Emergence of New Cloud-Driven Capabilities Elevate OT Solutions, Enabling the Acceleration of Digital Twin and Simulation Adoption

The demand for digital twin or simulation solutions is growing among enterprises, and cloud computing is an increasingly important component of any digital twin solution. Digital twins are set to become more intelligent by integrating AI algorithms and ML models delivered using cloud platforms. Global intelligence firm ABI Research forecasts a steady increase in uptake for cloud-driven digital twin solutions, driven by advancements in AI/ ML, edge computing, multi and hybrid cloud deployments, 5G networks, and smart connectivity.

“We are seeing the emergence of cloud computing in Operational Technology (OT). The deployment and integration of cloud solutions with OT solutions in areas such as asset performance monitoring and product lifecycle management provide compelling benefits such as performance reliability, increase in computational power, and seamless AI/ ML processing,” explains Yih-Khai Wong, Distributed and Edge Computing Senior Analyst at ABI Research.

Cloud hyperscalers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud provide tools and packaged solutions to build digital twin solutions. Customers can also leverage contextual data from public datasets and funnel this information to optimize their digital twin platforms.

Benefits of deploying cloud-driven digital twin solutions include:

• Scalability: Provides flexibility for businesses to scale up or down according to current business needs, ensuring optimal performance of the digital twin solution.
• Computational Power: Complex simulations can be processed on the cloud using solutions such as Virtual Machines (VMs) and containers. The availability of various cloud computational components ensures that businesses can match resources according to specific digital twin platforms.
• AI/ML Processing: Cloud computing platforms often provide data analytics tools to help process AI/ML workloads. These tools range from the infrastructure compute power components such as the Central Processing Unit (CPU) and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) to industry-specific application software that can analyze, predict, and make recommendations based on data processed by a digital twin.

“The convergence of IT and OT is gathering pace, and digital twin is a great example of how this convergence can elevate existing scenarios into achieving greater possibilities and ultimately increase the value, productivity, and competitive advantage of enterprises,” Wong concludes.

These findings are from ABI Research’s Cloud-Driven Digital Twins: Elevating the Future of Digital Environments application analysis report. This report is part of the company’s Distributed and Edge Computing research service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Based on extensive primary interviews, Application Analysis reports present in-depth analysis on key market trends and factors for a specific application, which could focus on an individual market or geography.