SAP And Bosch Agree IoT And Cloud Powered Industry 4.0 Partnership

SAP and Bosch have teamed up to mix the Internet of Things (IoT), cloud computing for the so-called Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution.

The partnership will will enable the use of the SAP HANA in-memory database platform to be used within the Bosch IoT Cloud, a cloud based platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering that enables the creation of IoT applications and the connection, management and data analysis of devices on an IoT network.

Combining the Bosch IoT Cloud with HANA offers an IoT platform than not only controls an IoT network but provides an underlying database for the collection and high-speed procession of large amounts of data expected to be harvested from networks of smart devices and sensors.

The flipside of the partnership means the SAP HANA Cloud Platform gains access to the IoT software tools and micro services Bosch has to offer, which means SAP can build upon the suite of IoT tools it already has

IoT and Industry 4.0

The rise of more automation and data exchange in the world of manufacturing technologies has led to the Industry 4.0 term to be coined, indicating a new industrial revolution where machinery is smarter and governed more deeply by interconnected systems and digital data.

With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that two large firms, one renowned for database software and the other for electronics and manufacturing should join forces to provide platforms for facilitating the IoT in industrial applications.

SAP noted that an example of this in action could be using the Bosch IoT Cloud to collect sensor, GPS and motion sensor data from a forklift and transfer that data to SAP’s Vehicle Insights fleet management application, underpinned by HANA, which allows for fleets to be managed in a more intelligent, data-driven and efficient fashion.

Bringing about this industrial IoT is currently a mess of diverse standards, protocols and devices, so SAP and Bosch are championing their partnership as a means to setup universal standards to smooth the path towards a functional Industry 4.0.

“Joint testbeds are a tried and trusted approach toward that aim, with partners working together to test the interplay of sensors, machinery, software, and cloud technology, and to derive standards from that,” said Bernd Leukert, member of the executive board of SAP.

SAP is highly proactive when it comes to partnerships in getting the HANA platform into numerous systems and applications, as evidenced by its partnership with IBM and its work with Microsoft to run HANA on the Azure public cloud.

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