Volkswagen choosing AWS. A hard pill to swallow for automation companies

By: Louis Vermorel, CEO Wattsense.

The trend of SaaS and PaaS verticalization is driving big names in the territory of dated automation technologies. I see the recent launch of AWS IoT SiteWise as a marker of a shift in the industry.

Horizontal IoT platforms are not enough to transform the automation industry. To make an impact with IoT in the real world, AWS jumped into the Factory and Process vertical.

If in this vertical you can afford spending million+ euros in integration to connect a factory which produces 100.000 cars a year, that won’t fly in the building industry to connect a 500m2 retail store.

My conviction is that the shift in the building industry requires a drastic simplification of the integration part. While you can connect a printer in a few clicks to an IT system, it should be the same with a boiler, a power meter, an occupancy sensor or a BMS. We will make it happen or die trying.

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