We may be in the midst of a third industrial revolution — one driven by intelligent devices connected to the Internet, enabling services, solutions and big data offerings around every day industrial and consumer goods. Software licensing and entitlement management will be the heart of this new industrial revolution, according to a report by Flexera Software and IDC.

“The industrial revolution came about as we moved from human labor to machine automation,” says Steve Schmidt, vice president of Corporate Development at Flexera Software. “Then a second industrial revolution came about as systems were put in place and new energy sources became available: railroads, iron and steel production, manufacturing automation, the use of steam power, oil, electricity and electrical communications.”

This new and third industrial revolution, Schmidt says, began with the proliferation of computers and software that have digitized our previously analog economy, resulting in new levels of automation, productivity and innovation. And now the rise of embedded software and app-driven hardware in manufacturing devices has created the environment in which device functions and features can be monetized by turning devices into intelligent solutions capable of generating new revenue streams.

SOURCE: cio.com