Is Less More? How One SIM Streamlines IIoT Data for Global Hybrid Networks
A One SIM strategy is a game-changer in remote asset management for agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, smart energy, and utilities.
Transforming Vulnerable VPNs with Zero Trust Security in 2025 is Sound Cyber Strategy
As the world becomes more connected and cyber villains get smarter, networks for remote operators are fair game to threats and cyber risks. Chief Technology Officers (CTOs), Chief Information Officers (CIOs), and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) are tasked to protect data, people, and reputations. Here, we explore why VPNs come up short while zero trust puts you ahead. CTOs, CIOs, and CISOs, you are the cyber watchdogs of your organizations, so this message is for you. In a previous blog written for C-suite leaders, we established that VPNs can come up short for keeping internal networks, including machinery, control systems, and databases, secure from the increasingly savvy hacker. Why does this matter? When we talk about the internet of things (IoT) today, everything is connected to the internet, from your watch or phone to thousands of business assets like machinery, sensors, and industrial equipment. With only a VPN standing guard, a hacker can get into your network through your facility’s smart thermostat (lest we forget the casino fish tank data hack of 2017). For decades, FreeWave has provided industrial IoT solutions for companies in oil and gas, agriculture, mining, water treatment, and other remote industries, to help them overcome a variety of network productivity issues and give them peace of mind that the health of their network – and the assets connected to it – is robust and secure. We believe, whether it’s working with our channel partners or adding our equipment to an OEM’s solution, that there are four essential security outcomes companies investing in IIoT should strive for: Secure remote monitoring and data management Automated, decisive response to threats No to low network vulnerabilities Cost savings compared to traditional VPN-based security Decommissioning a VPN as a primary source of cybersecurity in favor of zero trust network access (ZTNA) creates a stealthier, easier-to-use framework to detect and deflect cyber-attacks. Cybersecurity in the Wild West It is widely understood that Europe has continuously been five to 10 years ahead of the United States when it comes to cybersecurity. This is because the United States is like the freewheeling wild west. Cyber attacks cost companies billions of dollars. In IBM’s Cost of a Data Breach report for 2024, companies averaged a loss of $4.88 million, which is a 10% increase over 2023. More specifically to VPNs, the 2024 ThreatLabz VPN Risk Report published by Zscaler says that 78% of organizations plan to implement a zero trust strategy in the next 12 months with 91% of respondents concerned that VPNs will lead to a “compromising breach.” The survey says top threats to VPN vulnerabilities are ransomware (42%), other types of malware (35%), and DDoS (distributed denial-of-service which are attempts to overwhelm a server or network) attacks (30%). The findings make sense. Let’s say you notice nefarious traffic going across your network and you realize it is a former employee who still has access because their VPN credentials were not completely shut off. Even after you took their computer, they were able to go to their own computer, fire up a VPN and use their credentials to get into your network. VPNs are like a house – once you’re in, you’re in. Now you are faced with spending valuable time dealing with this behavior and any resulting damage. In contrast, a zero trust network promptly and fully blocks attackers from any access in the first place, making your job of monitoring considerably easier. As a tech leader, imagine what that level of security could do for your peace of mind as well as your company’s risk landscape. Zero trust is not new, but it has evolved. It was first coined in 2010 to protect enterprise networks, cloud networks, and basic IT networks. Two obstacles to zero trust are based on dangerous assumptions. One is that, while cyber attacks happen every day, they won’t happen to you. The other is that upgrading to ZTNA is too costly. If you’d like to explore why both are myths, give us a holler. To protect your data and network, start exploring the lowest level of your system and work from there. These questions are a good start to finding and closing vulnerabilities. What are your highest priority assets to protect? How will you handle encryption across diverse environments? Are you buying devices designed to implement zero trust? Are you buying network routers that are better suited for zero trust enablement? Are you developing edge networks with zero trust architecture to prevent people from plugging into an ethernet port on your network and destroying the site? What would be the potential harm to the business if your data and network were compromised? If you don’t have answers to all these questions, take heart. FreeWave has the capacity to interface with companies on their third-party applications that are not zero trust enabled. We manage this through what we call a “demilitarization zone,” where we have an unsecure system and a secure system and we match them together and know that the unsecure system is authenticated. We set up the entire network to avoid potential threats. Many remote, industrial operations have multiple locations to manage. A company with 10,000 sites – what we call the Razor’s Edge© where the data lives – would otherwise have to send its IT techs out to every site to implement a security platform. That means work, time, and expense. FreeWave is simplifying IIoT data by developing an easier pathway to zero trust on edge networks. Imagine sending a zero trust enabled device out to each site, installed on a network in minutes, while protecting said network down to the desired granular level. In the world of devices, the idea that a device can be designed and manufactured so that it is zero trust secured as it comes off the production line has been getting a lot of traction over the last five years. This approach is miles ahead compared to when VPNs were first introduced. You can always tap into FreeWave’s
Why Choosing Zero Trust Network Access Over Virtual Private Networks is a C-Suite Decision
You’re leading the company. Why do you need to care about your business’ network security approach? The answer comes from something all too familiar: the accelerated rate of change – and the quest by modern leaders to build a resilient company. PwC describes today as the “age of continuous reinvention” in its 27th Annual Global CEO Survey report. One of the most startling findings is that 45% of CEOs do not believe their company will be viable in 10 years if it stays on the current path. Part of the challenge is knowing what could take your company down. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities at the network level is on the list. PwC’s report shows that CEOs who believe their organization is viable for more than 10 years perceive inflation (21%) and cyber risks (21%) as top threats with macroeconomic volatility (20%) just a half-step behind. As chief technology officer for FreeWave, part of my role is to find weak spots in a network connected to the industrial internet of things (IIoT). I talk to many senior leaders from companies in the oil and gas, agriculture, mining, water treatment and other remote industries. What’s the number one pushback I run into? They tell me they use virtual private networks (VPNs). I call this “pushback” because, at FreeWave, we don’t let VPNs into our data platform. At their most basic level, VPNs are used to create a secure connection between a user’s device and the VPN server. Through that connection, data is encrypted, and a user’s IP address is hidden. As a result, VPNs can allow remote users to securely access internal networks, including machinery, control systems, and databases. For those who may not be familiar with a VPN (although we’ve all probably used one at some point), here’s a simple analogy. Think of a VPN as a tunnel buried far below intersecting highways. One end of the tunnel is an IIoT device and the other end is the server. Your car (let’s make it a Maserati, while we’re at it) is a data packet. Instead of traveling across potentially dangerous highways where threats abound (a malicious attempt to steal your Italian beauty and hold it for ransom, as an example), you take the tunnel built just for you and other authorized drivers you trust. The challenge today is that the tunnel is no longer safe. Why Are VPNs Insecure? Technology ages faster than a male tsetse fly. Our tiny-winged friends hit their teenage years by week two or so. In contrast, technology ages by the nanosecond. I think the reason why many people use VPNs is the same reason hackers infiltrate them so easily. VPNs are old technology. They have long been the go-to solution for providing remote access to industrial control systems (ICS) and other critical infrastructure. They were born during the rise of the internet late last century. One solution begets other problems. The world wide web went from 3 million to 16 million users between 1990 and 1995 (today, there are 5.45 billion users, around 67% of the population). As a result, a group led by Microsoft sought a solution to growing security concerns. That’s how VPNs were born. To be fair, there are ways to make VPNs secure, but the enormous expense doesn’t make financial sense for most companies. Here are three reasons why VPNs cause concerns when protecting an IIoT network: VPNs have outdated authentication models. Username and a password is all you need. I can get into a VPN easily. VPNs are a single point of failure. If something goes wrong with the server, you can’t get in. If I’m a hacker, the best way to take down every remote access in the world is to take down the VPN server. VPNs are hard to monitor. The actual traffic on the network makes it hard to identify nefarious activity flying across it. Let’s say you have this machine on the edge (edge is simply the source of where your data is – this might be where oil is drilled in upstream oil and gas, for example). The data is being processed on that machine (edge computing) and is connected to the corporate network via a VPN. A disgruntled employee leaving the company can sit in their car and use their username and password to access the device through a cellular system. What is the potential damage? In 2020, several prominent VPNs experienced critical vulnerabilities that allowed attackers to bypass encryption and access systems. The Colonial Pipeline attack, for example, was traced back to a legacy VPN, according to then CEO Joseph Blount. The East Coast company paid hackers $4.4 million to restore service quickly. VPNs create easy targets. Once you’re in, you have free rein to do what you want. Solving the Challenge to Scale Network Security A report by McKinsey and Company predicts 50 billion devices will be connected to the IIoT by 2025. The pace of change, according to the report, has increased tenfold. This means the risks and insecurities behind VPNs for organizations, especially remote industrial leaders, are rising. I talked to a large agricultural company recently that uses a VPN. Here’s how the conversation went: Them: How can we add 20,000 sites to our system? Me: We’d have to add 20,000 VPNs. Them: Wait, what? Me: It’s really difficult. VPNs are hard to scale. One VPN is one thing, but many VPNs are a nightmare. We believe a better way to secure a network is to use Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). ZTNA creates a network fabric using the principle of least privilege access (PoLP). The premise: trust no one. Each user accesses only the data they need. See how the lens flips from inside out to outside in? In a ZTNA, each user has a policy. This means they are authenticated for access to specific areas. The disgruntled employee mentioned earlier? They cannot go anywhere in the fabric without authorization. Even better, that user’s access can be easily removed or revoked. Ever
The #1 Strategy Remote Industrial Operators Need to Win the AI Race
From the inaugural Olympics in 776 B.C. until today, one thing has remained the same: athletes bring gritty, physical prowess to their chosen sport – and the human desire for excellence. Of course, other things like culture, fashion, and technology have changed dramatically (thankfully, since athletes in the first Olympics competed naked!). In the Olympic Games Paris 2024, one game changer is the role of artificial intelligence (AI). Remote industrial operators looking to scale business value and improve decision-making through edge data, take note: the Olympics, watched by 3 billion people from around the world, is deploying AI to improve future performance of their event. According to an article published by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), AI and digital twinning are being used as an efficiency booster for future Olympic games – from energy consumption to identifying the best places to place cameras and power sources. “The expectation for a lot of people is ‘I’ll just AI it.’ It’s like a magic wand.” One thing AI demands is historical data. This is why we are so passionate about industrial operators owning their data. Without data ownership, it’s a false start when using large language models to train and leverage AI algorithms. In the article entitled “AI and Tech Innovations at Paris 2024: A Game Changer in Sport,” Ilario Corna, the IOC’s chief technology officer said, “We started gathering various operational data as far back as 2020, to look at how we can make the management of the Olympic Games more efficient.” Ryan Treece, global business development manager – data platform & AI solutions at FreeWave, has seen AI evolve over the past decade. He says companies that don’t give customers rights to their data are putting them at a disadvantage. “The thing is that those who own their data will eventually win because they can use it while others will start from zero.” Catching up over time, he points out, becomes increasingly difficult as competitors advance. Companies that secure data ownership today are the ones who will lead tomorrow or, in Olympic terms, will earn gold in the AI race. That’s one reason FreeWave drafted the IIoT Bill of Rights (data governance is amendment one) – as a way for remote industrial operators to leverage technology for future growth and opportunities. Importance of Data Ownership in the Age of AI Owning your data is not just a competitive advantage; it’s a necessity. “There are a lot of AI solution providers,” Ryan explains. “The expectation for a lot of people is ‘I’ll just AI it.’ It’s like a magic wand. Look into the future, though, and ask: What do vendors like? Reliance on their systems.” Ryan says there is no one “mega-solution” out there to solve every problem, but, if there’s one thing he hopes industrial operators know it’s that data ownership means leveraging your data for operational and business performance. “We’re targeting predictive maintenance to prevent machines from going down, reduce fuel waste just to see if a machine is running dozens or even hundreds of miles away, and increase efficiencies so people are not wasting time and energy resources. Data creates long-time success.” Just as the IOC is using AI to create more efficiency in the future, he says understanding data over time enables industrial operators to continuously improve. While still under development, FreeWave is building its AI solutions around domain expertise. Through its FreeWave® Insights™ data platform, it’s connecting decision-makers with data at the edge via sensor technology, pulling in SCADA system data as well. He cites vibration tension sensors as an example. If a rotating asset like a bearing, for example, wobbles, an alert is sent to a single pane of glass – a dashboard connected to the Insights data platform. From there, a technician can add the issue to his planning schedule. Ryan shares the story of when he lived in Michigan. An automotive manufacturer that made panels, a “tier one supplier” in the industry, didn’t have the budget to climate control the entire building. In hot, humid weather, the adhesive failed. Since variables change over time, he says, IIoT solved the problem. “Vibration and temperature data from sensors showed the numbers going up and down. Historical data tells us to change the adhesive or turn up the AC or ramp up the climate control when needed. The manufacturer and its solution providers knew what knobs to turn by identifying trends in a specific period.” That’s why, he says, data ownership is so important. Without data, AI becomes impossible. Solve – and Simplify – Operational Problems “We’re working on solutions that reduce the tech stack and address specific problems like predictive maintenance and trends analysis of sensor data,” said Ryan. “When I’m thinking data, I’m thinking of a huge Excel spreadsheet.” Real-time monitoring of temperature, vibration, or water levels, for example, are important variables for industrial leaders: oil and gas producers with fields in remote or rural areas, large-scale agricultural operations with water pump stations dotting thousands of acres, or public and municipal providers with aging infrastructure in need of robust, remote network strength. These are places, Ryan says, that pose a risk for people to perform daily or weekly monitoring. Ryan points to his hometown of Austin, Texas, where the energy grid is unreliable, especially during hurricane season or super hot summer months. The panels on the grid can overheat. Alerts notify engineers to replace components before problems start. Rather than react, alerts and predictive maintenance reduce downtime. Another example he gives is California where water is a precious commodity. Knowing humidity levels, soil moisture, and water consumption allows agriculturalists to invest minimal resources for better outcomes. AI, he says, optimizes sensor data locally, at the edge, by providing analyses crucial to decision-makers. Failure-Proofing Connectivity Keeps Data in Play Oftentimes, industrial operators don’t have ready access to cellular or Wi-Fi, however, satellite is an optimal solution for areas with questionable coverage and those wanting a strong back-up connection. Pairing satellite with the FreeWave cloud-based Insights platform-as-a-service
Industrial Operators – You Own Your Data and Then Some
July here in the states is painted red, white, and blue. It’s a time when freedom becomes front and center. We are grateful for our young country. We remember the Founding Fathers and the sacrifices they made. We recognize, if only for a moment, our collective pride. No matter your country of origin, those who came before were brave enough to make a path toward a future with greater freedom. This got us thinking (after all, we do have “free” in our company name!). What does freedom mean when it comes to data? What does freedom mean for remote network industry leaders? Freedom means access to your data. Freedom means ownership of your data. Freedom means visualizing operations through real-time data. Data, in a sense, renders the freedom to take action, make informed decisions, and realize greater business value at scale. At FreeWave, we pledge to make IIoT data a freedom all remote industrial leaders can enjoy. Freedom gives way to growth, learning, and success. For more than 30 years, we have believed in the power of data. Data impacts decisions, business value, and, most importantly, the very future and safety of real people and our planet. Henceforth (to borrow from our Founding Fathers’ lingo), we’ve taken the liberty to create the first-ever industrial internet of things (IIoT) Bill of Rights. This is more than a list of nice-to-haves, they are must-haves for remote industrial operators of every size and industry. The IIoT Bill of Rights is our position on data governance and data democratization. It addresses global reach – that a remote industrial operator can be anywhere in the world and know what’s happening within their operations no matter how far they are spread out and what environmental conditions surround them. We believe a secure cloud environment is the right of every remote industrial leader. Zero Trust Security is not a privilege of a few, but the mainstay of many. Data should be kept safe, no questions asked. We also champion continuous connectivity. This comes by way of unlimited, high-speed, affordable satellite connectivity for all. To round our IIoT Bill of Rights, we lean into one of our four core values: Be a simplifier. This means that IIoT data solutions should be easy, plug-and-play deployments. No hair-pulling. No head-scratching. No unnecessary downtime. Instead: Open box. Power on. Get Data. This means fast deployment because uptime is one of the biggest freedoms IIoT data enables. Data inspires greater uptime because you have knowledge at your fingertips to make amazing decisions that keep operations running smoothly, all while keeping people safer. Another IIoT Bill of Rights amendment calls for cross-translation of protocols so that remote industrial companies can transform existing SCADA networks into data racetracks that carry more data, faster. Cross-translation allows different edge or SCADA protocols on the edge, SCADA, and even devices that speak different protocols to communicate. This is how industrial leaders can unleash the full power of an IIoT network infrastructure. The last amendment is AI readiness – because those who own their data will win the AI race. To see FreeWave’s full IIoT Bill of Rights, read our position paper. Working with our expert technical staff at FreeWave and experienced channel partners to solve your biggest wireless and edge computing challenges, you leverage the full solution for IoT connectivity that includes the FreeWave Insights™ data platform-as-a-service, satellite service connectivity (we’re a Connectivity Wholesale Partner in Viasat’s ELEVATE program), our portfolio of rugged connected devices, and satellite-connected devices (we’re a Global Authorized Reseller of ORBCOMM). If you’re passionate about bringing meaningful technology solutions to remote industrial companies, join us as a channel partner. If you’re a remote operator looking to scale business value leveraging your IIoT data, contact us here. We’re making a path to a future where data serves industrial operators in measurable and positive ways. Let’s do it together.
SCADA + Satellite Equals Industry’s Latest Power Couple
When it comes to remote industrial operations, there’s only one constant, and that is change. Change can occur in an instant — a burst pipe, an equipment malfunction, a flash flood. But, more often, change creeps up slowly and then suddenly looms large. Take, for example, the worsening labor shortage. Nowadays, if something does go wrong in the field, you might be hard-pressed to find someone to go out and fix it without leaving a gaping hole in another part of your operations. Changes give way to more changes, but they also give rise to certainties. For instance, industries with large-scale remote operations know that automating equipment and functions — and monitoring those automated systems from afar — is imperative in today’s world, where resources are short yet production demands are a tall order to fill. That’s one reason why the global industrial internet of things (IIoT) market size is projected to reach a staggering $1,683.30 trillion by 2030, up from last year’s value of $321.81 billion, according to a market analysis by Grand View Research. It’s also certain that, in some respects, the more things change, the more they stay the same. As digital transformation across various industries kicks into high gear, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) — a decades-old but highly implemented technology heavily used by oil and gas, water treatment, energy and manufacturing — is adapting to meet the demands of the modern industry, proving it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. And that brings us to another certainty that still comes as a surprise to some SCADA users: Satellite connectivity has emerged as one of the fastest, most reliable, and most secure methods of transferring data from remote IIoT devices to existing SCADA systems. Today’s satellite systems are easy and inexpensive to deploy, and they make IIoT technology easier to scale. Space, it turns out, is the next new frontier for industrial leaders. During “McKinsey and the World Economic Forum 2023,” futurists predicted the space market to reach $1 trillion in the next decade with the number of satellites tripling during that time. While quick to acknowledge and adapt to changes that affect day-to-day operations and key performance indicators, SCADA users by and large have not been early adopters of satellite technology over the past decade, in part because of its historic reputation of being pricey, having high latency, and providing limited bandwidth. The world of satellite has changed. And FreeWave is stepping up to play matchmaker. We’re building an evolutionary path toward an end-to-end solution (more on that in a bit). Reliable, consistent connectivity is key. FreeWave is a Global Authorized Reseller of ORBCOMM and a Connectivity Wholesale Partner in Viasat’s ELEVATE program (Viasat, headquartered in Carlsbad, California, just completed its acquisition of London-based Inmarsat). It’s time, in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, for one of industry’s long-standing staples, SCADA, to join forces with modern industry’s rising star — satellite connectivity. Satellite Adoption’s Meteoric Rise How can companies be certain that satellite is the future-proof connectivity solution for remote operations? Follow the money. Satellite IIoT revenue is expected to surpass $130 million by 2032 in North America alone, according to Viasat. Globally, the compounded annual growth rate in that time span is estimated at 27 percent. By sector, the oil and gas (O&G) industry leads the pack, with satellite IIoT investment more than doubling over the next decade to about $115 million worldwide in 2032. Smart agriculture, transportation and mining also are pack leaders, with the utilities industry not far behind. Growth might accelerate even faster were it not for the persistence of outmoded notions about satellite communications. When they think of satellite, some corporate decision makers picture a dish as wide as an above-ground swimming pool that costs about $5,000 just to set up, plus $500 to $1,000 a month to operate. But that’s like judging a job candidate based on his 10-year-old paper résumé instead of his up-to-date LinkedIn profile. It’s true that satellite communications were relatively slow and clunky a decade ago, but satellites these days can be as small as a petri dish and cost as little as $500, with monthly service available for as low as $30. Companies with remote operations have relied mostly on cellular connectivity and other terrestrial solutions to transmit remote data to their SCADA networks. But as IIoT continues its push into underserved locations — from remote grazing pastures in Wyoming to rugged open-pit lithium mines in Western Australia — satellite offers distinct advantages. Going back to our earlier example of a burst pipe, equipment malfunction or unexpected weather crisis – that is all too common for remote industrial operators – satellite provides reliable and real-time connectivity. Here’s why this is important. In sparsely populated or harsh environments, cellular service might be limited, spotty, or altogether unavailable. In especially isolated areas, where a cell tower sighting is about as likely as a Yeti sighting (not the outdoor product goods, but the fabled ape-like creature), satellite connectivity may be the only viable solution for monitoring SCADA equipment. Where cellular coverage is available, sensor data travels wirelessly from tower to tower until it reaches the SCADA master station. Along the way, landscape features like mountains, buildings, and even clumps of trees can interfere with transmission. For this reason, satellite is a great “insurance policy” for remote connectivity that needs continuous uptime. By contrast, satellite communication does not depend on land-based transmission, so landscape features won’t block the signal. Data travels from sensors to a satellite in space and bounces back to the master station without interference except for extreme weather events that can sometimes cause a signal delay commonly called “rain fade.” FreeWave and its partners have an answer for that. With the acquisition of Inmarsat, Viasat’s fleet provides full global coverage via 19 satellites in space spanning the Ka-, S-, and L-bands. L-band signals can penetrate through rain, snow, and other inclement weather, so signal reduction is not an issue. L-band communication also offers
3 Customer Impacts for Satellite Connectivity from Viasat’s ELEVATE Partner Event
With a plate of bangers and mash in front of me and a bank of windows, I marveled at the views. We were on the 40th floor of Duck & Waffle, with a bird’s eye view of Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, London Bridge, and Wembley Stadium. We were at the epicenter of everything British. I visited none of these places. Instead, I experienced something even better: a front row seat into the dramatic impact satellite connectivity is defining success for industrial companies. The Viasat ELEVATE Partner Event was the first of its kind. Tech innovators from around the world gathered to learn and share stories about how satellite is transforming communications for remote operators in oil and gas, agriculture, mining, logistics, and more. Viasat’s ELERA coverage map Beyond the event, ELEVATE is also a partner program to ramp up the IoT ecosystem through education, collaboration, and idea-sharing for IoT solution providers like FreeWave, system integrators, machinery manufacturers, and OEMs. Viasat is a global company of more than 8,000, a rising Fortune 1000 enterprise, which acquired UK-based Inmarsat in early 2023. Viasat covers 99% of the U.S. with Inmarsat’s ELERA satellite network providing satellite access to many parts of the world using the reliable and weather-resistant L-band network. Together, they are driving new terminal development, lowering the cost of satellite connectivity, and speeding up real-time, two-way information for remote operators who previously felt satellite communication was cumbersome, expensive, and slow. And it was. But that’s the old story. That’s why I’m excited to share three themes that emerged for me during our visit across the pond. 1. Radical innovation is driving IoT adoption in new markets and lowering the cost threshold. Here’s a non-scientific way of summing up the first theme: there’s a whole lot of R&D going on in the world! Viasat has 19 satellites in orbit with 11 on order. Impressive. They are investing in teleports for the L-band network, undeniably the best spectrum for data transfer over satellite. Translation for the rest of us? Mobile satellite communication became 20x faster in Q1 of this year. Using the same terminals with new software, this means you can send data more efficiently and more affordably. Spectral efficiency will exponentially increase the functionality of IoT devices for many solutions. Technology, and specifically data, only has meaning when people use it to better their lives. Earlier this year, as part of our 30th Anniversary vision for the future, FreeWave recommitted to not only building great tech, but to understand our customers’ day-to-day needs, tech stack outlook, revenue goals, challenges, and business vision. We talked to hundreds of customers, beta testers, and potential customers. At the top of their list: zero trust security, compliance monitoring, a leaner tech stack, real-time connectivity, remarkably better operational performance, and cost effectiveness. This is why we went to ELEVATE: to keep delivering on that wish list. And while we may have missed the sights of London, we saw our collaboration with other partners as being like a pit crew for remote industrial companies in hard-to-reach places. One company, for example, has reduced video compression by 80%. This is a game-changer for a rancher with thousands of acres because while sensors might show how much water is in a tank, ranchers are spending 100K a year to see their cattle. With video compression integrated into FreeWave solutions, they can save time and money on truck rolls. Many applications, from homeland security to smart oilfields to refrigerated cargo on a ship, can benefit from this. With the progression of satellite reliability, we’re excited to be able to bring solutions that include data-intensive video streaming requiring IP cameras. We’re designing solutions for a customer installing electric fences around government and private campuses. New IoT tech tied to satellite defies the myth that we can’t be everywhere all the time. Turns out we can. 2. Channel partners are not afraid to build things, together. The ROI of mobile satellite communication is really impressive when you are able to enhance production, throughput, and safety. Fearlessly building things together, for the betterment of our collective customers, is definitely a second theme we took away from the event. Companies we align with have deep roots in specific technologies: push-to-talk, remote employee safety, cameras, backhauling unmanned vehicles for government, just to name a few. Bringing complementary pieces into our portfolio solves customers’ bigger problems. Attending ELEVATE signaled the dawn of a new age where technology is amplified by software, satellite terminals, and collaboration of many great minds thinking together. In the end, we are made better together as channel partners, leveraging strengths, knowledge, and abilities. It makes us better, faster, stronger. It makes us better for our customers. That’s our goal as an innovator. 3. Satellite aligns with a more sustainable future. While Sputnik, the first satellite, was launched in 1957, I feel like the Space Age is just beginning here on earth. It is a key part of a more sustainable future. In an article in SpaceRef, Inmarsat’s President Mike Carter put it this way: “The ELEVATE community will play an active role in addressing the planet’s really big challenges, helping build a more sustainable, efficient, and safe global supply chain.” After experiencing ELEVATE, I’m a believer. Here’s why. If you can get real-time data remotely, you’re not burning fossil fuels to gather insight. If there is machine-to-machine “dialogue,” you streamline people’s time. If you let the ground reveal what a sprayer needs to know, you might use water more efficiently. The role of satellite communication helps solve today’s critical issues. Increasing yield and output without increasing the percentage of cost keeps consumer goods affordable. Making lives and work better is what IoT is about. It’s what FreeWave is about. Helping make lives better has been a core belief of ours for decades. FreeWave’s Platform-as-a-Service Brings Remote Operators Closer to the Truth We’re not alone. For me, that was the big takeaway from Viasat’s ELEVATE. We have access to many different ELEVATE partners and their technology superpowers. These will help us bring to market
Shedding New Light on Industrial Solar Power System Performance
It’s not easy to write about solar energy without getting carried away with metaphors. In a world facing a worsening climate crisis, solar power — as a renewable energy source — represents a ray of hope, a bright spot, a beacon of light. Solar power’s day in the sun has been a long time coming. Before he died in 1931, inventor Thomas Edison reportedly told friends, “We are like tenant farmers, chopping down the fence around our house for fuel, when we should be using nature’s inexhaustible sources of energy — sun, wind, and tide. … I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power!” Today, many diverse industries are putting their money on solar power. But, in many cases, it’s not a sense of urgency about “going green” that drives them. In industries operating in farflung, remote locations, the use of solar power is usually driven by pure necessity — there’s simply no other viable power source. While there’s excitement around the promise of solar energy, my conversations with industry leaders often center on the problems associated with remote solar power systems, including a lack of visibility around solar-powered battery performance. Since battery failure can cause safety hazards and even halt production, operators take extreme — and expensive — measures to prevent it. Our customers’ pain points led to the development of a breakthrough, all-in-one-box solution that can be easily added to existing infrastructure to slash maintenance costs and reduce risk factors by providing critical data on remote solar power system performance. I invented this technology, but before I tell you all about my “baby,” let’s look more closely at the pain points it helps to address and the cost savings and other benefits it provides. Eliminating the Guesswork Around Solar-powered Battery Performance While solar-powered devices reliably monitor field operations as a whole, a lack of visibility around the performance of the solar-powered batteries themselves is a huge blind spot and cost driver. Oil and Gas (O&G), wastewater management, and utilities are among the major industries that rely on solar power, principally to operate remote sensors and devices that send critical information back to a centrally located SCADA system. This data tells the SCADA operator what’s going on in the field. For example, O&G personnel are alerted if equipment goes down or if various pressures and temperatures reach unsafe levels. Powering the devices that relay this information depends on reliable battery performance, which, in turn, depends on the availability of sunlight to power the batteries. Touting the pros of solar power, Elon Musk famously said the sun “shows up every day” and “just works.” In reality, the sun doesn’t always shine sufficiently to fully charge solar batteries, and, as we all know, it clocks out every night without fail. So, operators have tried to optimize battery performance by doing calculations to determine the amount of current needed to power the devices, including an estimate of autonomy time — the number of days that a battery charge will last should the solar panels stop absorbing sunlight. While these calculations initially suggest which sizes and configurations of solar panel and battery systems are needed to produce the required current, they don’t take into account equipment deterioration over time or the power requirements of any equipment added down the line. Hours of autonomy, so painstakingly calculated in what amounts to a paper exercise, are also affected by extreme ambient temperatures and other conditions. To avoid power disruptions and production downtime, O&G producers have taken to replacing all of the batteries every six months, regardless of need or individual battery performance. It’s not uncommon for a major producer to have several thousand remote, solar-powered sites, so battery storage and replacement are substantial budget items. One major producer mentioned they spend $1.4 million annually — just on batteries. Callouts and lockups are also expensive — and less predictable. A callout occurs when a system goes offline and stops sending SCADA communications, triggering a truck roll to the site to determine the cause. Equipment lockups require technicians to drive to the site to power-cycle the affected assets no matter where that site is, all for a process that takes 20 seconds to perform, sandwiched between hours of drive time. Considering that each and every truck roll costs as much as $2,400, eliminating set-schedule battery replacements, manual power cycling, and most service calls could easily save millions of dollars. So, let’s talk about the solution. Introducing Solar Site Analytics Having collaborated with customers to understand the problems and limitations they were experiencing with solar-powered operations, we developed a patent-pending solution that provides complete visibility of solar-powered field operations, along with other essential features. Contained in one compact box, the product packs smart monitoring and analytics capabilities that prevent production losses, reduce labor costs, improve worker safety, and predict power system degradation or failure, including: Accurate hours-of-autonomy calculations in real time Real-time updates on battery and solar panel sizing requirements for maximum efficiency Battery capacity levels, which indicate when a battery actually needs to be replaced Automatic power cycling in the event of a lockup Analytics that detect anomalies and predict maintenance needs before solar power system components go down Automatic load shedding and load prioritization to protect batteries from excess voltage As an added feature, it also includes a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) charge controller — the most efficient controller for industrial solar power system applications The product can connect to a customer’s existing SCADA system or connect directly to the FreeWave cloud-based data analytics platform. With it, operators can monitor temperatures, pressures, and other metrics, along with battery and solar panel status and performance — from capacity levels and days of autonomy to predictive maintenance forecasts. FreeWave’s patent-pending remote solar power system manager has been in development for years and, in nearly a decade of field testing, not one instance of critical failure to monitored system components has been reported. And, the monitor offers a swift return on investment, paying for
A Story Three Decades in the Making
Milestone birthday alert. FreeWave turns 30 in 2023 and I’d like to take you on a journey of data over the last three decades – taking a look at where data has been and its sci-fi-like role in our future. Since FreeWave is all about transforming data into real knowledge for real people, I drew from a broader perspective about the bits and bytes of the data of life. The ideas here are inspired by FreeWave’s innovation team. From a serial inventor to our founder, each has shaped the field of technology in their own right. Sure, the first time someone uttered the words “big data” (October 1997, in case you’re curious) is interesting, but how has the term itself changed the way we live and work? As Steve Jobs said: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” Thus, this is more taking stock of data’s backstory over a cold IPA than a mundane timeline. Thirty candles on the cake commands a little self-reflection. The wild days of our youth are behind us. We’re all grown up now, and while data may be following its own trajectory, the parallels are pretty fascinating. I start where all great stories begin. My “why.” I grew up in the Midwest where a lot of the technology that we use today was born and innovation spans generations. I remember “playing office” with with my father’s paperwork at home (I guess remote offices were a thing, back in the day). He worked at Motorola (a company I would later join) for decades. He was a regional sales rep during the the early 80s when he was on special assignment, working on this thing called “cellular.” His company car’s trunk was filled with black boxes – and there was even a phone mounted in the center column between the front seats. It was cool to use. I thought I was cool for being able to use it. So, I was hooked, not only on technology, but the data seemingly flying there and there to make that all possible. From there, I guess I just followed in Dad’s footprints, although I chose a marketing path, and 40 some years later, here I am, still watching technology expand. Still fascinated by how those ones and zeroes are writing the world’s story. It’s 1993: Do You Know Where Your Floppy Disks Are? The year is 1993. Bill Clinton is president, Beanie Babies have hit the market, Intel has introduced the Pentium microprocessor, and 3½ inch floppy disks in bright colors are scattered across desks (unlike its austere sibling, the silver compact disk). In a small office somewhere in Boulder, Colorado, the FreeWave cofounders are meeting with a couple of ladies who make dreamcatchers. FreeWave was born among the likely stacks of floppies used to store code for FreeWave products to come. And, we can’t forget that the then new Colorado Rockies threw out its first pitch in the National League West (to date, we have never won our division – but, boy, we’ve got great mountain views!). “When we first started, wireless was used in many applications, but not to anywhere near the extent it is today. The early applications for our products were the precursor to IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) and showed how important data was,” says Steve Wulchin, CEO and cofounder of FreeWave. After earning his MBA at the University of Texas, Steve was hired by Hewlett Packard. His first desktop computer at HP had a 5MB hard drive (yes, megabytes!). Cell phones and the internet didn’t exist, and Apple was a company that was pretty much left for dead by the rest of the tech world. That, he says, is the cool thing about technology. “Look at where we are now,” he says. “We may not have flying cars, but we do have a lot of unbelievable things that few could have imagined back then.” Like technology, life has its own twists and turns. “I never planned to move to Houston post-college, never planned to get an MBA, and absolutely never planned to start a company,” says Steve. Yet, he did. FreeWave has come a long way and is now innovating around end-to-end solutions so companies better understand operational, performance, and revenue opportunities through their data. Also from the 90s, computer scientist Michael Lesk writes: “There may be a few thousand petabytes of information all told.” (IDC predicts the global datasphere will reach 175 Zettabytes by 2025.) Using data as insight also saw the light of day. In 1993, digital mobile phones went from analog to digital, giving way to applications, data transfer, and mobile hotspots. In 1995, M2M began using cellular as a backhaul solution. And in 1999, SMS pricing and data plans fell to affordable rates. Things, the Rise of Data in the Aughts and the Value of Insight Once people realized Y2K (for zoomers, this was the potential crash of computers on December 31, 1999) was a non-issue, the world was off and running. We snapped photos with our phones, put our taxes on flash drives, carried a thousand songs in our pocket, and connected on Facebook. During the 2000s, “things” like washing machines were predicted to connect to the internet and order detergent. So far, most of us are still putting Tide on the grocery list. However, IoT has indeed given rise to a tsunami of data. According to the IoT Analytics “State of IoT—Spring 2023” report, the number of global IoT connections grew by 18% in 2022 to 14.3 billion active IoT endpoints. In 2023, the global number of connected IoT devices is predicted to grow another 16%, to 16.7 billion active endpoints. In the plainspoken world of marketing where I play, a “billion active endpoints” is a lot of data flowing through a lot of connected things. The term “big data” was first used at an IEEE conference on visualization in 1997. Michael Cox and David Ellsworth authored “Application-Controlled Demand Paging for Out-of-Core Visualization,” stating: “Visualization provides
The Whats and Hows of the Ultimate Dashboard for Industrial IoT
If you use the internet of things (IoT) devices to monitor or automate certain business operations, you may be wondering what to make of all the data those devices generate. Collectively, IoT devices across the globe will generate almost 80 zettabytes of data by 2025, according to International Data Corporation (IDC) projections. A zettabyte equals a trillion gigabytes. In layman’s terms, we’re talking about oodles and scads and gobs of data. At the business level, data collected from IoT-enabled devices could conceivably be entered into a spreadsheet, but data presented in this manner becomes overwhelming and even incomprehensible. A much better way to store and make sense of your data comes in the form of an IoT dashboard, which visually represents relevant data in such a way that you gain at-a-glance, actionable insights regarding your operations. An effective IoT dashboard allows you to make data-driven decisions to optimize efficiencies, troubleshoot problems, and make other adjustments and improvements that could potentially impact profit margins. Dashboard Design and the KISS Principle — Keep it Simple, Stupid Think about the dashboard display in your car. It doesn’t show you everything there is to know about the vehicle. Imagine how overwhelmed and distracted you would feel if it presented you with minutiae such as the condition of your tire tread, how many cubic inches of trunk space you’re using, the precise amount of antifreeze you have, the decibel level you top out at when singing along with the radio, and so on, ad nauseam. All this information crammed onto your dashboard would make it difficult for you to drive and make important, time-sensitive decisions, like when to stop for gas. That’s why the dashboard display is limited to what you need to know to drive safely and efficiently: How much fuel do you have? How fast are you going? How many miles per gallon are you getting? A well-designed IoT dashboard also only shows you data that you’ve prioritized in accordance with your business objectives, with the ability to pull up additional data points as desired. A well-designed dashboard prompts you to a view of data sets that you can select, creating an unfussy, easy to understand, and up-to-the-minute snapshot of in-field device and system-level performance. Effective Dashboard Design — It All Starts with You When it comes to selecting the best IoT dashboard for your organization, the first step is to define your business goals. Before requesting demos or engaging an IoT dashboard vendor, identify what you want to learn and achieve with the data you collect. Your business goals will determine the dashboard design you choose, as well as the type of data and performance indicators you need to track to meet your goals. For example, if your business goal is to improve the efficiency of your manufacturing process, you might want to track equipment downtime, production output, and raw material usage. Another scenario might be an oil and gas company wanting to track performance by optimizing existing wells, improving oil recovery, and minimizing its carbon footprint or emissions. Having defined your business goals, you can then determine which metrics matter most and how best to display them to facilitate decision making. Then, you can look for a dashboard that has the necessary features and functionalities to help you meet your business objectives. Dashboard Deliverables — What You Should Look for When Evaluating Your Options IDC estimates there will be 55.7 billion connected IoT devices by 2025. The IoT dashboard and platform market, though still quite young, is growing exponentially. With an ever-increasing number of options, choosing which vendor and product will best support your business goals can be as easy as working with a leading IoT network provider. We will discuss what to look for when considering your options, after a brief clarification of terms. You may hear the words dashboard and platform used interchangeably, so think of the dashboard as the user interface within an IoT platform that allows you to interact with your connected devices. The dashboard is both a control panel and a visual representation of key data your IoT devices collect. The platform is the dashboard’s pre-built foundation. Platform-based dashboards are typically more practical than out-of-the-box dashboard solutions, provided the platform is well-engineered. And a well-built platform is, first and foremost, generic. A Solid Generic Framework with Customizable Features and Functionalities In the case of information technology platforms, “generic,” ironically, is a positive descriptor, synonymous with user-friendliness and adaptability. Generic IoT platforms allow for customization, and FreeWave’s data platform comes with an array of templates and widgets that allow you to create a custom dashboard almost as easily as snapping together those beloved Lego® building blocks from your youth. The lesson here is the less “generic” the platform, the greater the likelihood you’ll need to hire someone to configure your initial dashboard and reconfigure it time and again as your business strategy evolves. Effective dashboards are intuitive and interactive. They are not a data dump, but rather convey information hierarchically through charts and other data visualizations, enabling you to extract actionable insights, receive alerts, identify patterns and trends, make projections, and run various scenarios with the aid of built-in analytics and machine learning. If you want to dive deeper into your data, interactive drill-down and click-to-filter features guide you through multilayer displays. You by no means have to be a programmer to design an effective IoT dashboard, but if you need a little extra assistance, look to an IoT platform provider for help. As a convenience to customers, FreeWave is enhancing its distribution network with specialists trained to assist in defining your user interface, in accordance with your business goals. Decision-making Support Through Data Storytelling Designing an industrial IoT dashboard begins by defining what data you want to see and why. It’s an involved process, but the end result should be a simple data story, with key takeaways highlighted. Once you’ve created your ultimate IoT dashboard, you’ll gain a competitive edge for your organization as the intelligence embedded