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Embracing Industry 4.0 is essential if you want to lead the pack, but it requires more than simply adopting IoT, AI, and cloud solutions. Connectivity through SDN could be the missing piece you need to transform your enterprise into a smart one.
The pressure is on for enterprises to abandon their legacy systems and pave the way for smart industries in major sectors like manufacturing, healthcare and more.
Smart industries are sectors that integrate advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotics, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT), into traditional processes to create more efficient, flexible, and automated business systems. Integrating advanced technologies into production processes is a hallmark of Industry 4.0 or the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
These industries operate in complex environments, dealing with a wide range of technologies, software, and hardware. Executives and managers must navigate various systems and processes in these environments while ensuring uninterrupted operations.
Let’s see the potential of Industry 4.0 in five key sectors:
APAC manufacturers account for 48.5% of the global manufacturing output.1 They must be agile enough to adapt to growing demand and be willing to explore novel operating models and emerging technologies that could restructure their workflows and supply chains.
The IDC predicts 55% of APAC healthcare organisations will adopt AI for predictive, preventive, and personalised care and have the proper data governance frameworks in place by the end of 2026.2 They will need an appropriate IT infrastructure to support these goals.
APAC financial institutions have invested in innovative elements such as blockchain and data analytics, but 39% are still in the incremental stage of digital transformation.3 Many of these institutions also need support to keep up with growing customer expectations and may need to continue evolving technologically to improve their services.
According to Grand View Research, the global smart transportation market will reach USD285.12 billion by 2030, with APAC as the fastest-growing region between 2023 and 2030.4 Transport companies will require the right IT infrastructure to optimise their growth.
The APAC retail market will grow 26.4% annually between 2019 and 2027, with a total market value of USD24.27 billion.5 This growth is due to the widespread use of mobile phones and digital media fuelling online shopping, the growing demand for better customer service, and the declining cost of many electronic components. Retail businesses must catch up quickly with the sector’s massive growth.
Though many companies have widely adopted emerging technologies, a comprehensive strategy is still needed to become smart enterprises. For instance, many enterprises need help implementing a multi-cloud strategy. Organisations that need to connect to multiple cloud providers via the internet must contend with complex environments, vendor lock-in, and connectivity issues, which can be time-consuming and inefficient.
Companies may also encounter problems when running many AI solutions simultaneously.6 Companies can lose sight of their overall operational status in their attempt to manage different architectures, data structures and AI applications. Hence, they must invest in infrastructure, talent, and training—which can strain IT budgets and staffing—and pay extra attention to data security.
Additionally, with an IoT system, companies use various devices that may come from different vendors with incompatible protocols. As their IoT ecosystems expand, enterprises must be able to efficiently store, process and analyse the growing amount of data, finding or internally developing IoT expertise.
Amidst cost, complexity, data security, interoperability, and other major problems of smart industries, connectivity is at the core of true digital transformation. Software-defined networking, or SDN, can provide the necessary agility and scalability to support them. SDN is a network design and management approach that helps manage industrial networks centrally and easily.8
SDN also helps reconfigure connectivity when there's a problem with any network component. Its components include the control plane, data plane, and management plane. In traditional network architectures, the control plane and data plane are tightly coupled, whereas SDN separates these functions and centralises the control plane in a software-based controller.
By implementing SDN, network administrators can define and automate network policies, allocate resources more efficiently, troubleshoot issues more quickly, and improve overall network performance, reliability, and security.
SDN has unique network capabilities that benefit and promote smart industries:
Companies can easily implement SDN to simplify their network services. For instance, they can enjoy easy access to major data centres and leading public cloud services with Singtel’s SD-Connect. Managers can activate connectivity to cloud providers on-demand via a self-service portal, allowing for quick provisioning and scaling of the bandwidth.
Companies don’t need to deal with multiple service providers as SDN architectures foster a vendor-neutral ecosystem and support interoperability. SDN overlays provide low-latency direct links to the cloud, bypassing the public internet for greater security and reliability.
Network operators can configure the SDN architecture to create network-aware applications, control network behaviour, and monitor network conditions. Companies can have greater flexibility in network operations, traffic, and performance. They can remotely and rapidly manage systems and devices, which is particularly useful in large and complex networks.
Enterprises can also simplify their multi-cloud management with SDN. Network operators use a single console to oversee assets and workloads across distributed geographical locations.
SDN’s programmability paves the way for automating network processes. For example, a network manager can establish policies to optimise routing and incident response. With SDN, enterprises can simplify task management and monitoring to better identify performance bottlenecks and respond to changing business needs and organisational demands.
In a multi-cloud strategy, network managers can also automate processes by establishing policy-based routing, which sends traffic across the most efficient links based on performance requirements.
Companies can control and manage network resources centrally, gaining greater visibility into network traffic and the interplay between applications. Enterprises can oversee their assets and workloads across distributed geographical locations with a single console. They can also define secure pathways, identify threats quickly, and selectively block malicious traffic at a granular level.
To bridge the gaps in realising smart industries, let’s see how enterprises in five major sectors can maximise SDN to meet Industry 4.0 expectations.
We expect smart factories to incorporate advanced technologies such as IoT, AI, and robotics to automate, monitor, and optimise production processes in real-time, allowing manufacturers to reduce waste, improve product quality, increase productivity, and quickly adapt to changing market demands.
However, manufacturers may encounter interoperability and data management issues. As manufacturers adopt more advanced technologies, they will require standardisation across different systems, platforms, and protocols. Many companies also deal with legacy systems that need to integrate seamlessly with Industry 4.0 technologies.
Additionally, manufacturers must make sense of large volumes of data generated by connected devices and sensors. This requires sophisticated data analytics capabilities and the ability to store, secure, and share data across different systems and platforms.
Manufacturers can quickly deploy SDN to support the connection between sensors, devices, machines, and people and improve access to various data centres, including legacy systems. They can easily connect to multiple cloud providers through a single, secure connection, allowing them to adopt cloud services and reap the benefits of multi-cloud deployments, such as increased scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness.
Enterprises can then run data analysis tools to optimise production processes without worrying about network hiccups. They can use AI and predictive analytics to identify potential equipment failures before they occur, enabling maintenance teams to minimise downtime and avoid incurring repair costs.
Manufacturing companies can also flexibly switch between production runs and product types by automatically diverting network traffic to the right machines and applications. This helps ensure production continuity and quality control. With proper connectivity, companies can also use Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to accelerate and simplify incident response without human intervention, delivering faster time-to-resolution.
Smart healthcare systems use digital technologies to improve patient care and optimise clinical processes. They exist to reduce costs and enhance patient experiences through wearable health monitors, remote patient monitoring systems, telemedicine services, and other innovative technologies.
Healthcare enterprises are complex, with multiple systems and applications operating in a highly regulated environment. As healthcare organisations adopt AI and multi-cloud solutions, integration and interoperability between different systems are well-recognised industry challenges.
Additionally, as companies transfer data from the point of collection to remote servers, the risk of data breaches and cyberattacks becomes a major concern.9 Adopting new technology while staying compliant requires healthcare companies to allocate a portion of their limited budgets to hiring operators with advanced technical expertise.
Healthcare companies can confidently adopt AI-enabled automation for patient data collection, chatbots, and e-triage tools.10 With SDN’s agility and responsiveness, companies can provide reliable access to data and a seamless user experience so patients and healthcare professionals can make timely decisions.11
Companies can monitor their entire network centrally and securely in an SDN. They can also receive quick support from a single service provider and rely less on hired network operators. Additionally, healthcare companies can tap SDN’s security features, such as network segmentation, micro-segmentation, and policy-based access control, to protect from cyberattacks.
Smart finance offers digital wallets, mobile banking, blockchain solutions, and other sophisticated financial services with enhanced customer experience.12 “Robo-advisors” or “bionic advisors,” which combine machine calculations and human insight, are at play to redefine client-advisor relationships.13,14
Ensuring compliance while adopting new technologies can be a significant challenge. Finance institutions are subject to a wide range of regulations and requirements that are complex and costly to implement. As these institutions move more data to the cloud and share it across networks, they are at an increased risk for cyberattacks and data breaches. Companies must carefully evaluate the costs and benefits of technology to have a positive return on investment.
Finance businesses can implement a virtualised network to enhance the quality of their services. They can maximise SDN’s low latency to promote chatbots or virtual assistants that provide customer support and streamline banking operations. They can also automate processes and easily create financial products to cater to consumer needs in the digital age.
With a programmable, centralised network architecture, financial institutions can promote network security by implementing real-time threat intelligence and security policies. They can also use pattern recognition and other AI solutions that seamlessly integrate with an SDN set-up to make data-based decisions about investments.
Smart transport companies use sensors and machines powered by automation and data analytics. They use real-time data to optimise traffic flow and delivery routes, manage connected vehicles and fleets, reduce emissions, promote workforce safety, process payments, and predict maintenance requirements. Smart transport also aligns with sustainability, meeting clients’ needs while minimising their carbon footprint.
Transport companies work in complex environments with many moving parts beyond their control. As they operate in diverse geographic areas, securing connectivity and accessing cloud services can be challenging, particularly in remote areas.
They also often have legacy systems that need to integrate more easily with modern AI and cloud solutions. They have data silos across various departments, making it challenging to create a unified view of operations.
Transport companies must also comply with the industry’s high safety standards, which require careful testing and validation of technological solutions before deployment.
With SDN, transport companies can centralise network management via a secure, intuitive portal to support IoT device management, multi-cloud integration, and network automation.
With SDN overlays, smart transportation enterprises can quickly activate cloud provider connectivity on-demand through a self-service portal, allowing efficient provisioning and scalable bandwidth to meet real-time demands. Companies can also enhance network security with micro-segmentation to isolate sensitive data, manage sensors and devices, and integrate various cloud services.
With SDN’s easy deployment, companies can replicate their systems to new service lines or teams across different geographical locations. Organisations can then adopt a consumption-based model to support complex cloud requirements, allocating resources and bandwidth efficiently to optimise network performance.
Smart retail uses IoT, AI, and cloud computing to provide customers a smooth and personalised shopping experience. Smart retailers allow customers to purchase whenever, wherever, and however they want while optimising inventory management, operations, and revenues.
The rise of e-commerce has made retail much more competitive and technology-driven. Retailers must integrate different systems and devices to provide a seamless shopping experience. This can be particularly challenging for businesses with legacy systems and paper-based inventory, reporting, and sales. These companies must also contend with data privacy and security issues as they manage large amounts of sensitive customer data.
With SDN's centralised network architecture and cloud integration capabilities, retailers can deploy and scale e-commerce platforms and handle high-volume online transactions securely and efficiently. They can create a single programmable network that enables easy connectivity between devices and applications to promote both online and in-store shopping experiences.
They can monitor network performance from one location, ensuring fast and reliable data transfer to enhance the customer experience while protecting customer data using micro-segmentation, policy-based access control, and other advanced security features in SDN.
Retail companies can also use SDN to successfully deploy smart shelves, real-time inventory tracking systems, and other advanced inventory management solutions. These advanced technologies monitor inventory levels and automatically trigger replenishment orders to optimise the supply chain and avoid stockouts.
Becoming a smart industry leader requires more than just adopting advanced technologies such as IoT, AI, and cloud computing. To succeed, enterprises must consider the 3Rs to build a smart industry:
● Right design and solution
● Right infrastructure
● Right operations, people, and skills
Connectivity is also crucial to unlocking the full potential of these technologies. With SDN, industries can achieve greater agility, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness while simplifying network management processes. Companies hoping to successfully contribute to smart industries will find SDN crucial to dynamically adapting to evolving business and technological requirements.
Bring your data centres and major cloud services together seamlessly and securely. Contact us today to learn more about how to take your digital transformation a step further with SDN-based solutions.
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