What is Predix Platform?

The Predix platform is a cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for the Industrial Internet.

As it connects machines, data, people, and other assets, the Predix platform uses leading technologies for distributed computing, big-data analytics, asset data management, and machine-to-machine communication. The platform provides a wide range of industrial microservices that enable businesses to increase productivity, and it provides the following benefits:

Enables the rapid development of industrial applications.
Minimizes developer involvement in managing scale and hardware.
Promotes quick response to customer requirements.
Provides customers a single point of control for the assets they own.
Serves as a foundation for an ecosystem of companies and developers that support the Industrial Internet.

To understand the Predix platform, let's start with an industrial asset, such as a wind turbine, and see how it is connected to the primary Predix components: Predix Edge, Predix cloud, and Predix services.

Predix Edge: Predix Edge is the software layer responsible for collecting data from industrial assets and pushing it to the Predix cloud, as well as running local applications, like edge analytics. Predix Edge is available on turnkey gateways and virtual machines.
Predix Services: Predix provides industrial services that developers can use to build, test, and run industrial internet applications. It also provides a microservices marketplace where developers can publish their own services as well as consume services from third parties. The Predix platform enables our customers and partners to optimize their industrial business processes.
Predix Cloud: The Predix cloud is a global, secure cloud infrastructure that is optimized for industrial workloads and meets strict regulatory standards for such industries as healthcare and aviation.

Predix Platform Architecture

One example that illustrates the architecture of the Predix platform is a wind farm application that collects data from turbines and pushes it to the cloud.

The wind turbine and the turbine farm sit on the “edge” of the Predix platform. Using Predix services, you can receive and analyze the data from the wind turbine sensors. You can also monitor and optimize the operation of the turbine to gain maximum value of this asset. This enables you to detect anomalies and help predict outages before they happen, improving wind farm reliability, optimizing just-in-time maintenance, and reducing turbine downtime.

Predix Edge is a hardware and software solution that uses data collected from the sensors and uses edge analytics to monitor the status of industrial assets. If something out of the ordinary is detected, Predix Edge can shut down a turbine before damage occurs. With Predix Edge, data scientists can store and analyze data across the wind farm. They can look for trends over time, identify new patterns, create new edge analytics, and push that information back out to all of the wind turbines.

Application developers can use the industrial services on the Predix cloud to build, test, and deploy Industrial Internet applications. This custom-built cloud data infrastructure has enhanced security controls and advanced data processing and networking capabilities. From improved analytics, real-time asset optimization, or predictive maintenance, the Predix platform is designed to support the continuous improvement of industrial business processes.