Cui Liyong, reporter of China Economic Herald and China Development Network, reported
Engineers in industry have complained in recent years that they are not understood.
The wave of digitalization is roaring, the digital transformation of industry is accelerating, and industrial production and technological innovation are tightly tied to the digital economy. In manufacturing, transportation, mining, power, water and other industries, few companies can refuse the dramatic changes brought about by digitalization. However, industry and digitalization are often in different fields in reality, and they are in the "hands" of their respective professional talents for a long time. With the deepening of digitalization, mutual incomprehension makes the pace of industrial digitalization suddenly slow down in the "last mile" or even "last meter".
Recently, Shuguang announced that it has entered the industrial control track, and one of the goals is to start from the underlying structure, move the mountain between industry and digitalization, and open up a fast road connecting the two. Ren Jinghui, senior vice president of Shuguang, said that the digital transformation of industry is an extremely complex system engineering, which requires a deep understanding and integration of IT (information technology) and OT (operation technology) systems, and Sugon has a complete design, development and manufacturing layout in terms of core components, complete machine systems, software applications, etc., with the dual attributes of information industry and manufacturing, which is also the fundamental reason for Sugon's research and development and construction of the industrial digital intelligence platform SugonRI.
Partners who come to provide digital solutions "do not understand" what they say, cannot accurately grasp the production process and characteristics of enterprises, and the digital "prescription" prescribed is not symptomatic... Many industrial companies encounter common problems in the process of digital transformation. OT and IT evolve according to their own logic and seem to be isolated from each other.
From a human point of view, IT talents are more from computer and software majors, and OT talents are more from mechanical, electronic and automation majors. IT talents have the advantage of programming in high-level languages, but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, the lack of in-depth knowledge of industrial production. In Shuguang's view, if industrial digital transformation is to succeed, and digital and real integration is to be truly landed, we cannot but screw these two sets of people together.
"If you copy the technology and experience of the Internet directly to the industrial site, you will find that many links are not suitable." Liu Li, vice president of Shuguang and president of Shuguang Network Technology Co., Ltd., told this reporter.
Liu Li, Vice President of Dawning and President of Dawning Network Technology Co., Ltd
"It's really different." Chen Bingbing, chief engineer of Shuguang Network, introduced that compared with the information industry, industrial computing technology is a different system, even if communication bandwidth, computing power and other high standards are achieved, it does not necessarily guarantee high-performance performance in industrial systems. He further analyzed that from the perspective of the industrial enterprises that Dawning has been in contact with for a long time, industrial production has very high requirements for computing technology, and masters in the IT field can truly meet the deep needs of industry.
Chen Bingbing, chief engineer of Shuguang Network Technology Co., Ltd
In response to practical challenges, Sugon launched an industrial digital intelligence base integrating industrial computing, industrial communication, industrial security, and industrial control, deeply integrating IT and OT technologies through multi-layer content - a series of domestic industrial hardware, including industrial computers; Real-time operating systems ensure that software runs cross-platform on multiple hardware; Digitally encapsulated middleware facilitates practitioners in the physical industry to "shield" complex IT technology and programming knowledge, enabling the digital transformation of the industry; The intelligent development platform enriches the applications of different industries.
Liu Li explained that Sugon encapsulates the industrial field knowledge accumulated over the years into middleware such as computing, communication, security, and virtualization, which users can call directly, and no longer need to use open source software for secondary development; Based on the componentized low-code intelligent development platform, the business logic of upper-layer control can be quickly realized by dragging and dropping, and OT practitioners can quickly develop according to the characteristics of the industry and enterprises, thus saving a lot of time.
Wang Jihong, deputy secretary-general of China Mechatronics Technology Application Association, introduced that the current manufacturing industry has become the most active field of scientific and technological innovation activities, and the launch of Shuguang Industrial Digital Intelligence Base and Smart Industry Strategy has bridged the digital gap, provided strong support for the industrial "new four technologies", and allowed more manufacturing customers and partners to participate in the new industrialization process.
Li Kaike, vice president of Dawning Network, said that new industrialization has brought many complex business scenarios, and industrial sites are often outdoors in subways, high-speed rails, ships, etc., in an environment with changing temperature and pressure, so digital technology must be convenient and easy to use, safe and stable for these actual situations. For example, he said, due to the real-time characteristics of industry, nodes with large computing power can not all be put on the cloud, but more concentrated on the edge side for complex calculations, Sugon's pioneering pre-plug-in card edge computing node series products with small size, high density, strong performance, to ensure that it can be flexibly placed in various spaces of the industrial site to operate.
The convergence of OT and IT doesn't happen overnight. "If you really enter, you will find that it is really difficult." Chen Bingbing said that to cope with the challenges in the process of industrial digitalization, a group of large-scale, influential and resource-integrated enterprises are needed, and for these enterprises, one of the four "skills" is indispensable - having a large number of computer talents; Has a large number of experts in the industrial field; Have a complete technology stack accumulation; "Cross-border" understanding of computing technology and industry, and has the ability to productize and industrialize.
Liu Li told this reporter that the industrial Internet is not to provide a beautiful set of data, but to really help the industrial site reduce costs and increase efficiency, avoid risks, and reflect economic value. The deep integration of OT and IT is not a heavy task that can be completed overnight, and it cannot only rely on the breakthrough of single-point technology, and the future still requires industry, academia and research to coordinate horizontal technology research and development, and also requires the joint efforts of domestic enterprises. "The last road to integration must be crossed." He said.