With the latest building block - big data analysis - Vodafone says it will offer its IoT customers a complete package comprising hardware, global SIM for worldwide networking, applications for data collection, secure data hosting on German servers and intelligent data analysis. The basis for networking is the company's own communication infrastructure, it says - today with LTE and in a few years with 5G. This technology will then network machines in real time with a latency of around one millisecond.

"Many industrial companies are often unaware of how much valuable IoT data is lying dormant on their servers. Our intelligent analysis uses this information and makes companies more efficient. We help the economy to reduce costs and protect the environment at the same time. In this way, we are further expanding our position as the world's leading telecommunications group in the Internet of Things," says Vodafone Germany CEO Hannes Ametsreiter.

A current example: In order to operate commercial buildings more efficiently, heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC systems) need to be controlled with foresight. To precisely forecast individual energy requirements, the new analysis tool can be used to automatically evaluate all the data required for this, such as operating data from the technical building equipment, weather forecasts or usage times, and transfer it into intelligent control algorithms. This allows the systems to be controlled proactively and load peaks to be reduced. According to Vodafone, this not only reduces energy consumption, but also costs by up to 30%. An investment that pays for itself in a very short time.

Cost benefits and new business areas

Big data analytics enables industrial sectors such as mechanical engineering to take a fact-based look into the future. Whereas in the past, dispatchers relied on actual conditions or assumptions to plan maintenance and service intervals for their machines, today a detailed analysis of thousands of real data records forms the basis for predictive maintenance. It recognizes and evaluates irregularities in the condition of the machine fully automatically. Intelligent pattern recognition can be used, for example, to make an accurate forecast of the failure of individual components. Predictive maintenance or the replacement of affected components prevents unplanned downtimes. Among other things, the analysis tool uses findings from data recordings on failures or wear and tear and processes these into recommendations for action, taking current machine data into account.

Big data analytics also opens up completely new business areas for companies: Such as offering global services via remote access, selling machine availability in the sense of a pay-per-use solution or a detailed analysis of operating data and their own product development. Data analysis can also be used to provide consulting services for operational optimization, such as operating cost planning through intelligent energy data management, according to Vodafone.