ABB and HPE Bring Intelligence to Industrial Plants

ABB

November 29, 2017

ABB and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have announced a strategic global partnership that combines ABB’s industry-leading digital offerings, ABB AbilityTM, with HPE’s innovative hybrid information technology (IT) solutions. The partnership will provide customers with solutions that generate actionable insights from vast amounts of industrial data to increase the efficiency and flexibility of their operations and create competitive advantage.

Customers will benefit from ABB’s deep domain expertise in operations technologies (OT) and HPE’s leadership in information technologies (IT). ABB and HPE will deliver joint industry solutions that merge OT and IT to turn industrial data into insights and automatic action, combining widely-adopted cloud platforms like Microsoft Azure with IT systems running in corporate data centers and at the edge of the network. Employing the right mix of IT platforms will accelerate data processing in industrial plants and at the same time enable effective control of industrial processes across locations.

“This strategic partnership marks the next level of the digital industrial transformation. Together, we will bring intelligence from cloud-based solutions to on-premises deployments in industrial plants and data centers for greater uptime, speed and yield,” said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. “ABB and HPE will deliver solutions that span the entire range of computing required by enterprises today, from the edge to the cloud to the core.”

With an installed base of 70 million connected devices, 70,000 digital control systems and 6,000 enterprise software solutions, ABB is a trusted leader in the industrial space, and has a four-decade-long history of creating digital solutions for customers. HPE in turn is a global leader in helping customers optimize their IT environments with secure, software-defined technologies that seamlessly integrate across traditional IT, multiple public and private clouds and the intelligent edge to drive key business outcomes.

“This alliance between two global leaders is unprecedented in terms of breadth and depth, and it will be ground-breaking for the progress of the Industrial Internet of Things,” said Meg Whitman, CEO, HPE. “Together with ABB, we will shape a digital industrial future where everything computes, equipping machines with intelligence to collaborate, allowing plants to flexibly adapt to changing demands, and enabling global supply chains to instantaneously react to incidents. This partnership will create exciting business opportunities for our joint customers.”

To provide a true end-to-end experience for customers, the ABB-HPE partnership will include co-innovation, co-development, joint go to market and service.

Research firm IDC forecasts that worldwide spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) will grow to $1.4 trillion in 2021 from an expected $800 billion in 2017. The largest investments are being made in areas such as manufacturing, transportation and utilities.1 To tap into the opportunities of the IoT, companies are investing in new solutions that digitize their industrial equipment and integrate it with their broader IT environments. By joining forces, ABB and HPE are bringing together the capabilities needed to accelerate this transformation.

Computing where it is required

Running data acquisition, analytics and control processes near industrial equipment helps customers avoid the latency, security and reliability issues associated with data communication through remote IT systems. ABB and HPE will jointly develop, market and service digital industrial solutions that help customers:

  • Create deep insights and automatic action from industrial data – by running ABB AbilityTMapplications on enterprise-grade IT systems close to the industrial equipment to accelerate the processing of vast amounts of data; and
  • Manage and control industrial processes across the supply chain – by leveraging hybrid IT to provide a seamless experience from edge to cloud to core, making critical data available across locations.

The partnership will enable ABB Ability™ solutions to run on hybrid platforms such as HPE ProLiant for Microsoft Azure Stack, enabling customers to deploy applications to their preferred location – on HPE infrastructure in industrial plants and data centers or in the Microsoft Azure public cloud – to meet the specific requirements regarding performance, security or cross-site collaboration.

ABB and HPE will also deliver joint solutions for data centers, including

  • Data center automation – to enable data center power, cooling and building systems automatically adapt to changing IT demands or incidents. To that end, ABB and HPE will integrate ABB AbilityTM Data Center Automation, which controls, monitors and optimizes mission-critical data center facilities infrastructure, with HPE OneView, HPE’s IT infrastructure automation software.
  • Secure edge data center – specifically designed to run in harsh industrial environments, bringing enterprise-grade IT capacity closer to the point of data collection and machine control. This solution is being developed in collaboration between ABB, HPE and Rittal, the world’s largest manufacturer of IT racks, and will be an off-the-shelf ready IT data center solution for industrial customers enabling real-time insight and action.

Related Articles


Latest Articles

  • Ontario Solar Incentives with Essex Energy

    Ontario Solar Incentives with Essex Energy

    August 20, 2025 Essex Energy is helping municipalities, universities and colleges across Ontario take advantage of incentives under Ontario’s Retrofit DER Program including solar photovoltaic (PV) systems. What’s Available Significant rebates available to eligible businesses and institutional organizations deploying rooftop or parking lot solar PV systems. These incentives are paid upon completion of the project, accelerating project… Read More…

  • Beyond the Bid: How Modern Estimating Solutions Drive Contractor Success

    Beyond the Bid: How Modern Estimating Solutions Drive Contractor Success

    August 18, 2025 By Brooke Stewart In today’s fast-paced construction landscape, electrical contractors are constantly pressured to keep their estimates competitive, often at the expense of healthy profit margins. Compounding this challenge are rising material costs, a shortage of skilled labor and siloed data, all of which make it increasingly difficult to stay competitive and… Read More…

  • Hammond Power Solutions Helps EFC Champion Sustainability as First Carbon Neutral Sponsor at Annual Industry Conference

    Hammond Power Solutions Helps EFC Champion Sustainability as First Carbon Neutral Sponsor at Annual Industry Conference

    August 18, 2025 By Electro-Federation Canada Did you know that carbon emissions from this year’s Annual Industry Conference were offset? With the help of Hammond Power Solutions (HPS), EFC took an important step toward reducing our environmental impact by offsetting the emissions associated with the event. This milestone reflects a growing commitment within the electrical… Read More…

  • FortisBC Detail Impact of their Energy-Efficiency Programs in 2024

    FortisBC Detail Impact of their Energy-Efficiency Programs in 2024

    August 18, 2025 In 2024, FortisBC Energy Inc. and FortisBC Inc.’s (collectively FortisBC) conservation and energy-efficiency programs helped lower gas and electricity use while helping create more comfortable living and working spaces for customers. Building on 2023 reductions, its gas programs cut close to one million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO₂e) 1 in 2024. “Our customers’… Read More…


Changing Scene

  • Blackline Safety Announces Quality Assurance Program Expansion

    August 18, 2025 Blackline Safety Corp. has announced a major expansion of its quality assurance (QA) program. As part of the expansion, the company has increased its QA team, upgraded its inspection equipment, and boosted in-lab testing of its entire product line. Headquartered in Canada with offices in the UK, France, U.S., and UAE, Blackline… Read More…

  • EB Horsman Introcuce New Burnaby Branch Manager

    EB Horsman Introcuce New Burnaby Branch Manager

    August 18, 2025 EB Horsman & Son is pleased to announce the promotion of Sean O’Brien to Branch Manager of their Burnaby location, effective August 6, 2025. Sean brings over 15 years of experience in the electrical and lighting industry, with a strong background in sales, technical leadership, project management, and clean energy initiatives. He… Read More…

  • BCCA Response to “Report on 2026 Budget Consultation”

    BCCA Response to “Report on 2026 Budget Consultation”

    August 18, 2025 BCCA is pleased to receive the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services’ Report on the 2026 Budget Consultation, and celebrates the emphasis placed on supporting BC’s construction industry and workforce. Chris Atchison, President of the BCCA, spoke to the Committee on the recommendations and priorities of BC’s construction industry. These included:… Read More…

  • NSAA Introduces Mentorship for Women Apprentices Program

    NSAA Introduces Mentorship for Women Apprentices Program

    August 18, 2025 This program is designed to support the retention and progression to certification of women apprentices in the 39 Red Seal Construction or Manufacturing trades. The program pairs women apprentices with experienced tradespeople to provide guidance, career development, and support throughout their apprenticeship journey. The program is for 6 months, with the mentor and… Read More…