75% of enterprises that use internet of things (IoT) are already using digital twins or planning to use within the next year, finds leading analyst firm Gartner.
Digital twins are simply the virtual models of a product, process or service, that helps in analyzing systems so that expected problems can be avoided even before they occur. It also allows enterprises to prevent downtime, explore new opportunities and use analysis for other projects as well.
The digital twins are around for a long time now, but it gained traction after the implementation of IoT. In 2017, Gartner listed digital twins among the top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017.
According to survey by Gartner, 13% of organizations that implement IoT projects are already using digital twins, while 62% of them are in process of using it or planning to do so.
The growth in adoption of digital twin technology is driven by extensive marketing and education by technology vendors. The technology also provides business value and have become a part of enterprise IoT and digital strategies.
“The results — especially when compared with past surveys — show that digital twins are slowly entering mainstream use,” said Benoit Lheureux, research vice president at Gartner.
“We predicted that by 2022, over two-thirds of companies that have implemented IoT will have deployed at least one digital twin in production. We might actually reach that number within a year.”
54% of enterprises said that they mostly use digital twins for only one constituency, and sometimes for multiple constituencies. Around one-third of enterprises said that either all or most of their digital twins served multiple constituencies.
“We see digital twin adoption in all kinds of organizations. However, manufacturers of IoT-connected products are the most progressive, as the opportunity to differentiate their product and establish new service and revenue streams is a clear business driver,” Mr. Lheureux added.
The enterprises that use multiple digital twins, choose to integrate them. Sometimes the integration leads to complexity. However, despite the complexity, 61% enterprises have already integrated at least one pair of digital twins. Moreover, 74% of enterprises will integrate the digital twins in next five years.
However, Gartner survey also reveals that 39% of enterprises are yet to integrate any digital twins, and 26% don’t have any plan to do so in five years.
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“What we see here is that digital twins are increasingly deployed in conjunction with other digital twins for related assets or equipment,” said Mr. Lheureux.
“However, true integration is still relatively complicated and requires high-order integration and information management skills. The ability of to integrate digital twins with each other will be a differentiating factor in the future, as physical assets and equipment evolve.”