Improving visibility—
in the cloud
BY VICTORIA KICKHAM, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR
CLOUD SYSTEMS
Technology
CLOUD-BASED ASSET-TRACKING SOLUTIONS ARE
giving businesses a clearer view into their supply chains—
and the ability to react more quickly to changes and make
better decisions on everything from fleet management to
quality and compliance monitoring. Compared with manual processes or traditional on-premise solutions, cloud-based solutions make it easier to access, aggregate, and analyze data. For one thing, their ability to gather data across
multiple locations and analyze it in real time (or near-real
time) speeds up the entire process, eliminating the need for
cumbersome steps and complex system integrations that
slow down the flow of information—and feeding users’
desire for easier, faster access to information.
“Ubiquitous connectivity and users asking for infor-
mation in real time at their fingertips has led to this rev-
olution in cloud computing,” says Nitesh Arora, head of
marketing for Milpitas, Calif.-based Cloudleaf, which offers
asset-tracking solutions that utilize edge computing (where
analytics and data gathering take place at the data source)
and the cloud.
The advent of such solutions also provides a pointed
example of how cloud-based IoT (Internet of Things)-
powered technologies are gaining a foothold in logistics and
the supply chain, and how asset-tracking programs are par-
ticularly well-suited to advancing the mission of the cloud.
“Connectivity is the biggest advantage,” says Arora. “The
cloud is always on and can help you analyze data across
multiple parties in the ecosystem, giving you the ability to
react to changes in the supply chain much more efficiently.”
Using a series of sensors and gateways, cloud-based
asset-tracking solutions can gather data in the warehouse, in
the yard, and on the road; analyze it in the cloud; and then
Cloud-based asset-tracking solutions are giving organizations a
better view into their supply chains—and helping them improve
productivity and efficiency inside, outside, and on the road.
Improving visibility—
in the cloud
