The connected and intelligent industry like more and more. So much so that, in 2015, investment in technologies and solutions to power the smart manufacturing and to support the so-called fourth industrial revolution came to 1.2 billion euro. Equal to about one tenth of the total expenditure of the sector. For 2016 it is even expected to grow by 20 percent (Observatory Smart Manufacturing Data).

But what is the technology that lies at the heart of this profound transformation of the industrial fabric? Oracle has no doubts: is cloud. According to new research of the Californian, entitled precisely Cloud: Opening up the road to Industry 4.0 and conducted on over 1,200 decision makers from nearly twenty countries around the world, most of the tip of todays enterprises mainly on the cloud for cards and build strategies and investment in technological innovation, such as robotics and artificial intelligence.

Most companies recognize it as an infrastructure on the cloud is necessary in order to have these technologies, thatcompanies are already implementing. 55 percent of them, in fact, has to be in projects related to robotics and 57 percent some form of artificial intelligence. Six out of ten enterprises also believe that a cloud platform enterprise offers the opportunity to capitalize on the investments on innovation, such as robotics and artificial intelligence.Important numbers, but nevertheless point out that a large proportion of companies have yet to explore the potential of Industry 4.0.

An integrated infrastructure cloud is making it more economical, fast and easy to become and be competitive. But not only innovation introduced by Industry 4.0 could create, according to data from the Boston Consulting Group, the conditions for 400 thousand new jobs in Europe alone, by determining the next 15 years, an increase in productivity of between 5 and 8 percent.