GE's Predix Cloud to Usher in a New Era for Industrial Data and Analytics

GE is entering the cloud services market with Predix Cloud, a cloud solution designed specifically for industrial data and analytics. Predix Cloud is offered as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) to help companies capture and analyze large volumes, velocities and varieties of machine data within a highly secure, industrial-strength cloud environment. 

Predix Cloud will be launched in 2016 enabling operators to use machine data faster and more efficiently. By combining GE's domain expertise in information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT), GE's Predix Cloud will deliver advanced tools like asset connectivity, machine data support and industrial-grade security and compliance. 

As Predix Cloud is built exclusively to capture and analyze machine data to support an industrial app economy helping companies lower operational costs, experience greater productivity and output and higher service allowing developers to collaborate and deploy industrial applications in a highly protected environment. 

Predix Cloud is purpose-built from the ground up, but will also run on other cloud fabrics if required by a customer. Predix Cloud uses Pivotal's Cloud Foundry to help with application development, deployment and operations. GE businesses will begin migrating their software and analytics to the Predix Cloud in Q4 2015, and the service will be commercially available to customers and other industrial businesses for managing data and applications on Predix Cloud in 2016. 

Asset Connectivity: Analysts estimate that more than 50 billion assets will be connected to the Internet by 2020. Predix Cloud provides advanced connectivity-as-a-service for these industrial assets, combining proprietary technologies with global telecommunications partners to enable rapid provisioning of sensors, gateways and software-defined machines.

Scalability for Machine Data: Machines produce different types of data, which consumer cloud services are not built to handle. Predix Cloud was purpose-built to store, analyze, and manage machine data in real time. From capturing and analyzing time series data from a locomotive with thousands of sensors to delivering large object data like a 3D MRI image to a doctor for diagnosis, Predix Cloud is built for the variety, volume, and velocity of industrial data.

Security + Compliance: Incorporating decades of experience in operational security and information security, Predix Cloud is designed with the most advanced security protocols available, including customized, adaptive security solutions for industrial operators and developers. 

Governance: Leveraging GE's global network and deep expertise across more than 60 regulatory areas, Predix Cloud is designed to streamline governance and drive down compliance costs for each individual user, while respecting national data sovereignty regulations globally. This enables GE, partners, and developers to more easily build and deploy services for highly regulated industries such as aviation, energy, healthcare and transportation. 

Interoperability: Predix Cloud will operate seamlessly with applications and services running in a broad spectrum of cloud environments. As such, businesses will be able to take advantage of its optimized security and data structure offerings while maintaining and interoperating within existing solutions.

Gated Community:  Unlike public cloud services, which are open to any individual or organization, Predix Cloud is based on a "gated community" model to ensure that tenants of the cloud belong to the industrial ecosystem.

Developer Insight: Developers will have visibility into their operating environments and every actor connected to it. In doing so, businesses will be able to deploy and monitor machine apps anywhere, continuously adjusting to new demands in the physical and digital world while providing the security and visibility required for operational effectiveness. 

On-Demand Availability: Businesses will be able to easily access and scale with the Predix Cloud, which will be offered through a convenient on-demand, pay-as-you-go pricing model.