Software-Defined Industrial Automation: An Update

Software-Defined Industrial Automation: An Update
This IDC Perspective provides an update on the state of software-defined industrial automation. There have been many transformational shifts in industrial operations over the years. The current shift has been largely about extraction and use of operational data for human decision making. Software-defined or virtualized automation and control systems that are fueled by AI-driven data models represent the next significant advancement of the use of technology in physical-world operations. "We've talked about this idea of software-defined automation for a few years," says Jonathan Lang, research director for IDC's Worldwide IT/OT Convergence Strategies research program. "We are now starting to see general availability of some of this technology, which means we have to speak more practically and prescriptively about the impact to organizations and how to best prepare for it."

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