Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

How G.E. Is Transforming Into An IoT Start-Up (nytimes.com)

Posted by EditorDavid on from the bringing-more-things-to-life dept.

Slashdot reader mspohr shares an article about "General Electric 're-inventing' itself as a software start-up." Jeffrey R. Immelt, the CEO of America's largest manufacturer, describes how he realized that data collected from their machines -- like turbines, engines, and medical-imaging equipment -- could be as valuable as the machines themselves. Now G.E. is hiring software engineers and data scientists from Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google to try to transform the company into a "124-year-old startup" to take advantage of the Internet of Things and offer futuristic new services like predictive maintenance.

The Times calls it "the next battlefield as companies fight to develop the dominant software layer that connects the machines," adding that by 2020 there will be 100 times as much data flowing from G.E.'s machines. Now G.E. Digital is using the open source PaaS, Cloud Foundry, to develop Predix, a cloud-based operating system for industrial applications like monitoring and adjusting equipment in the field, whether it's an oil-field rig or a wind-farm turbine. To help transform the company into a digital powerhouse, they're building a 1,400-employee complex in San Ramon, California "designed to suit the free-range working ways of software developers: open-plan floors, bench seating, whiteboards, couches for impromptu meetings, balconies overlooking the grounds and kitchen areas with snacks." And they've also launched the Industrial Dojo program "to accelerate the ability for developers to contribute code that enables the Industrial Internet".

8 of 115 comments (clear)

  1. First item on the agenda... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let's hope the first item on their agenda is how to handle security in their internet connected machinery and what to do in the inevitable event of breaches. Or they could just learn their lessons the painful way.

    1. Re:First item on the agenda... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 4, Informative

      I was going to say the same thing.

      It's all fun and games until you get hacked.

      IoT is a complete security clusterfuck disaster waiting to happen.

      I don't "need" my fridge or toaster to be on the internet where some script kiddie can hack it.

    2. Re: First item on the agenda... by Hognoxious · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I guess the question is "How much security is good enough for IoT" ?

      Unless you're making devices. Then it's either "how much security can we get for a budget of X?" or "how little security can we get away with, given that the budget for it is zero?"

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Skeptical or terrified? by shanen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Many years ago I worked for a startup subsidiary of GE and I was not impressed with the management style. I don't think it's just sour grapes due to my being pushed out the door, because the entire subsidiary died a couple of years later. Some kind of Internet thing. Of course it was doomed, eh?

    Then again, after reading Jack Welch's book, I think there are grounds for concern. If GE is still as he made it in his image, then it's a dangerous and sociopathic entity. If it were an actual human being, then it is probable that we would all be dead now. Shades of the vicious ASI (artificial super-intelligence) in Our Final Invention (My quasi-review at https://ello.co/shanen0/post/g... as of last week?) No respect for your humanity after GE gets enough IoT devices into the market, and they still design lots of devices for the Chinese to build. Of course the Chinese involvement creates another layer of concern.

    We need an economic system that rethinks things in terms of freedom. Cf my sig, eh?

    --
    Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice != (Speech | Beer^2), and sad sock puppets' bad mods avail them naught.
  3. New business, still not paying taxes by chadenright · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I guess nobody's told the big guys that the majority of small businesses fail, fail hard, and fail quickly, but not quickly enough to be cheap. Anyone want to bet that within 4 years, 50% of their currently-american software folks will be outsourced and within 8 years that number will be closer to 75%?

  4. GE Invented offshoring by tomhath · · Score: 4, Informative
    Seems kind of poetic justice that GE needs to reinvent itself to write software after Jack Welch kickstarted offshoring software development to India

    Indian executives say early investments by GE in India gave their technology and business service sectors crucial credibility and cash when other companies still viewed the country as a risky backwater. Moreover, exposure to Mr. Welch's culture of cost-cutting and efficiency taught them business skills they are now using to compete globally, often against U.S. firms.

  5. Re:Open-plan floors by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Designed to suit the free-range working ways of software developers" my ass.

    It's designed (a) to save on costs (one big room as opposed to many small ones) and (b) to keep you and what's on your screen under the watchful eye of management at any and all times.

    It is in no wise intended to foster worker productivity. And it doesn't.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  6. Free Range? by MrBoring · · Score: 3, Interesting

    For the record some of us HATE this idea. I don't want to be that close to my coworkers. I can't work with people staring over my shoulder. I need a reasonable amount of privacy. Since I spend over a third of my life there, I want to be able to bring a couple of personal things and not move them around all the time.

    What makes people think professionals known for introversion want to have absolutely NO privacy?