Software Defined Evolution of Digital Twins – Enabled by VMware

Guest blog by Can Amado, Business Solutions Strategist, VMware

Digital twins are transcending boundaries, expanding into every sector with their transformative power. From healthcare's personalized patient simulations to aviation's predictive maintenance of aircraft, digital doppelgängers are redefining excellence across all industries, promising a future limited only by our imagination.

As a capability evolves, so do the lessons learned on how to build a better capability. A digital twin, an implement of digital engineering, is the answer for any organisation to build a better capability, as well as build capability better. A digital twin is the ability to have a digital representation of a capability. This digital representation can be of an existing physical capability (i.e.aircraft, wireless tower, assembly line), a proposed capability (i.e., robotic arm, fueling station), or even an already existing digital capability (i.e.,cloud computing, intrusion prevention system).

Digital Twin Enablement

VMware enables the digital twin framework natively within our solutions, whether it be from the IT infrastructure perspective, supplying the venue for simulation and analysis to take place, or within the solutions themselves, conducting the conceptual development, data intelligence, predictive focus, and capability enhancement. Such enablement also provides a platform to anticipate and empower an organization’s needs, allowing for partner solutions to further enhance an organization’s digital twin capability.

There is not a single solution to deliver digital twins, as there are many levels and needs that make up a digital twin. VMware does, however, enable each level, allowing an organization to focus on the mission/need without having to complicate or disperse the required infrastructure. Figure 1 shows the building blocks for a holistic digital twin (i.e.,from supporting infrastructure to simulation and analytic workloads).

FIGURE 1

VMware is the industry leader in software-defined infrastructure. We provide the ability to agnostically deliver infrastructure on-premises, in the public cloud, and at the edge in a consistent and repeatable fashion. From this perspective, VMware provides the computational layer for all digital twin use cases. As shown in Figure 2, VMware not only provides the ability to host a digital twin, but to deliver a digital twin of the hosting ecosystem.

FIGURE 2

BMW Virtual Factory

VMware and NVIDIA have enabled BMW to develop an innovative virtual factory planning tool. The solution combines virtual planning and engineering for highly complex manufacturing systems and production plants on a modern, digitized platform. Connecting different applications and assets into a digital production twin allows for maximum simulation and planning capability, increases the speed, precision, and efficiency of the production planning process.

BMW Group’s virtual factory planning tool integrates a wide array of planning, real time sensor and environmental data and applications to enable real-time collaboration and predictive actions. Thanks to these features, the planning processes are 30 percent more efficient, and they have a platform for digital planning and the operation of digital twins. VMware sees the solution as a flagship project and a blueprint for many use cases in the manufacturing industry – and one that also unlocks an important step in the digitization of automotive manufacturing.

Defence Virtualized Ops Centre

Wargaming, requirements generation, operations, maintenance and acquisitions all play natively into the outcomes of digital twins i.e. conceptual design, data intelligence, predictive focus, and capability enhancement), as those are all normally manual or independent processes in the lifecycle of a capability. All these processes become automated and interoperable with digital twins.

VMware implemented a virtualized operations center implementation (complete with networking, storage, compute and 500 virtual desktops) to provide a ‘digital battlelab’ for a US DoD Department. This digital battle lab replaced a manually built architecture with a repeatable and horizontally scalable large-scale wargaming exercise environment. This digital twin battle lab reduced build time from 330 workdays to 90 mins. The vast savings in the ability to reconfigure and re-constitute the battlelab enables them to support multiple large-scale wargame scenarios in what otherwise would have taken more than a year.

Digital twins enable organizations to not only build a better capability, but to build a capability better through conceptual development, data intelligence, predictive focus, and continuous enhancements. VMware enables organizations to host digital twins as well as monitor and improve the outcomes. Adopting digital twins within an organization is critical as it evolves how an organization delivers an efficient and robust capability. A capability should evolve as an organization’s mission does, and VMware aims to deliver a digital twin just as expedient and flexible.

For more infomration you can contact Can Amado on LinkedIn.