 Welcome back to the program, my name is Dave Vellante. And in this session, we're going to explore one of the more interesting topics of the day, IoT for smart factories. And with me are Todd Edmonds, the global CTO of smart manufacturing edge and digital twins at Dell Technologies. That is such a cool title. I want to be you. And Dr. Aditi Banerjee, who's the Vice President, General Manager for Aerospace Defense and Manufacturing at DXE Technology. Another really cool title, folks. Welcome to the program. Thanks for coming on. Thanks, Dave. Great to be here. Nice to be here. Todd, let's start with you. We hear a lot about industry 4.0, smart factories, IIOT. Can you briefly explain like what is industry 4.0 all about and why is it important for the manufacturing industry? Yeah, sure, Dave. You know, it's been around for quite a while and it's gone by multiple different names. As you said, industry 4.0, smart manufacturing, industrial IoT, smart factory. But it all really means the same thing. It's really applying technology to get more out of the factories and the facilities that you have to do your manufacturing. So being much more efficient, implementing really good sustainability initiatives. And so we really look at that by saying, okay, what are we going to do with technology to really accelerate what we've been doing for a long, long time? So it's really not, it's not new. It's been around for a long time. What's new is that manufacturers are looking at this not as a one-off, two-off individual use case point of view, but instead they're saying, we really need to look at this holistically, thinking about a strategic investment in how we do this, not to just enable one or two use cases, but enable many, many use cases across the spectrum. I mean, there's tons of them out there. There's predictive maintenance and there's OEE, overall equipment effectiveness and there's computer vision. And all of these things are starting to percolate down to the factory floor, but it needs to be done in a little bit different way and really to really get those outcomes that they're looking for in smart factory or industry 4.0 or however you wanna call it and truly transform, not just throw an industry 4.0 use case out there, but to do the digital transformation that's really necessary and to be able to stay relevant for the future. I heard it once said that you have three options, either you digitally transform and stay relevant for the future or you don't and fade into history, like 52% of the companies that used to be on the Fortune 500 since 2000, right? And so really that's a key thing and we're seeing that really, really being adopted by manufacturers all across the globe. Yeah, so Adida, it's like digital transformation is almost synonymous with business transformation. So is there anything you'd add to what Todd just said? Absolutely, so I would really add that what really drives industry 4.0 is the business transformation, what we are able to deliver in terms of improving the manufacturing KPIs and the KPIs for customer satisfaction, right? For example, improving the downtime, or decreasing the maintenance cycle of the equipment or improving the quality of products, right? So I think these are a lot of business outcomes that our customers are looking at while using industry 4.0 and the technologies of industry 4.0 to deliver these outcomes. So Adida, I wonder if I could stay with you and maybe this is a bit esoteric but when I first started researching IoT and industrial IoT, 4.0, et cetera, I felt, you know, while there could be some disruptions in the ecosystem, I kind of came to the conclusion that large manufacturing firms, aerospace, defense companies, the firms building out critical infrastructure actually had kind of an incumbent advantage and a great opportunity. Of course, then I saw on TV, somebody now they're building homes with 3D printers, it's like blows your mind. So that's pretty disruptive, but so, but they got to continue, the incumbents have to continue to invest in the future. They're well-capitalized, they're pretty good businesses, very good businesses, but there's a lot of complexities involved in kind of connecting the old house to the new addition that's being built, if you will, or this transformation that we're talking about. So my question is, how are your customers preparing for this new era? What are the key challenges that they're facing in the blockers, if you will? Yeah, I mean, the customers are looking at industry 4.0 for greenfield factories, right? That is where the investments are going directly into building the factories with the new technologies, with the new connectivities, right? For the machines, for example, industrial IoT having the right type of data platforms to drive computational analytics and outcomes, as well as looking at edge versus cloud type of technologies, right? Those are all getting built in the greenfield factories, however, for the install-based factories, right? That is where our customers are looking at, how do I modernize these factories? How do I connect the existing machine? And that is where some of the challenges come in on the legacy system connectivity that they need to think about. Also, they need to start thinking about cybersecurity and operation technology security, right? Because now you are connecting the factories to each other, right? So cybersecurity becomes top of mind, right? So there is definitely investment that is involved. Clients are creating roadmaps for digitizing and modernizing these factories and investments in a very strategic way, right? So perhaps they start with the innovation program and then they look at the business case and the scale it up, right? Todd, I'm glad you brought up security because if you think about the operations technology folks, historically, they air-gapped the systems. That's how they created security. That's changed. The business came in and said, hey, we got to connect. We got to make it intelligent. So that's got to be a big challenge as well. It absolutely is, Dave. And you can no longer just segment that because really to get all of those efficiencies that we talk about, that IoT and industrial IoT and Industry Fought at 4.0 promise, you have to get data out of the factory, but then you got to put data back in the factory. So no longer is it just firewalling everything is really the answer. So you really have to have a comprehensive approach to security, but you also have to have a comprehensive approach to the cloud and what that means and does it mean a continuum of cloud all the way down to the edge, right down to the factory? It absolutely does because no one approach has the answer to everything. The more you go to the cloud, the broader the attack surfaces. So what we're seeing is a lot of our customers approaching this from kind of that hybrid right once run anywhere on the factory floor down to the edge. And one of the things we're seeing too is to help distinguish between what is the edge and bridge that gap between like Dave, you talked about IT and OT and also help that what Editi talked about is the greenfield plants versus the brownfield plants that they call it that are the legacy ones and modernizing those is it's great to kind of start to delineate what does that mean? Where's the edge? Where's the IT and the OT? We see that from a couple of different ways we start to think about really two edges in a manufacturing floor. We talk about an industrial edge that sits or some people call it a far edge or a thin edge sits way down on that plant consists of industrial hardened devices that do that connectivity the hard stuff about how do I connect to this obsolete legacy protocol? And what do I do with it and create that next generation of data that has context? And then we see another edge evolving above that which is much more of a data and analytics and enterprise grade application layer that sits down in the factory itself that helps figure out where we're gonna run this is does it connect to the cloud? Do we run applications on-prem? Because a lot of times that on-prem application needs to be done because that's the only way that it's gonna work because of security requirements because of latency requirements, performance and a lot of times costs. It's really helpful to build that multiple edge strategy because then you consolidate all of those resources applications, infrastructure, hardware into a centralized location makes it much, much easier to really deploy and manage that security but it also makes it easier to deploy new applications new use cases and become the foundation for DXCs expertise and applications that they deliver to our customers as well. Todd, how complex are these projects? I mean, I feel like it's kind of the digital equivalent of building the Hoover dam. I mean, so how long does a typical project take? I know it varies, but what are the critical success factors in terms of delivering business value quickly? Yeah, that's a great question in that, and that we're, like I said at the beginning, this is not new smart factory in industry 4.0 is not new. It's been, people have been trying to implement the holy grail of smart factory for a long time. And what we're seeing is a switch, a little bit of a switch or quite a bit of a switch to where the enterprise and the IT folks are having a much bigger say and have a lot to offer to be able to help that complexity. So instead of deploying a computer here and a gateway there and a server there, you go walk into any manufacturing plant and you can see servers sitting underneath someone's desk or a PC in a closet somewhere, running a critical production application. So we're seeing the enterprise have a much bigger say at the table, much louder voice at the table to say, we've been doing this enterprise all the time. We know how to really consolidate, bring hyperconverged applications, hyperconverged infrastructure to really accelerate these kinds of applications, really accelerate the outcomes that are needed to really drive that smart factory and start to bring that same capabilities down on the factory floor. That way, if you do it once to make it easier to implement, you can repeat that, you can scale that, you can manage it much easily and you can then bring that all together because you have the security in one centralized location. So we're seeing manufacturers, yeah, that first use case maybe fairly difficult to implement. We got to go down in and see exactly what their problems are. But when the infrastructure has done the correct way, when that think about how you're going to run that and how are you going to optimize the engineering? Well, let's take that, what you've done in that one factory and then set. Let's that make that across all the factories, including the factory that we're in, but across the globe. That makes it much, much easier. You really do the hard work once and then repeat almost like a cookie cutter. Got it, thank you. Aditi, what about the skill sets available to apply to these projects? You got to have knowledge of digital, AI, data, integration. Is there a talent shortage to get all this stuff done? Yeah, I mean, definitely different types of skill sets are needed from a traditional manufacturing skill set, right? Of course, the basic knowledge of manufacturing is important. But the digital skill sets like, you know, IOT having a skill set in different protocols for connecting the machines, right? That experience that comes with it, data and analytics, security, augmented virtual reality programming, you know, again, looking at robotics and the digital twin. So, you know, it's a lot more connectivity, software, data-driven skill sets that are needed to smart factory to life at scale. And, you know, lots of firms are, you know, recruiting these types of resources with these skill sets to, you know, accelerate their smart factory implementation as well as consulting firms like DXC Technology and others. We recruit, we train our talent to provide these services. Got it. Aditi, I wonder if we could stay on you. Let's talk about the partnership between DXC and Dell. What are you doing specifically to simplify the move to Industry 4.0 for customers? What solutions are you offering? How are you working together, Dell and DXC, to bring these to market? Yeah, Dell and DXC have a very strong partnership, you know, and we work very closely together to create solutions, to create strategies, and how we are going to jointly help our clients, right? So, areas that we have worked closely together is edge compute, right? How that impacts the smart factory. So, we have worked pretty closely in that area. We're also looked at vision technologies. You know, how do we use that at the edge to improve the quality of products, right? So, we have several areas that we collaborate in, and our approach is that we want to bring solutions to our client and as well as help them scale those solutions with the right infrastructure, the right talent, and the right level of security. So, we bring a comprehensive solution to our clients. So, Todd, last question, kind of similar, but different. You know, why Dell, DXC, pitch me? What's different about this partnership? You know, are you confident that you're going to deliver the best value to customers? Absolutely, great question. You know, there's no shortage of bespoke solutions that are out there. There's hundreds of people that can come in and do individual use cases and do these things and just, and that's where it ends. What Dell and DXC technology together bring to the table is we do the optimization, the optimization of the engineering of those previously bespoke solutions upfront together, right? The power of our scalable enterprise grade structured, you know, industry standard infrastructure, as well as our expertise in delivering package solutions that really accelerate with DXC's expertise and reputation as a global trusted advisor, be able to really scale and repeat those solutions that DXC is so really, really good at and Dell's infrastructure and our, what, 30,000 people across the globe that are really, really good at that scalable infrastructure to be able to repeat. And then it really lessens the risk that our customers have and really accelerates those solutions. So it's, again, not just one individual solutions, it's all of the solutions that not just drive use cases that drive outcomes with those solutions. Yeah, you're right, the partnership has gone. I mean, I first encountered it back in, I think it was 2010, May of 2010, we had you guys both on the queue. I think we were talking about converged infrastructure and I had a customer on and it was actually a manufacturing customer was quite interesting. And back then it was, how do we kind of replicate what's coming in the cloud and you guys have obviously taken it into the digital world. Really want to thank you for your time today, great conversation and love to have you back. Thank you so much. It was a pleasure speaking with you. I agree. All right, keep it right there for more discussions that educate and inspire on theCUBE.