Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — New projects between GE and Saudi Arabia will be focusing on the Kingdom's power, healthcare, energy and mining sectors, as well as skills training and digital analytics running on Predix under GE's $15 billion in new agreements inked with Saudi Arabia recently. Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Kate Johnson, Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer, GE Digital, explained that the package includes a partnership with Saudi Aramco to generate $4 billion in efficiency savings by digitizing its operations. GE and its Saudi partners also will use software applications running on Predix to create digital hospitals in the Kingdom and improve the efficiency of its minerals mining. She said "It also includes a large healthcare digitization component through partnerships with Saudi Telecom, under the patronage of the Saudi Ministry of Health and Dr. Sulaiman Habib Medical Group (HMG). The landmark agreement is a vital element in the digitization of industry in the Kingdom and will introduce digital solutions through an Electronic Medical Records Predix Solution and a Centralized Appointment System (CAS). Together, these will serve to transform MOH facilities into ‘digital hospitals' across the region." Johnson added that GE has recently announced a partnership with Obeikan Investment Group that will support the digitization of Obeikan facilities. "Initially, two plants will be digitally transformed, with the potential to scale and convert the group's other plants across the Middle East, Africa and Europe in the future. This conversion will bring unprecedented levels of efficiency and productivity, leveraging GE Digital's Brilliant Manufacturing solutions. The solutions to be deployed and powered by Predix, GE's platform for the Industrial Internet – include Digital Twin, a digital replica of physical assets; Asset Performance Management (APM), allowing for more intelligent operations through a complete view of assets and predictive analytics; and ServiceMax, a cloud-based field service management (FSM) solution." Asked about the company's cloud system and how it can benefit the private companies, Johnson said GE built Predix, which is a platform for the Industrial Internet connecting machines, data, and people to power the digital industrial companies of the future. It's the foundation for GE's digital offerings that enables industrial businesses to securely collect and analyze data in real-time so that they can operate faster, smarter, and more efficiently. She added that with Predix, businesses could create innovative apps that turn real-time operational data into actionable insights. Moreover, Johnson said, "A platform approach offers a standardized way to enable an entire business to quickly take advantage of operational and business innovations. The cloud model allows businesses to scale to meet different business and application workloads by easily adjusting capacity on-demand. Assets can be connected across the entire business so data can be captured, and analytics can be developed and run to deliver insights at all levels of the organization. A common cloud architecture also enables improved system governance, standardized security vulnerability assessments, and release management control and consistency." Over 26,000 developers across GE, its partners, and customers are using Predix to build software and applications for the Industrial Internet. GE expects that figure to double by the end of 2017, she remarked. On tips that companies should follow to overcome the security issues when it comes to technology such as hacking, Johnson said "GE takes a holistic approach to enabling resilience across IT and OT ecosystems: enhancing our hardware and software with embedded security, protecting our products with cybersecurity solutions, services and robust testing, responding to anomalies with global, always-on security response centers and collaborating with others to share vulnerabilities and key learnings." She further said "we build our machines and software with security embedded at multiple levels, and we work closely with customers to identify and address potential vulnerabilities with installed systems. As the Industrial Internet expands, security must evolve with it. We recognize the attack surface spans IT (data) and OT (critical infrastructure and industrial assets), and is moving beyond software and hardware-based security to identify new ways of securing industrial data and machines. The Industrial Internet is a shared ecosystem, and we have a shared responsibility to secure it. Collaboration is the best path to effective cybersecurity solutions."
