Powering Innovation: The GE Vernova Software-AWS Partnership

As the industry grapples with the complexities of managing assets spread across vast landscapes, the convergence of technology and innovation becomes not just a choice but a necessity. Enter the transformative partnership between GE Vernova's Software business and Amazon Web Services (AWS), a union poised to revolutionize asset performance management in the cloud.

At the core of this partnership lies the concept of asset performance management (APM) – the systematic approach to optimizing the performance of physical assets, from turbines to transmission lines. Increasingly enterprise leaders view APM as a pivotal tool for balancing risk, asset performance, and cost optimization by providing critical insights that enhance operational efficiency, mitigate potential issues, and support strategic decision-making for sustainable growth. Traditionally, APM has been confined to on-premises systems, limiting scalability, agility, and accessibility. However, with the advent of cloud computing, the paradigm is shifting.

By leveraging the power of the cloud, energy companies can now harness the full potential of APM, transcending the constraints of physical infrastructure and unlocking a myriad of benefits. From predictive maintenance and AI-enhanced analytics to real-time, unified enterprise views of asset monitoring, cloud-based APM empowers organizations to enhance operational efficiency, minimize downtime, and maximize asset lifespan.

But what sets apart the partnership between GE Vernova and AWS is not just the adoption of cloud technology, but the fusion of domain expertise and access to cutting-edge innovation. With GE Vernova's deep understanding of the energy landscape and AWS's robust cloud infrastructure, this collaboration offers a comprehensive suite of APM solutions tailored to the unique needs of energy companies.

As leaders in APM and cloud technology, GE Vernova and AWS provide collective strengths to customers that enables transformation and business outcomes at scale. As you can see below, the combination of GE Vernova’s Electrification Software Business and AWS provides customers access to endless possibilities.

In our recent Webinar , GE Vernova’s Sr. Director of Product Management Rachel Farr, Technology Partner Leader Shankar Narayanan from AWS, and GE Vernova’s Director of Product Marketing shared for the first time with the market why this partnership matters.

Cloud computing offers several mechanisms for customers to receive automatic updates, ensuring that they have access to the latest features, security patches, and improvements without the need for manual intervention and wait times associated with on-prem upgrades. In the cloud there are a few concepts that allow this to be possible. The first is containerization, a method for packaging software in containers to facilitate deployment and orchestration, enabling seamless, automatic updates to ensure customers are always running the latest version of the software. The second technology, serverless computing, allows providers to abstract the server layer, offering scalability and operational efficiency. This model automates infrastructure management, including the application of patches and updates, without manual intervention from customers. Finally, customers benefit from managed services, which provide comprehensive support and maintenance across a wide range of applications and infrastructure, further reducing the need for manual oversight and enhancing operational reliability.

More so, leveraging cloud can help organizations adapt to the pace of change with ease, expand into new integrations and introduce more technology by starting small and scaling. Below are a few advancements that can help customers achieve their technology goals:

• Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
• Microservices architecture
• DevOps
• Third Party Tool Ecosystem

Overall, cloud computing provides the foundation for building flexible, scalable, and adaptable applications that can easily integrate with new technologies and services as they emerge. By leveraging APIs, microservices architecture, serverless computing, DevOps practices, managed services, and third-party tools, teams can rapidly develop, deploy, and iterate on integrations to keep pace with the ever-changing technological landscape.

The flexibility to scale up and down is crucial for energy organizations and is even more critical to cost-effectively deliver an enterprise APM solution with a composable architecture on AWS.

1. Cost Optimization: Scaling resources up and down based on demand allows organizations to optimize their cloud spending. By only paying for the resources they need when they need them, organizations can avoid over-provisioning and reduce unnecessary expenses.

2. Performance Optimization: Scaling resources ensures that applications and services can handle varying levels of traffic and workload without experiencing performance issues. Scaling up during peak periods ensures that customers receive a consistent and responsive experience, while scaling down during off-peak periods frees up resources for other workloads.

3. Flexibility and Agility: The ability to scale resources up and down provides organizations with flexibility and agility to respond quickly to changing business requirements and market conditions. Whether it's launching new products, handling seasonal spikes in demand, or responding to unexpected traffic surges, organizations can scale their infrastructure dynamically to meet evolving needs.

4. Resilience and Reliability: Scaling resources horizontally across multiple instances or servers enhances the resilience and reliability of applications and services. By distributing workloads across multiple resources, organizations can reduce the risk of downtime and ensure high availability even in the face of hardware failures or other issues.

5. Improved Resource Utilization: Scaling resources up and down optimizes resource utilization by dynamically allocating resources based on demand. This ensures that resources are used efficiently and effectively, minimizing waste and maximizing productivity.

6. Enhanced User Experience: Scaling resources up and down helps maintain a consistent and optimal user experience by ensuring that applications and services can handle fluctuations in traffic and workload. This helps organizations retain and attract customers by delivering reliable and responsive services.

At GE Vernova, this allows us to focus on the application design and delivery while utilizing AWS' best in class cloud technology and services we can move faster with more innovative, value-driven solutions. Ultimately, this helps end users solve the challenges of balancing cost, risk and performance so they can reduce unplanned down-time and get the most out of every dollar spent on O&M, while supporting strategic business goals for the energy transition.

Both AWS and GE Vernova believe strongly in the shared security model. At AWS, product sensitive data and operations are protected leveraging AWS's comprehensive security capabilities. This ensures that as GE Vernova designs and deploys asset performance management solutions, they are fortified by the most advanced security measures. This collaboration not only accelerates innovation but also provides peace of mind for energy sector customers, who operate in environments where security and compliance are paramount. With AWS, GE Vernova can offer solutions that adhere to the highest standards for data protection and privacy, ensuring that customers can focus on their core operations without compromising on security.

More so, GE Vernova is also inherently “secure by design”.  From the edge to the cloud, applications are built to meet the most stringent security and compliance requirements, so you can adopt the right technologies and processes that deliver positive outcomes for IIoT investments. New, more advanced threats are targeting operational environments, so with our platform and industrial applications, you can bridge the worlds of IT and OT and protect data as it travels from the edge to the enterprise and back again. By building security into the design of our portfolio of industrial applications, we’ve assured that you can connect with confidence, knowing that your data, processes, and outcomes are delivered in a resilient environment.

Ultimately, the strategic partnership between GE Vernova’s Software business and AWS is providing the technology required to help energy organizations around the globe accelerate their digital journeys. By ensuring applications are built securely, able to scale and allowing access to emerging technology the potential for Asset Performance Management (APM) in the cloud is limitless.

Missed it live? Watch the webinar recording here and reach out to Ryan Finger with any questions or to get connected to a member of our team.