Industrial cloud solutions for industry 4.0 are an economic factor. Under Siemens AG and with 18 other companies, MICHAEL WEINIG AG has accepted the challenge. ‘MindSphere World’ was founded on 23rd January in Berlin and ensures full connectivity with Siemens and third-party products while maintaining secure data communication.

German industrial companies have founded a user organization as innovation leaders in industrial cloud solutions. The key focus of the new startup campus is the Internet of Things. On the threshold of the age of digitalization, the ‘MindSphere OpenSpace’ creates ideal conditions for MindSphere World members and other users such as startups to drive forward the development of apps and digital services and to tap whole new markets.

With 18 partner companies, Siemens AG has established ‘MindSphere World’, a worldwide user organization for the cloud-based open IoT (Internet of Things; or Industry 4.0) operating system MindSphere. This will include suggestions about the requirements placed on the IoT operating system MindSphere by the industry and recommendations on setting out uniform rules for data utilization.

“The foundation of MindSphere World represents another major step forward in promoting the network surrounding MindSphere as an open IoT platform. The broad-based expertise and the offering of all the MindSphere World partners will open up totally new digitalization potential for users everywhere,” said Managing Board Member of Siemens’ AG Klaus Helmrich.

Committees will deal with issues such as the requirements placed on MindSphere by industry, data governance concepts and the Assocation’s PR work. “MindSphere’s open structure offers a wide range of benefits users, in particular due to the manufacturer-independent link-up of machines and plants and also when it comes to the development of apps. Because the development of standards plays a decisive role when it comes to establishing a worldwide network, the members of MindSphere World will be working together to come up with recommendations for standards in relation to MindSphere-based apps.

“As users, we’re all facing similar challenges: These include data governance, in other words managing the accessibility, usability and processing of data, as well as app architecture, and the homogeneous use of MindSphere components. From now on, we’ll be able to play a role in shaping these developments and putting forward the specific expectations we place in MindSphere,” said Michael Haag, Member of the Advisory Board of MindSphere World and Senior Vice President R&D at Kuka. The founder members of “MindSphere World” alongside Siemens AG include Festo AG & Co. KG; J. Schmalz GmbH; Kuka Aktiengesellschaft and Michael Weinig AG. Under this unified platform, WEINIG will continue to develop and optimize its own digital standard W 4.0 for the benefit of its customers. Our photo shows Weinig CEO Wolfgang Pöschl (left) and product segment manager Dr. Mario Kordt.