Halliburton, Microsoft to digitize oil fields; smart factory research

Halliburton partners with Microsoft to digitize oil industry

Halliburton will partner with Microsoft to deliver tightly integrated energy solutions that will digitize the oil industry, the energy giant said. This includes applying deep learning to reservoir characterization, modeling and simulation, building domain-specific visualization for mixed reality, creating highly interactive applications and fueling the digitalization of exploration and production assets. As a first step, Halliburton has made DecisionSpace 365, cloud-based exploration and production software, available on Azure, enabling real-time data streaming from IoT edge devices in oil fields and the ability to apply deep-learning models to optimize drilling and production to lower costs for customers.

Smart factories to skyrocket productivity metrics

Industrial manufacturing, aerospace and defense, and automotive and transportation industries have the highest percentage of manufacturers with ongoing smart factory initiatives today, according to a recent Capgemini report, “Smart factories: How can manufacturers realize the potential of digital industrial revolution.” Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed have an ongoing smart factory initiative or are working to define one, and smart factories will increase manufacturing productivity by seven times its current level by 2022.

Buffalo getting dedicated IoT network

SigFox and the University at Buffalo’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have partnered to deploy an IoT network to the city of Buffalo, N.Y., following in the footsteps of cities like San Francisco and Boston. SigFox will deploy its LPWA network to help the city implement, for instance, smart parking initiatives and to track the whether a public recycling bin is full or empty.

IoT startup Flutura raises $7.5 million

Bengaluru, India-based Flutura Decision Sciences and Analytics recently raised $7.5 million from Vertex Ventures and The Hive. The startup is an IoT intelligence company, exposing undetected machine signals that mine streaming IoT sensors, assets and operations data using its data science platform, Cerebra.

VMware to integrate ZingBox in Pulse IoT Center

ZingBox, an IoT security solution provider, will integrate its ZingBox IoT personality-based approach with VMware Pulse IoT Center, an infrastructure management solution that aims to ease management of IoT devices for both IT and OT professionals. ZingBox will introduce the element of trust between IoT devices and a vendor-neutral open source SDK by discerning each device's unique personality and enforcing acceptable behavior based on rules created within VMware Pulse IoT Center.

Incedo releases vertical IoT solutions

Bay Area software and services firm Incedo has released its IoT NXT portfolio, focused on developing solutions across industries, including renewable energy, industrial and transportation sectors. The solutions include smart energy management to enable battery and automobile OEMs to track and monitor the health of batteries and make optimum use of energy, smart fleet management solutions for real time tracking of geo-fenced IoT-enabled transport fleet to improve driver productivity and smart oil field management to continuously monitor gas and send alerts using both mobile and fixed gas detectors.