Manufacturing Automation Is Moving Up Into The Clouds

I have talked with several people in the industry over the last few days about cloud automation controlling automation in manufacturing operations, something that is called cloud manufacturing. It seems that most of them do not think that manufacturing automation will ever be executed from cloud based computers. I think this will happen sooner and not later. I believe that this idea of it not ever happening is coming from thoughts about trust. Most of the people that I talk to do not believe that manufacturers will ever trust the cloud computing companies with their proprietary automation programs. They also say that there is no way that an automation control program can be kept up-to-date once it is on a cloud computer. It seems these same disagreements and non-belief have been here before. Just think back to when remote banking came on the scene. People had thoughts about trust issues when the availability to bank online first became a reality. People would say that their account information would be open to the public, and you know the rest of the arguments of why it would not work and why they would not use it! After all how much more proprietary can you get than the private banking data of individuals and companies. We are talking very serious stuff! It is my thought that some of the people who believe cloud control of manufacturing will never happen are some of the same people who said internet banking would never work. Now they are paying their bills online and looking at their balances on a computer with the best of them. Technology is in place for this to happen today. It is just a matter of how long it takes for a cloud automation supplier to get a user-friendly delivery system in place for cloud automation of manufacturing. It would be hard to believe that someone is not working on this very project right now.

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