The industrial Internet is vast, so vast in fact that General Electric Co. (GE) alone manages over $1 trillion worth of assets on the edge of the network, all with some form of compute or basic analytics onboard. Connecting these assets has been a challenge just due to the massive amount of data being sent back and forth from the edge to the cloud, distributed control systems, and the advanced analytics being done in the cloud itself.

Jeremiah Stone, asset performance manager at GE Digital, sat down with Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), host of theCUBE, from the SiliconANGLE Media team, for a special on-the-ground segment at the GE Digital compound in San Ramon, CA, as part of the GE Digital Innovation Day. They discussed how the assets that are a part of the industrial Internet are being managed as an entire system, and the role Predix — GE’s Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform — plays in that.

The Predix hack-a-thon

Prior to the opening of the Predix Transform 2016 event, GE Digital hosted a 24-hour hack-a-thon, where 200 developers came together to see what they could do with the Predix network. Both GE and non-GE participants worked around the clock with the platform, and in that short time frame they created a variety of applications with real world potential.

“It was tremendously successful,” said Stone. “We had, I think, 200 people, 24 hours in the room, and they came out with just tremendous applications ranging from tracking people inside of cars … to jet engines talking to each other in mid-air or deep analytics on turbines.”

In GE’s appeal to developers, Predix perks promote incredible control of the network of industrial assets connected on the edge, coupled with advanced analytics powered in the cloud.

The challenge of managing systemic health

The network of assets GE manages is truly enormous. With 60 diagnostic centers worldwide, it monitors over $1 trillion worth of equipment. From machinery sensors and diagnostics to advanced control systems and distributed capabilities, all this data must be brought back to the cloud for advanced analytics. This makes Predix not just a network, but a continuum that functions concurrently in real-time.

Something this large with such an advanced level of inter-connectivity requires a new way of thinking to manage the overall health of the network. From edge to cloud, where you place compute power and storage matters tremendously, and it must be thought of in terms of an overall system, instead of just a standard hub-and-spoke network.

“If you only think about the cloud or you only think about the analytics software, then you’re going to miss the point entirely, which is your really connected system of data, analytics and work processes that take us to a new level of productivity,” explained Stone.

Watch the full interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE and theCUBE’s coverage of the GE Digital Innovation Day 2016.

Photo by SiliconANGLE