After this year of crises and wars, it is realistic and necessary to proclaim a new dawn for industry in the coming year. Because in the background of the general slump, numerous companies have not only come up with creative ideas, they have also built up a market in just a few years that industry, which is thirsty for innovation, can now rely on. Open, Linux-based platforms are finally pointing the way to the realization of Industry 4.0 and the digital renewal of automation. If they do nothing wrong, 2025 could be their big year.
The year 2024 was a year of reinvention. The open, Linux-based automation platforms have found themselves in their own Smart Automation market overview. From an empty slogan, they have made openness everyone’s program. Anyone who looks at how smart industrial automation is becoming on this basis in factories, how flexible and transparent the shopfloor in particular is, how quickly and yet securely this highly sensitive area is opening up to the cloud, edge and AI, knows what possibilities are opening up.
At the end of this year, can we look positively to the next? Yes! Because the power of innovation in our industry does not depend on rules and laws and the color of the coalitions that decide them. Nor does it depend on the goodwill of governments and multi-billionaires in other countries. It depends on the strength of our engineers, and today that means above all the strength of our software engineers.
When, if not now!
“When, if not now!” platform providers might exclaim when someone asks when innovation and growth in the industry will once again make the headlines in the business press and media.
After all, the technology is there, the platforms and their ecosystems are already functioning well and numerous customers are working productively with them on the next evolutionary stage of automation.
“Who, if not us!” they might exclaim when someone asks which area of the economy offers ideas and products that could cause a global sensation again. After all, no comparable platforms are known from either Asia or the USA. The head start is years.
“Where, if not here”, the platform providers could exclaim, because without support programs and subsidies, despite adverse political conditions and an extremely tense economic situation, especially in the industry, they have created their own market for a completely new hardware and software world, with which customers and users in all sectors can now overcome their crisis.
The trend towards Linux, open standards and Internet-enabled APIs is unmistakable. A post of mine on LinkedIn that contrasted the Linux logo with the Micosoft Windows logo received the most impressions (around 12,000). And for some years now, use cases in almost all application areas have shown that openness not only makes us flexible and independent, but also leads to fast and inexpensive solutions. Because everyone no longer has to invent the wheel themselves.
The megaphone market overview
What is missing is a greater awareness of this new market of open platforms. And the enormous potential they offer in terms of application. The industry as a whole must realize that very targeted investments promise a great deal of success in this area. The companies that emerge stronger from the crisis will be those that follow the principle of the composable enterprise, which means that their software – especially in manufacturing – must consist of containers and be composable itself.
I will continue to dedicate all my work to this goal of greater awareness in 2025. The Smart Automation market overview will have a new look at the beginning of January with new comparison tables and two new platforms and their providers, Ubique from TTTech Digital Solutions and netFIELD from Hilscher. However, it looks like Contact Software and Siemens will be missing from the overview in future, as they have not yet provided me with any new information for my update.
The market overview includes: Bosch Rexroth with ctrlX AUTOMATION, FLECS Technologies with FLECS, German Edge Cloud with ONCITE DPS, Hilscher Gesellschaft für Systemautomation with netFIELD, KEBA AG with Kemro X, Lenze with Lenze NUPANO, Phoenix Contact with PLCnext Technology, SALZ Automation with SALZ Controller, TTTech Digital Solutions with Ubique, TTTech Industrial Automation AG with Nerve, WAGO with WAGO OS and WAGO ctrlX OS, and Weidmüller with u-OS and easyConnect.
It is these providers that are making the difference in the industry in German-speaking countries and currently internationally. And if they want to, they can make 2025 the year of open, Linux-based automation platforms.