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Businesses Networking Open Source The Internet

How G.E. Is Transforming Into An IoT Start-Up (nytimes.com) 115

Posted by EditorDavid 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".
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How G.E. Is Transforming Into An IoT Start-Up More

How G.E. Is Transforming Into An IoT Start-Up

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  • First item on the agenda... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 28, 2016 @07:09PM (#52786743)

    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.

    • Re:First item on the agenda... (Score:5, Informative)

      by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Sunday August 28, 2016 @07:27PM (#52786789)

      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.

      • 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.

        Worry not citizen! The Internet of things is perfectly safe. And when it isn't, we have McAfee for Toasters to protect you from the bad guys.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        This just in, the entire eastern seaboards grid melted due to claimed hacker "nukenfuts" started all networked Forman X machines that were plugged into the wall. Sources say the networked device needed to be plugged in to remain online and alert users of new receipes/post recipes of the current items being grilled.

        This is the new era of "terrorism" and at what cost? And it wont just be nukenfuts, it will be your insurance company watching your piss in case you wreck a car so they aren't libel for a hospital

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by pete6677 ( 681676 )

        According to GE's liberal-artist MBA CTO it's all going to the cloud: https://slashdot.org/story/15/... [slashdot.org]

        Security won't be a problem, right?

      • The Internet of Hacked Things.

      • fridge or toaster to be on the internet

        Oh look another person who completely doesn't understand IoT.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's GE - the first item on their agenda will be to fire all the Americans on the project and replace them with foreigners from low cost centers (LCCs in GE speak).

    • This is G.E. We're talking about.
      They will take the 'painful way' option but without the complication of 'learning'.

      At least they'll be consistent with the rest of their industrial portfolio.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Agripa ( 139780 )

      All they have to do is accept the NSA as a client and there will be no reported exploits.

    • I know one of the people working for GE on this project. He's no slouch and has positioned himself well: remember that 124 year thing? But he does know his stuff on hardware security. I'm interested to see what GE can do, it can't be easy to mobilze a behemoth like that.

  • Where do you go if you need to concentrate? You know, like on actually getting stuff done? I guess that's all passe now.

    • Where do you go if you need to concentrate? You know, like on actually getting stuff done? I guess that's all passe now.

      Facebook.....I can see it now.....

      Peter Gozinta shared "I'm making toast" And everyone applauds and leves little messages of encouragement about how much they like Toast.

      • Yup, the future is now [wordpress.com].

        • Yup, the future is now [wordpress.com].

          And after much resistance, I had to open a Facebook account to hand out info to a group. All my fears about it were true. Sucks you in, Oh, look there's an old high school bud. Even old girlfriends, then relatives. Then the existential angst sets in.

          I fear many of them would actually like to read about Freddie's Sansung refrigerator reports that Freddie is low on milk, then the thoughts and prayers of Freddie's friends will go out to him in hopes he doesn't have to go without milk, then someone will blam

    • This part of GE's plan shows that they are trying to copy faddish ideas, thinking it sounds cool. Do programmers actually like this kind of setup? Really? I wonder if it's more of a marketing ploy by office furniture companies, to sell more of their trendy products.

      • Most of the places I've worked have been open plan offices but two places had offices for everyone. It was great at those two places because it was much quieter so you could concentrate better. If you really needed some time to work on a problem you could close the door and stop interruptions. Paired programming in an open office environment is noisy and doesn't work well for trying to think about a problem.

        What was missing from these offices were places where you could meet up with a couple of people to

        • I too have worked in both environments. I prefer to have a private office where I can make it quiet or play some music without the need for headphones. As a current cube dweller, I don't question why management loves the "open" plan. They are either cheap or they saw a movie where a bunch of software geeks were huddling up and making ground breaking progress. That's not the way it happens in real life. Most "collaboration" is just bullshitting. I don't discount that real meetings and collaboration are impor

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by AuMatar ( 183847 )

            I've worked at both as well. I'll take the open any day of the week. People are more accessible, you feel less like interfering if you talk to someone. Frequently you'll overhear a discussion that your input on is important. I feel an individual might get more done in some circumstances of private offices, but the team gets more done in an open one. And that's what's important. Especially if you're a team lead I would never choose an office over an open desk.

  • Skeptical or terrified? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by shanen ( 462549 ) on Sunday August 28, 2016 @07:47PM (#52786857) Homepage Journal

    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... [ello.co] 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?

    • @Shanen: I wholeheartedly agree. GE exists only because of inertia. But I think Immelt's management style has changed "the General" a little bit.

      I've also been exposed to GE and their management philosophy. Welch was/is clueless. His "management style" is crude at best. Especially his idea that a manager can be effective anywhere in the organization. (IOW once you know how to manage, you can manage anything.) When Welch was running his massive PR campaign prior to his retirement from GE, he made a big deal

    • GE isn't what I think of as a Start-Up.
      As GE is one of the largest companies in the world Currently #11 on the Fortune 500. Having been around for 124 years, there is a well defined GE Culture that is nearly hard to break. For a startup you need to be quick and nible. The culture will need to be flexible smart and not hung up with titles, that isn't GE.

      Sure they may be the current leader of IoT however that doesn't make them a startup. I have seen the jobs for the IoT division and mostly they just want a

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shanen ( 462549 )

        Your reply wasn't clear enough, but you may have been thinking that I was comparing GE to a startup. The startup that I was working for was a quasi-independent entity within GE, but it was using surplus cycles on a large network of Fujitsu mainframes. This was somewhat pre-Internet, and the actual model was CompuServe, which is already enough to discredit the entrepreneurial claim. Rather GE was just trying to claim a piece of the pie, and at that time no one (especially not at GE) understood how the pie wa

  • New business, still not paying taxes (Score:4, Insightful)

    by chadenright ( 1344231 ) on Sunday August 28, 2016 @07:48PM (#52786859) Journal
    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%?

  • Open-plan floors (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Quoting TFS:

    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

    These "open-plan floors" are, in many cases, the worst thing imaginable for developer productivity and information security. Then again, it's one of those "modern and trendy best practices" that's still widely and blindly adopted by tech companies these days, so it's gotta be good, right? -PCP

    • Re:Open-plan floors (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Zontar The Mindless ( 9002 ) <<moc.liamg> <ta> <ofni.hsifcitsalp>> on Monday August 29, 2016 @01:06AM (#52787759) Homepage

      "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.

    • You build a team of introverts, then place them in an extrovert's dream office.
      You are better off giving everyone a private office, and having drafting rooms where they can collaborate with a small group of people.

    • It's quite an achievement for something to stay modern and trendy for thirty years.

      Especially when - as many others have pointed out - it's utterly shite.

  • GE Invented offshoring (Score:5, Informative)

    by tomhath ( 637240 ) on Sunday August 28, 2016 @08:06PM (#52786909)
    Seems kind of poetic justice that GE needs to reinvent itself to write software after Jack Welch kickstarted offshoring software development to India [wsj.com]

    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.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      yes -- we call him Neutron Jack at GE. After he's done, the buildings are still standing but the people are all gone.

      he came up with "rightsizing" in the mid 90s and pretty much destroyed GE's future, but the short term books look great.
      Now, they realize that they might have made a mistake on that?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Now, they realize that they might have made a mistake on that?

        Now they double-up on the bet, with a bluff to make you think they're still building things, hiring engineers, and doing useful work.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by swb ( 14022 )

        Wasn't GE big on that management system Six Sigma? I don't know any of the details about it other than I think it involves shit-canning the bottom 10% or something of the workforce just because they're the bottom 10% of the workforce.

        I also remember a business news story from the Welch era where they were doing so much business in financial services some analysts suggested the company's valuation should be judged as a bank and not as an industrial concern. That may have just been financial news clickbait

        • The problem is Six Sigma is good for manufacturing, however GE pushed it to other things where the cost of insuring that level of accuracy was greater than letting the mistakes go threw.

          So for example following 6S will cost a team 1 day a week of extra work roughly 10 weeks a year of extra work to prevent a problem that will cost an extra weeks of work ever 3 months that will take a week to fix (4 weeks a year) that is just money wasted due to being paranoid of making a mistake.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tomhath ( 637240 )

          it was in an era where they were selling off long term industrial businesses and focusing a lot on GE Capital.

          That's correct. At the time the government was trying to stimulate investment by giving generous tax breaks to companies that bought and leased out capital equipment. It seemed like a good idea, essentially let the company with the money take the depreciation; otherwise a small/startup would need to borrow money to buy the equipment - but they weren't making a big profit so the depreciation didn't help them. GE went all in on the deal because of the very good short term financial return.

          Eventually the gove

  • So how far are we from the point... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    ...where so much of the economy is driven by harvesting personal data to sell to advertisers that there aren't enough companies creating real products left anymore who want to advertise?

    Perhaps the disruptive visionaries of the next generation can innovate their way into a future where consumers no longer expect anything at all in exchange for their money. We're already on the road to it, phasing out the archaic concept of property ownership in favor of such ideas as the cloud, the sharing economy, and Win

  • Be afraid. Be very afraid. (Score:3)

    by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Sunday August 28, 2016 @08:45PM (#52787043)

    A company the size of GE cranking out insecure, hackable crap.

    Which is a brilliant move from a company point of view. Never again they'll have to deal with warranty claims since the first thing the customer now has to do is to fry the wifi part of his new fridge, voiding the warranty in the process.

  • "open-plan floors, bench seating,"

    WTF? Software developers dont WANT those things. The executives want those things because it is cheaper to shove everyone in a table in a room.

  • Who ever heard of a startup with that many people! You'd need a bureaucracy just to manage that many people. But then, GE is very comfortable with bureaucracies.

  • BWAHAHAHAHAHA! (Score:3)

    by MadTinfoilHatter ( 940931 ) on Sunday August 28, 2016 @11:31PM (#52787521)

    GE transforming to a startup? Yeah, and on the same note I'm sure that the local circus elephant will learn to fly and soar through the skies any day now. Seriously, as someone who's been working as a contractor for GE for almost 2 years now, the notion of them becoming a startup is utterly ridiculous. In practice the "startup" changes have meant abandoning personal office space for noisy productivity-destroying open plan offices, appointing someone as "scrum master", slapping a parody of scrum on top of the waterfall model and calling it agile.

    Seriously, what the would need to do is shave off about 7 layers of bureaucracy, because right now, something as simple as trying to get QA to accept that the test reports generated by the test automation are not going to be identical to the ones that were previously used when testing was done by hand is a six month political struggle where managers of different departments have to assert themselves in a dick measuring competition. I'd say these guys are about 123 years away from being a startup... :-P

    • Startup is one of buzzwords GE thinks is fancy and likes using (lean and thinning down are similar in business speak). What GE is trying to become is a IoT Incubator and a VC (finance and investment is their bread and butter for past decade, it makes sense).

      Working for GE, you should know how to read between the bullshit by now, mate.

  • Free Range? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MrBoring ( 256282 ) on Monday August 29, 2016 @06:40AM (#52788459)

    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?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

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

      Business School.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by orlanz ( 882574 )

      I too didn't understand this. I have seen this statement said over and over again at multiple companies. "This will attract the young-ins and geeks." But most of the people I know, and even the very young ones... don't like this office environment. Its a "market place" type of environment. Noisy, distracting, odd shaped furniture that doesn't conform to different body sizes, totally open, and very non-personal.

      Some of it is great, the conference rooms, eating areas, relaxation spots, and general walk p

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kiuas ( 1084567 )

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

      It doesn't have much to do with what they think the programmers want, it's an efficiency measure. You can fit more people into the same space and as an added bonus they can be more easily monitored. This is enough of a reason for many companies to move to these types of offices and then they just sprinkle some BS about how it's really for the good of the workers.

      It really depends on the type of job. I like my pri

  • And they'll wind up building version 10 of GECOS [wikipedia.org] and then sell it off again. Oh wait they already did that. [feb-patrimoine.com]

     

  • It's nice that GE is thinking about this now, but this is far from a new idea.

    Predictive maintenance was a new thing 25 years ago. Companies like Computational Systems Inc (CSI), which was later acquired by Emerson, pioneered this technology.

    CSI's first product line used accelerometers placed on each axis to analyze vibrations, which was then graphed and analyzed by software. Based on vibrations, they were able to tell when ball bearings were wearing out so that they may be replaced as part of scheduled line maintenance and avoiding downtime often rated in the $100Ks per hour.

    They branched off into other products such as oil analysis, where they magnetically detected metal in engine oil to determine wear. Etc.

    Very interesting stuff. (Disclosure: I worked for them in the early 90s.)

  • What GE is doing is not unusual. Many corporate giants are trying this in one form or another. They're realized that due to their size, the business can't operate on "internet time"; they're responding too slowly to opportunities, and they're losing ground because they're just not competitive with the little guys.

    But "startup" is the wrong term; it's really an attempt to escape the straightjacket of large company bureaucracy by spawning an internal skunkworks to bypass the slowdowns inherent in any giant

  • They've had most of my adult life to figure out how to set up a Universal Remote Control to connect all the devices in my living room and every universal remote marketed has been a cruel, cruel lie. If they can not figure out how to do this for my home theater, given the relative simplicity and low (or no) security concerns for my cable converter, television, DVD, amplifier... what makes me believe that they will do this on a consumer level with everyone trying to control the user interface (and revenue str
  • They bought a startup called Smart Signal [uchicago.edu] a few years ago.
  • What is the licence of Predix? CloudFoundry is on apache license, so non-viral... Which means that Predix could be as open or closed as GE would want it.

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