Cloud

In line with current digital transformations, the number of software applications in use by companies is continuously increasing. This particularly affects industrial enterprises, which face challenges due to their often complex business processes. A holistic and sustainable integration of these business processes requires a strong link between the different information systems used. In this context, application integration, also known as enterprise application integration (EAI), is becoming more important. Modern approaches such as the use of microservices offer a particularly flexible and efficient solution for seamlessly connecting different applications and thus promoting the agility and scalability of a company’s IT landscape.

By definition, a digital twin is the “electronic image or mirror of a real or virtual object, e. g. a product or a logical organization”. This mirror image of an organization is useful for visibility and control, the feasible simulations, however, enable better planning und prediction. In fact, digital twin can be used for predictive maintenance, e. g. of trains or planes, and for security aspects. The digital twin of an organization (DTO) is already feasible by using an appropriate SaaS solution that builds a mirror image of an enterprise etc., establishes all processes and communication lines. It enables the management to simulate the benefits and risks of changes to the original, e. g. by creating a new business model.

The popularity of the Cloud rises, but there is still much insecurity in the IT-Security of a cloud solution. Companies want to be able to check, if the processes in the cloud are secure and trustworthy. This is possible with an external auditing system, which compares measured data with predefined rules. But there is a chance, that the measured data are manipulated on its way to the auditing system, before leaving the cloud. To prevent these threads, the measured data must be protected right after it is generated. This is possible with the forward integrity method, which builds a chain-of-trust for the measured data without need of a TPM.

The third industrial revolution culminated in the Computer Integrated Manufacturing but limited computing power and the dystopia of a deserted factory prevented its success. Industry 4.0, however, stands for the integration of people, technology and organization. Based on the networking of products, tools and means of production become all relevant information available. The combination with cloud computing and big data enables the analysis and utilization of such information.

On the technical level there are different possibilities to fight counterfeiting and to prohibit the use of counterfeited parts in machinery and equipment. The aim should be to enable the machinery and equipment to recognize the exchange of wearing or the assembly of additional parts automatically and to check their originality independently. RFID offers not only the conditions to realize the suggested functions but also the possibility to check the authenti-city of products along the whole supply chain. Of course, the checking of parts along the supply chain avoids that co-pies or counterfeited goods break into the original value added chain.