Many industrial systems still struggle with limited data access, leaving critical insights untapped. Without real-time visibility, businesses miss key opportunities to optimize operations and embrace AI. However, as the panel of experts shares, technology advances are providing the answers.
In this 1-hour pre-recorded webinar, experts from Celona, Digi International, and Inductive Automation share how industrial enterprises can overcome these barriers — unlocking data from legacy equipment, enabling reliable private 5G connectivity, and modernizing visualization to support AI-driven outcomes.
Tune in to discover how these technologies lay the groundwork for smarter, more secure industrial operations. And be sure to connect with us to learn how Digi industrial cellular router solutions support robust connectivity, cybersecurity and integrated remote management with Digi Remote Manager®.
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Follow-up Webinar Q&A:
Thank you again for attending our session with Celona and Inductive Automation on industrial innovation and unlocking stranded data. If you have additional questions, be sure to reach out.
Moderator: Pradhyum Ramkumar, Senior Director, Product Marketing at Celona
Presenters:
- Amir Boushehri, Channel Sales Manager, Digi International
- Puneet Shetty, VP of Product and Field Engineering, Celona
- Travis Cox, Chief Technology Evangelist, Inductive Automation
We've got a mountain of historical data, predates our current smart data collection setup. Should we process the old data, or just focus on the newly generated data?
Travis: There are a lot of organizations that have historians with years or terabytes of data in there. And the question really is, is that data in the format and with the context that we need in order for these AI systems? And a lot of times, the answer is a simply no. We didn't think about it at that time, and provide it the right way. And so, the amount of time and work it will take for you to map that data in, and get that into a new infrastructure, is, it's a significant effort.
Whereas we know that, with AI, we could actually train models on smaller subsets of data, very quickly. So, if we start thinking of getting this data in, and within a week, there is a lot of insights you can get off of data that is done right, that's contextualized, that has the right models, and we don't have to worry about kind of trying to get back to all that legacy?
We can put this infrastructure in, and a lot of times, too, put this in parallel with what we already have. We do not need to eat the whole whale, or the whole elephant, at one time, right? We can start small, and get...you know, what's one asset that I want to be able to start getting information about? Do that, get it in, build a model, and get ROI, and then continue on, right? That's the process I think that we should be looking at.
Our executive team doesn't understand the value in our asset data, and is reluctant to invest in our initiatives to recap the value for this data. Any advice on challenging their minds?
Travis: I think when you say teams don't understand the value of data, that's just that they don't understand what they actually have, and/or what they're trying to accomplish. I think that AI and digital transformation has to be the culture of these companies. It has to be leadership setting a tone, saying, look, we're going to invest, and we're going to educate our teams, so that we can actually transform what we're doing, and bring the right technologies, bring the right stakeholders together to accomplish this.
Because, if you do that, finding out what data you have, and what you want to do with that data, is actually an easy thing. Somebody knows. You just need to be able to bring them together and have communication happening. And so, honestly, if you can make this part of your culture, and get somebody who can kind of be that leader, the one saying, "This is going to change who we are," then you're going to get somewhere. Because I can tell you this for sure. If you don't have that, you're going to be left behind.
Puneet: What I'll add here is, and this is what we do quite typically whenever we are hit with skepticism around the technology. So, I would say proof points, right? And given what's happening out there in the world right now, I'm sure there are enough and more proof points, particularly in your verticals and your peers, where people are getting a lot out of their data. And all of the applications and use cases that Travis was referring to, a lot of value is being generated out of the data. So I would say look at that proof point, find proof points amongst your peers, and bring that to key stakeholders within your organization, to build consensus around this. I don't think, given what's happening around us right now, you would find it very hard to actually look and find those proof points.