Capgemini and Microsoft to offer cloud-native digital twin solutions to the enterprise

IT consulting firm Capgemini is collaborating with Microsoft to deliver a cloud-native, serverless Azure-based digital twin platform. The platform known as ‘ReflectIOD’ is 'secure and highly scalable and will leverage the architecture and technological components from the Azure suite to help organizations become efficient and drive sustainable business value', the companies said in a statement.

A digital-twin is regarded as a real-time representation of the virtual world that serves as a digital counterpart for its practical applications such as testing, system stimulation, maintenance and monitoring. 

The companies said that the new digital twin's platform will also enable enterprises to meet the ever-growing needs of standardised brownfields management, that is, operations of an already built infrastructure as opposed to a Greenfield, or new asset to be constructed, throughout their life cycle and across ecosystems.

Explaining the rationale behind this platform, Capgemini said, as companies' troves of data are often hosted in different IT silos, it becomes difficult for decision makers to quickly access the right data and have a 360° view of their assets to optimise operations, maintenance and asset availability. ReflectIoD addresses this problem by federating data from multiple systems and formats, such as 1D to 3D, Point cloud or set of data points in space, geographical information, operational technology (OT and internet of things (IoT) data, into a unique referential - the asset digital twin.

“Incremental use-cases and a data-driven approach are the key to successfully deploying digital twins in the field,” said Jean-Pierre Petit, Digital Manufacturing and Supply Chain Group Offer Leader at Capgemini. “Together with Microsoft’s cloud expertise, we can enable organisations to rethink their operations and shape the manufacturing and business ecosystem of tomorrow,” he said.

The new offering can be customised for different industries or organisations, leveraging Azure Digital Twins and Azure IoT, while also offering value added services to improve operations and maintenance. This holistic view of the assets enables data-centric collaboration and alignment between teams across multiple geographies, improves overall-decision making and enables the creation of new services.

Notably, Capgemini’s digital engineering and manufacturing teams help shape smart factories, buildings and infrastructure towards a more sustainable future.

“By leveraging cloud services and the power of digital twins, manufacturers can move from systems of record to systems of reality, driving unique and accelerated competitive advantage at scale,” said Çağlayan Arkan, Vice President, Global Strategy and Sales Lead, Manufacturing and Supply Chain, Microsoft.

There is a rise in demand for the digital twins in various sectors like real estate, telecom, healthcare, retail, etc., as enterprises are looking to improve operations of the supply chain and reduce costs.

The digital twin market value in 2020 was pegged at $6.30 billion, accompanied by a promising CAGR of 40%, and is likely to reach nearly $131 billion by 2030 according to a report by Strategic Market Research, with companies such as ABB, Dassault Systems, Siemens, General Electric, Hexagon AB, IBM Corp., SAP and Microsoft Corp, among others.