industry verticals when it
comes to data analysis. While integrator respondents report working
across all three industry verticals (54% in discrete manufacturing,
SPONSORED BY 27% in continuous processing, and 18% in batch manufacturing), they
report a nearly 50/50 split between the discrete and batch industries’
application of data analytics, with little being done with these
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
technologies in the continuous processing industries.
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 Of end users responding to our survey, 49% work in discrete
manufacturing, 36% in batch manufacturing, and 15% in
continuous processing.

We attribute the results from system integrator respondents to

The Current this study as being relative to their specific experience and not
State of as indicative of the continuous processing industries’ lack of data
Industrial Data analytics use. In fact, Automation World reporting on this topic
indicates that the continuous processing industries are very much
Collection and at the forefront of use of data analytics, with several technology
Analysis suppliers targeting this vertical.

If any factor hinders the broader use of data collection and analysis
in continuous processing, as compared to the discrete and batch
manufacturing verticals, it may be the complexity associated with
the accurate collection and scaling of real-time process industry data.

As noted in the 2020 Automation World report on data analytics

referenced above, “Given the heterogeneity of industrial data, an
industrial analytics platform must have both an ability to ingest

24 disparate information types with some means of normalizing

and contextualizing data. Specifically, customers need to know
the context at the moment data is generated from a device or
production line; however, it remains difficult to gather high-speed
SPONSORED BY OT (operations technology) contextual data from different edge
devices, let alone package it in a structured way to pair with third-
party industrial data sources or send it upstream to IT applications
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
for enterprise-wide insights.”
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 END USER SURVEY

What is your estimate for the amount of production

systems/devices from which you collect data from?
The Current
State of 1-10% (8%)
Industrial Data
Collection and 11-25% (26%)
Analysis

26-50% (19%)

51-75% (19%)

25 76-90% (23%)

SPONSORED BY
91-100% (5%)

PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 In response, data collection and analytics technology suppliers are
focusing on “automated and continuous data intake process, which
includes employing expert systems and machine learning classifiers
to prepare and contextualize process and product data.” And for
the continuous processing industry specifically, there is a focus on
The Current providing analytics “to help process engineers and subject matter
State of experts interact with and model time series data at scale.”
Industrial Data Level of data collection
Collection and Looking at the depth of data collection activities across industry, 53%
Analysis of end users say that less than 50% of their production systems or
related devices are connected for data collection purposes. In contrast,
system integrators note that, among their clients, only 42% collect
data from less than 50% of their production systems or devices.

At the other end of the spectrum, integrator respondents note that

29% of their clients collect data from all of their production systems/
devices. This may a bit of overestimation on the part of the integrator
respondents, as only 5% of end user respondents report having more
than 90% of their systems/devices connected for data collection.

26 There is also a significant difference among respondents in the

middle tier—in which 51%-90% of systems are connected. Just 29% of
integrators indicate their clients have 51%-99% of the systems/devices
SPONSORED BY connected, while 42% of end users estimate that 51%-90% of their
systems/devices are connected for data collection.

PEER-TO-PEER FAQ

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 2 END USER SURVEY

Do you plan to collect/

aggregate data from
When do you
The Current production systems/devices
plan to begin?
to improve production
State of operations in the future?
Industrial Data
Collection and
Analysis
YES (30%)
This year
(48%)

NO 1-2 years
from now
(32%)
27 (70%)

3 or more years
SPONSORED BY
from now (20%)

PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 3.
Driving Factors Behind
Industry’s Use of Big Data

B y now, most everyone has heard phrases such as “data is the new oil”
that underscore the value of data to every business. But when you
look at the specific data collection and analysis purposes behind industry
efforts in this area, a few clear applications emerge.

Among end users, the top three reasons cited for data collection and
analysis is the improvement of specific line or equipment operations
(70%), improving maintenance operations (65%) and as part of an overall
Industry 4.0/digital transformation initiative (54%).

System integrators also cited these applications as the top three reasons

28 they see industrial clients collecting and analyzing data, but the order
differs somewhat. Integrators say 100% of their clients’ data collection and
analysis is put toward to maintenance operations improvement, while just
40% cite both Industry 4.0/digital transformation initiatives and specific
SPONSORED BY line/equipment improvements.

Another reason cited by 40% of integrators is FOMO (fear of missing out)

PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
on potential unidentified improvements. One integrator respondent
Big Data: What Is It and said the emphasis now being placed on remote operations is making
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 3 SYSTEM INTEGRATOR SURVEY
What factors are driving this increased interest?
(select all that apply)

Driving Maintenance operations improvement

Factors Behind 100%

Industry’s Use Industry 4.0/smart manufacturing/digital transformation initiatives

of Big Data 40%

Specific line/equipment improvement

40%

FOMO (fear of missing out) on potential improvement

40%

Other

20%

In response from customer/market pressure to improve production

0%
29
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PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 3 organizations “not want to miss any data points that could lead to
erroneous decision making.”

End users also noted two additional drivers: Lean Manufacturing

programs (39%) and to improve operator interaction with
Driving equipment (35%).
Factors Behind
Industry’s Use One end user noted their use of artificial intelligence/machine
learning (AI/ML) algorithms in their data analytics system to
of Big Data detect equipment anomalies. While this would likely fall under the
maintenance improvements category, the ability of AI to detect an
array of anomalies, depending on the technology supplier, could
indicated broader use of the resulting analytics beyond maintenance.

The ubiquitous use of AI across analytics technologies has been a

clear trend among technology suppliers over the past several years. As
noted in Automation World’s 2020 report on industrial data analytics:
“Regardless of their different approaches, most, if not all, industrial
analytics tools and platforms incorporate some form of AI and ML to
help uncover patterns in the deluge of asset data to build models of

30 assets and production floor processes and to automate processes as

part of more intelligent operations. The AI-driven analytics model can
become a mission-critical element in the production line, creating a
digital twin that allows, for example, a brewery to simulate, test, and
SPONSORED BY optimize its processes as well as analyze hundreds of thousands of
parameters to understand and predict influences on beer quality.”

PEER-TO-PEER FAQ

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 3 END USER SURVEY
Why are you planning to gather more information
for analysis? (select all that apply)

Driving Specific line/equipment improvement

Factors Behind 70%

Industry’s Use Improve maintenance operations

of Big Data 65%

Part of our overall Industry 4.0/digital transformation

program to digitalize and collect all relevation production data

54%

Part of a Lean Manufacturing program

39%

Improve operator interaction with equipment

35%

Other

31 4%

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PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 3 That same article stresses the importance for end uses to keep their
options open about what can be learned from analytics and how
the results can be applied rather than targeting the technology to
just one or two specific uses. “Given the complexity and diversity of
industrial data, there will be no one analytics product that fits the bill
Driving for all use cases and all scenarios. Rather, experts say organizations
Factors Behind need to consider the long-term strategy and the questions they’re
Industry’s Use looking to answer to line up the right tools for the job.”

of Big Data

32
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PEER-TO-PEER FAQ

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 4.
End and Integrator Insights
on the Types of Big Data
Technologies Being Used

T alk of digital transformation, Internet of Things, Industry 4.0, and

Smart Manufacturing have dominated industrial technology
discussions for more than a decade. But the reality is that most
manufacturers still rely on data collection and analysis technologies that
existed long before the advance of the technologies receiving so much
attention today.

That’s not to say newer collection and analysis technologies are going

33 unused—as that is certainly not the case. Edge and clou3d technologies,
for example, are being used widely across industry. Even so, there remains
much headroom left for their growth. Only 29% of system integrator clients
use hybrid cloud/edge technology and 14% use stand-alone cloud systems.
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According to our survey results, most manufacturers rely on three

methods of data collection and analysis—and only two of them would be
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
considered automation technologies.
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 4 END USER SURVEY
How is your system/device data analyzed?

Data is analyzed in a hybrid edge/cloud environment—some data analyzed at

End and
the edge for quick analysis with broad, loger-term analytics handled in the cloud

37%
Integrator
Insights on the On an in-house edge computing platform

31%
Types of Big Data
Technologies In a cloud computing service

28%
Being Used
Other

4%

34
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PEER-TO-PEER FAQ Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 4 System integrator respondents say that 57% of the clients still rely on
handwritten data collection that is then entered into spreadsheet
software. The integrators also note that 57% of their clients also
use historians, a technology that emerged in 1980. (Editor’s note:
respondents were allowed to check multiple categories of data
End and collection types to more accurately reflect the use of multiple
Integrator technologies in a facility; thus the percentages will exceed 100%).
Insights on the
Clocking in at 43% are computerized maintenance management
Types of Big Data systems (CMMS), a technology that debuted in the mid-1960s.
Technologies Integrator respondents also noted the use of data acquisition
Being Used technologies, another technology that’s been in use since the 1960s.

End users responding to our survey still ranked CMMS and

handwritten/spreadsheet as the top two data collection and
analysis methods used, though their percentages differed from the
integrators. According to end user respondents, 44% use CMMS—
largely in line with the 43% reported by integrators. However, end
users report only 29% relying on a combination of handwritten and
spreadsheet use, which differs dramatically from the integrators’

35 response of 57%. Though this discrepancy could be attributed to

numerous factors, it would be difficult to ignore the possibility that
many end users probably prefer not to mention their reliance on
handwritten data collection in 2022.
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Of note, end user respondents cited broader use of cloud and edge
technologies than did integrators. Though no integrators cited use of
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
stand-alone edge technologies in their clients’ facilities, 27% of end
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 4 SYSTEM INTEGRATOR SURVEY
When asked by a client for help with data collection and
analysis, what types of systems do you recommend?
(please rank in order of importance with 1 being the most recommended)

End and Historians

67% 1
Integrator 17%
2
17%
Insights on the 3
Types of Big Data
Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS)
50% 4
Technologies 33%
17% 5
Being Used Edge computing 6

17%
33%
33%
17%

Cloud computing
33%
33%
17%
17%

36 Hybrid edge/cloud computing

17%
33%
50%
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Other
17%
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ 83%

Big Data: What Is It and Source: Automation World Big Data FAQ Research.
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 4 users report its use. Also, 26% of end users cite use of stand-alone
cloud technologies, compared to the integrators’ response of 14%. End
users’ response about use of hybrid edge/cloud technologies is more
in line with the integrators’ response—with 23% of end users citing its
use compared to the 29% noted by integrators.
End and
Integrator Looking more closely at end user responses around cloud and edge
Insights on the technology use, 37% cite use of a hybrid edge/cloud environment for
data analysis specifically. In comparison, 32% use edge technology for
Types of Big Data analytics while 28% use cloud computing.
Technologies
Being Used Two other methods of data collection and analysis noted by end
users in the write-in response section are: use of a PLC to collect
data that is then transferred to Excel, and SAP ERP (enterprise
resource planning) software.

To get insight into what can be expected on the data collection

and analysis f ront in the next few years, we asked integrators
what technologies they recommended to clients. Based on their
response, we should see a great move away f rom the handwritten/

37 spreadsheet method, but still see plenty of use among the tried-
and-true technologies.

According to the integrators, 67% recommend historians, 50%

SPONSORED BY recommend CMMS, and 33% recommend hybrid and cloud
technologies. (Editor’s note: Responses to multiple categories were
allowed here to more accurately reflect recommendations of multiple
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
technologies based on the integrators’ clients operations.)
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 5.
Big Data Implementation
Recommendations

A s a final step in our research, we asked integrator and end user

respondents to offer their best advice about selecting and using data
collection and analytics technology based on their experience with both.

Key points highlighted by integrators include:

• Start small but ensure the technology you’re using for these small-scale
applications can scale across the plant and enterprise.
• Focus on improving the process, not on trying to achieve a specific number.
• Don’t overlook data management and data governance, as data
standardization is the key to successful downstream analytics.
• Begin by examining your operations to determine where you should start

38 collecting and analyzing data for meaningful decision-making strategies.

• As you review the technology landscape, carefully assess whether you
have the internal resources to support this effectively in-house or if you’ll
need outside help.
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End users’ recommendations tended to focus more on gathering input

from different groups in the workforce:
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
• Realize that data analysis, on its own, can often be an indirect measure
Big Data: What Is It and of what is needed to improve operations. Therefore, plan to be inventive
How Is Industry Using It?
 SECTION 5 around key performance indicator determination and involve
process experts as much, if not more so, than data specialists.
• Be sure to include workers directly involved with your
production processes. Managers won’t always have the
correct point of view to detect areas of opportunity in data.
Big Data
• Don’t discount your in-house engineering and operating
Implementation expertise, as they can provide added benefits beyond that
Recommendations delivered by the technology.
• When it comes to getting equipment connected correctly
to the cloud for analysis, leverage the experience of a control
systems integrator. More specifically, choose someone with
capabilities throughout the ISA 95 tech stack.

Other end user insights focused on three factors—technology,

widespread data collection, and human analysis:
• Make the move from manual collection to digital collection.
• The major vendors all offer decent analytics technology.
• Collect everything—you can revisit older data for insights
that you might not currently be focused on.
• Know how to perform a criticality analysis to prioritize which

39 equipment to pull data from.

SURVEY METHODOLOGY
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In the summer of 2022, Automation World fielded two surveys. One was targeted to
Automation World readers, consisting of automation end user professionals in a variety of
industries, and received 73 responses. The other survey was targeted specifically to control
systems integrators and received 11 responses. Both surveys wrapped up in late July 2022.
PEER-TO-PEER FAQ

Big Data: What Is It and

How Is Industry Using It?
 PEER-TO-PEER FAQ
Big Data: What Is It and
How Is Industry Using It?

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