Google is one of the founding fathers of the Digital Revolution, and so embedded in our everyday lives that it gave the English language a new verb. Its algorithms changed the way we interact with data so completely, it is almost impossible to imagine a world where you could not not check the dates of Ignite or Oslo’s finest seafood restaurant without googling it.
Google’s appetite for change is unsated, and its Cloud Platform is a key enabler of Industry 4.0, where data sharing melds with technological innovation to transform industrial processes.
On June 12 and 13, Ignite 2019 is bringing together 800 industry leaders and tech innovators to explore the possibilities of Industry 4.0 and help shape its development. The decision to sponsor the conference was a natural one for Google Cloud. “Google is a data company. Data is what we do best,” says Chris Conradi, Industry Manager at Google Cloud. “And Ignite is the flagship event in this space.”
Synergy is at the heart of Industry 4.0, and it is this aspect that Conradi singles out as Ignite’s most valuable. “You encounter all the market,” he says, “customers, vendors and suppliers all getting new ideas from conference speakers, and networking afterwards. That’s what I’m looking forward to most.”
Another differentiator of Ignite is its forward-thinking attitude, Conradi adds. “Typical heavy-industry conferences tends to be a bit legacy-based in my opinion,” he explains. “But Ignite is much more forward-looking. You see the new things coming into the market. So if you want to look at what is coming in the next five years, then Ignite is the place to be.”
Google Cloud is contributing two speakers. Darryl Willis, VP Gas & Energy of Google Cloud, will give a keynote address to the Executive Track of the conference. His core message is about the power of data. “The oil and gas industry has lots of data,” Willis has previously said, “lots sitting in archives, lots being created as we speak. And that’s a huge opportunity.”
Google’s second speaker, Erwin Huizenga, a Machine Learning specialist at Google Cloud, will explore the nature of that opportunity in a presentation to the Data Science track of the conference.
In his address, The Future of Machine Learning is Here Thanks to Google Cloud!, Huizenga will reflect on his experience and instinct that companies feel insecure about this rapidly developing technology. “They feel they need to do something, but most have no real and practical awareness of the possibilities and limitations of machine learning,” Huizenga writes on his blog.
What really matters most is data, Huizenga argues, because if your data is poor, incomplete, and unreliable, your machine learning algorithms will misfire. The good news is that you can derive much greater value from machine learning by combining different data sources.
This is how Google Cloud and Cognite collaborated to transform the digitalization of Aker BP’s North Sea oil operations. Built on Google’s cloud services, Cognite Data Fusion® streams more than 500,000 events per second of live and historical data in real time. This data has been liberated from locked and proprietary silos and put contextualized, creating a complete picture of Aker BP’s industrial reality. In this way, all aspects of Aker BP’s operations are optimized through visualizations, machine learning, automation, and preventive maintenance.
Ignite is a space that fosters these creative partnerships and networks in a digital ecosystem recreated by the conference.
As Google Cloud’s Conradi puts it: “Spending one day at Ignite fuels the rest of the year with inspiration.”