To understand our goals for 2016, it helps to look back on 2015, a year of milestones reached and surpassed. Some involved big numbers, like passing the 10 million node count for PROFINET. Others were more intangible, like our broad coverage in the trade press. Our PROFINET of Things tagline introduced mid-year certainly seemed to catch a few ears, playing off the ‘Internet of Things’ meme. As such, the concept will continue into 2016 and will be expanded upon.
Until now, here at PI North America, we’ve focused on the ‘Uptime’ part of the PROFINET of Things. We will now explore other topics like ‘Data Access’ and ‘Openness’. For more, read the PROFINET of Things article in this issue. Fascinating to observe are the viewpoints from other parts of the world. For example, in Europe there is a big focus on Use Cases. As in, not just creating technology for technology’s sake. The PROFINET of Things is playing a direct role in such Use Cases as: Individualization, Maintenance, and Optimization.
And so, our goals for 2016 and beyond involve publicizing real-world use cases. Like the thousands of installations extant today where PROFIBUS has performed with aplomb for years. Except manufacturers are realizing there are applications beyond typical control for these automation networks. Therefore, using standardized proxies and flexible topologies, more hybrid systems are being installed as the step-by-step migration continues in the PROFINET of Things.