Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Siemens, its integration partner, have made the Industrial Cloud available to other technology and production companies. New partner companies will be able to interact with Volkswagen facilities and add their software applications for maximizing manufacturing products and processes to the Industrial Cloud. Through this, a fast-growing roster of industrial software applications for the plants of Volkswagen will be made.
“With the Industrial Cloud we are creating a platform allowing partners to contribute their solutions. This will help the Volkswagen Group achieve global efficiencies at its plants. At the same time. We are creating the pathway for partners to scale their applications and optimize their own operations. This way, everyone will benefit,” says Nihar Patel, executive vice president new business development at Volkswagen AG.
Volkswagen expects significant efficiency and productivity gains at its plants. The partner companies will be able to scale and further develop their applications in one of the world’s largest automobile production networks and this will also allow them to optimize their own processes and products. As a first step, 11 pioneering international companies, ABB, ASCon Systems, BearingPOint, Celonis, Dürr, GROB- WERKE, MHP, NavVis, SYNAOS, Teradata and WAGO will be joining the Industrial Cloud.
The partner companies will gain specialist knowledge for the development of their software and ultimately also for optimizing their own business processes and products. This will be especially beneficial if the company’s concerned wish to establish their software applications as market solutions. From partner network to marketplace for exchanging applications Volkswagen and AWS see the development of the Industrial Cloud into an open partner network as a key step and intend to further intensify the App Store approach.
Over the course of time, the goal of the partners is to establish a marketplace for commercial applications. All the participants shall be able to share their applications with one another, receive applications, and utilize them regardless of any connection to Volkswagen. The improvement of the technological basis for this sector is already underway.
