High-Tech Software Cluster companies are involved in the development of some of the most advanced smart software in the world, enabling their customers to quickly benefit from digitalization and gain a competitive advantage in their markets. From Digital Twins to Model Driven Engineering, software technologies are changing the way we do business and the only certainty is that they will profoundly impact your organization's performance.
Developing a strategic understanding of these technologies is essential to the future of your business and key to managing the perfect digital storm that surrounds us. This article provides you with a starting point for understanding the key software technologies that are driving innovation in the industry. You certainly don't have to embrace every technology described here, but the right selection and combination of a few will certainly help your company gain a competitive advantage and a higher return on investment.
The High Tech Software Cluster can help you develop a smart software strategy that is unique to your business and can provide the products, competencies and knowledge needed to successfully digitize your business.
Connectivity Technologies
Industrial Internet of Things
The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is a network of intelligent machines, computers, devices and objects in a manufacturing environment that collect and share vast amounts of data. The collected data is sent to a central service on the Internet, where it is combined with other data and then shared in a useful way with end users. This data is also raw input material for data analysis, machine learning and artificial intelligence applications. IIoT can greatly improve connectivity, efficiency, scalability, time savings and cost savings for industrial organizations.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is the provision of services to store, manage and process data through a network of remote computers on the Internet. It makes computer system resources available on demand without the need to host and actively manage a local computing infrastructure. Cloud computing can greatly improve the speed of innovation and the scalability and flexibility of businesses. Since services are offered on a pay-per-use basis, it also reduces operational and capital investment costs.
Software Security
By connecting our machines, our homes, and our critical business processes to the Internet, we add an entry point to these systems that can be accessed from around the world, and so we must implement security measures to keep out malicious actors. As with our physical entrances, there is no point in locking a lock if the door frame is of poor build quality; we must apply software security from day one of the development process. Training, tooling and the right processes are needed to build secure software.
Intelligence Technologies
Artificial Intelligence
AI (artificial intelligence), machine learning and deep learning are closely related - in fact, they basically refer to the same concept for most of today's applications. However, there are subtle differences. Artificial intelligence is an umbrella term for computer systems that are capable of operating in the real world rather than in very limited environments specifically tailored to them. Understanding spoken language, interpreting images, and guiding robots through a factory are all examples of AI.
Machine Learning
Machine learning is a derivative of AI in which a computer is specifically trained to perform a task by being exposed to (many) examples of the task rather than being explicitly told what to do. Finally, deep learning is a special, practical technique for performing machine learning that draws on concepts in biology. It typically requires more computational power than other approaches, but is capable of understanding more complex inputs.
Most recent advances in machine learning, and in turn AI, are the result of rapid developments in deep learning. But keep in mind that both fields are actually broader; your spam filter is a good example of a learning system without the "deep" name.
Image Recognition
Image recognition has made great strides in recent years thanks to advances in machine learning. Where programmers traditionally had to search for a specific combination of features in the pixel output streams of cameras - with limited success - we can now simply train the computer using an example, getting much better results. Drones for mapping chemical plants, intelligent driver assistance systems, and automated factory inspection systems are made possible by image recognition.
Virtualization Technologies
Simulation
Industrial applications can also benefit from the use of simulations, for example to train new personnel. Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-generated environment that users can enter using immersive head-mounted displays combined with head and hand tracking sensors. The virtual environment responds to the user's actions, making it a quick and cost-effective way for industrial companies to train employees, as well as to expand the skills of the existing workforce.
Augmented reality is a variant of VR that mixes a simulation with a physical environment. Using augmented reality (AR) text, graphics, audio and other virtual enhancements can be integrated into the real production environment. Using a head-mounted display, AR overlays the user's environment with useful information, allowing him or her to master new processes. For example, virtual guided assembly integrates 3D images of virtual objects into a real workspace, providing workers with the tools to follow proper assembly procedures and reduce errors.
Digital Twin
A digital twin is a complete, fully functional, virtual representation of a product, machine or production line. It allows users to interact with a lifelike facsimile of a cyber-physical system that exhibits exactly the same behavior as the real system. Unlike a simulation, it runs the actual application software that drives its real-world counterpart. By using a digital twin, the application software can be tested as if it were in the real world, without these conditions being available. This improves the efficiency of the engineering process and reduces the time from idea to realization.
Software Engineering Technologies
Model-Driven Engineering
Model-driven engineering (MDE) is a way of developing software by automatically generating computer programs from models rather than writing them by hand. It focuses on capturing at an abstract level all the topics related to a specific problem domain, rather than computer concepts. By hiding unnecessary details, the approach keeps complexity manageable and makes understanding and communicating the system easier and less error-prone. Model-driven engineering also enables software systems to be realized on a "Correct by Construction" basis, because models can be subjected to rigorous analytical verification and also validated against system requirements, further reducing the likelihood of errors. MDE thus significantly increases productivity and product quality.
Continuous Integration
Continuous integration (CI) is the practice of directing development teams to make small changes to their software and integrate the changes into a shared repository several times a day. Each check-in is then automatically verified. This ensures that new additions do not break the work that has gone before them and that developers who do break something can be notified immediately. Regular integration makes it faster and easier to detect errors and to release new features more frequently. CI leads to better collaboration, improves software quality and accelerates innovation.
DevOps
DevOps is a way of creating software that brings development (Dev) and operational IT (Ops) together by aligning their philosophies, practices and tools. By building a culture of collaboration between these historically disjointed teams, the goal is to shorten the development lifecycle while delivering features, fixes and updates that are often closely aligned with business objectives. Promised benefits include increased trust, faster software releases, the ability to resolve critical issues quickly and better manage unplanned work. DevOps helps both development and operations be more efficient, innovate faster and deliver more value to businesses and customers.
Business Technologies
Servitization
Servitization is the shift in the business model from selling products to selling an integrated product and service offering that delivers value in use. Instead of being seen as an expense, services are seen as an opportunity to generate more revenue by better serving the customer. This involves innovating organizational capabilities and processes to better create mutual value. Offering product-oriented services is a key differentiator in the market. Servitization brings higher operating margins and pushes performance in the areas of customer intimacy, operational excellence and product leadership.
Blockchain
Blockchain is essentially a way of making agreements between different participants without relying on a central broker, judge or maintainer. This can be as simple as agreeing to store a bit of information or as complex as agreeing to execute some computer code when certain conditions are met (a smart contract). Or, as with Bitcoin, agreeing to transfer a number of tokens. Each new agreement is added to a public database of which everyone shares a copy, cryptographically linked to what is already there and validated in a deceptive way by the other participants. Once it becomes part of this ever-expanding chain, a change in even one bit will stick out like a sore thumb, making fraud impossible. However, the information is highly encrypted, so even though the database is public, the information in it is not. While best known for cryptocurrency applications, blockchain holds promise for areas such as logistics and finance.
Keep walking ahead
Companies that can meet the challenge of innovating in software will win the digitization race and gain an undeniable competitive advantage. The High Tech Software Cluster helps industrial companies master digitization and realize smart products, services and business models by using software technology to improve the efficiency of their business.
