Volkswagen Opens B2B Cloud To Tech Partners

To help its partners create technology links to its plants, Volkswagen has joined forces with Amazon Web Services (AWS) as well as integration partner Siemens to let technology and manufacturing firms access its “Industrial Cloud.” The tie-up will allow partner firms to interface with the automaker’s facilities and provide programs for making production procedures as effective as possible per an announcement.

Volkswagen AG Executive Vice President New Business Development Nihar Patel said in the announcement, “With the Industrial Cloud we are creating a platform allowing partners to contribute their solutions. This will help the Volkswagen Group achieve global efficiencies at its plants. At the same time, we are creating the pathway for partners to scale their applications and optimize their own operations. This way, everyone will benefit.”

The automaker’s facilities will have the ability to use the Industrial Cloud to access programs for tools, equipment and machinery directly. Companies such as BearingPoint, Teradata, GROB-WERKE, and ABB are to become a part of the Industrial Cloud as an initial measure. The cloud will eventually encompass each of the manufacturing facilities around the globe and will allow for information to be sent between buildings and systems.

AWS innovations in such fields as machine learning and Internet of Things (IoT) serve as the basis of the Industrial Cloud.

Automotive manufacturing companies, for their part, are eager to put Amazon Alexa behind the wheel — or the passenger seat at a minimum. Alexa Auto Vice President Ned Curic said per CNBC last December that demand for voice-activated infrastructure is “through the roof.”

In separate news, a new United Nations regulation will mandate that connected cars sold in places such as South Korea, the European Union and Japan be kept safe from cyberattacks.

More than 50 nations inked a resolution to mandate that firms responsible for giving the green light to auto models to ensure they have safeguards from those attacks. In addition, automakers will need to make sure their suppliers put the cautions and forensic procedures in place to find and make sense of the attacks.