ATLANTA & BERLIN & SAN LEANDRO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OSIsoft LLC, a global leader enabling operational intelligence, today unveiled PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure, a new software layer that helps reduce the cost, time and employee effort required to conduct advanced analytics with industrial and operational data on Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud platform.
OSIsoft also announced that it is collaborating with Microsoft on a ‘Red Carpet Incubation Program’ for early, select customers with PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure and Cortana Intelligence for advanced analytics.
Deschutes Brewery, the seventh largest craft brewer in the U.S., joined the Red Carpet Incubation program to further optimize brewery processes with PI System, Cortana intelligence and the PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure. An OSIsoft customer since 2015, Deschutes has already used insights from the PI System on its own to reduce its fermentation process by 24 hours and postpone an $8 million capital upgrade.
Following this, it looked to advanced analytics and machine learning as a way to predict when the fermentation process would transition to the next phase. Alternatives included outfitting the production site with inline density meters, which would cost up to $750,000, or equipment upgrades that looked even more expensive and daunting. Instead, Deschutes decided to apply machine learning in the Cortana Intelligence Suite to their historical and contextual information captured by the PI System and prepared for Cortana Intelligence Suite by the PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure. Now, Deschutes is able to predict when fermentation transfers to the next phase without losing up to 72 hours in production time and without risking quality consistency.
“The PI System lets us better understand and control the entire brewing process and get the flavor profile we’re looking for. You can get a lot of value out of the PI System,” said Brian Faivre, Brewmaster at Deschutes. “The Red Carpet Incubation program with OSIsoft and Microsoft helped us to quickly operationalize our advanced analytics pipeline with Cortana Intelligence and PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure. We are accurately predicting when the transition occurs between the production processes, and we have identified opportunities for process efficiency down the line.”
“We are happy to collaborate with OSIsoft on the PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure. Deschutes Brewery is a great example of how customers can get valuable insights from the PI System and Cortana Intelligence. OSIsoft and Microsoft are helping customers bridge the OT-IT gap. Now Data Scientists can spend more of their valuable time building models and solutions, and less on cleaning and transforming data,” said Joseph Sirosh, Corporate Vice President, Data Group, Microsoft.
The comprehensive collaboration between OSIsoft and Microsoft with the Red Carpet Incubation Program is aimed at operationalizing PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure and eliminating the notorious “data janitor” dilemma holding back many digital transformation initiatives. Data scientists must spend an inordinate amount of their time scrubbing operational data - which can be in hundreds of different formats and amount to hundreds of terabytes a day - before it can be used on cloud-based platforms or business intelligence applications.
The PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure cleanses, augments, shapes, and transmits the data captured and stored by OSIsoft’s PI System so that it becomes ‘Cortana-ready data’. By automating these necessary data translation processes, PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure can reduce the cost and time of Big Data initiatives on Azure by orders of magnitude.
OSIsoft has also developed several other PI Integrators including PI Integrators for Business Analytics – Data Warehouse edition for Microsoft SQL Server 2016 and PI Integrator for Esri ArcGIS.
Industrial Strength Security for Industrial-Size Data Projects
OSIsoft also announced it is supporting Microsoft Project Springfield, a “state of the art” service in Azure for security testing. OSIsoft is using Project Springfield as part of the Security Development Lifecycle. PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure was tested with Project Springfield from the low level parsers for PI Data Archive to the Data Access Server query parser and optimization engine. The announcement was made simultaneously at the Microsoft Ignite event in Atlanta, and at OSIsoft’s EMEA Users Conference taking place this week in Berlin.
Microsoft Project Springfield packages “whitebox fuzzing” technology pioneered at Microsoft into a cloud service that customers can use. The technology has been used widely inside Microsoft and is now available to customers for the first time. Project Springfield combines advanced fuzzing technology with cloud scale to make it possible for teams to test software reliability and security on demand in a global organization.
“We are delighted to accelerate OSIsoft’s Security Development Lifecycle with Project Springfield, bringing technology pioneered at Microsoft to security testing of PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure,” said David Molnar, Microsoft Senior Researcher and leader of Project Springfield.
The Expanding PI System Ecosystem
OSIsoft’s PI System is one of the world’s most widely used technologies for the Industrial Internet of Things. The PI System captures data generated by the sensors and other devices and transforms it into rich, actionable information streams so people can reduce costs, optimize production, improve safety or make critical business decisions.
Over 1,000 leading utilities, 95 percent of the largest oil and gas companies and more than 65 percent of the Fortune 500 industrial companies rely on the high fidelity insights from the PI System to manage their businesses. Worldwide, over 1.5 billion sensors send sensor-based data to PI Systems.
“Our mission is to give people access to one of their most valuable assets: their operational data,” said Martin Otterson, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Partners at OSIsoft. “PI Integrator for Microsoft Azure, Cortana Intelligence and Project Springfield enable customers like Deschutes Brewery to derive insight from the operational data and turn it into intelligent action, using a trusted, secured infrastructure, in their journey towards digital transformation.”
About OSIsoft, LLC
OSIsoft creates technology that lets people transform their world through data. Founded in 1980, OSIsoft has over 1,200 employees and is headquartered in San Leandro, California. For more, please visit www.osisoft.com.
