IoT Trends

Whether it’s oil & gas equipment in Alaska or mining vehicles in West Africa, the end-user assets that our solution providers monitor often operate at or beyond the unreliable edge of cellular coverage. Most remote monitoring and control devices will talk bit-field data like sensor outputs, switch closures or CANbus frames.  At the other end,…

Mining sites are often located in some of the most remote locations in the world. These outlying locations make communication difficult when attempting to successfully connect people, equipment and the enterprise system via cellular or radio technology. However, going without crucial communications is not an option—visibility is essential for critical decision-making. Satellite messaging terminals provide…

My interest in SCADA security started in 2011 when I started noticing the warnings from DHS around hacks of municipal and power services.  Since SkyWave’s satellite terminals do not face the Internet like other communication devices, they are largely immune from hacks and it is not a typical concern for our customer base. But apparently not…

Intelligent Utility has just posted a good overview of the new service opportunities for the field service industry made possible by M2M technology, entitled How M2M Can Enhance the Customer Experience in Field Service. The article points out the many ways in which “M2M helps to minimize problems” for field workers, beyond simply linking devices,…

At the 2014 Association of Equipment Management Professionals (AEMP) symposium, Thompson Machinery (a Caterpillar dealer in Tennessee) delivered an interesting presentation that stressed the importance of turning telematics data into actionable information when managing heavy equipment. To set the stage, the speaker started with a concept that applies not only to telematics systems but also any…