About three weeks ago, I was sitting in the parking lot of a grocery store on a conference call. 

Smart phones and other devices have become essential tools to navigate our daily life, helping us to read news, contact friends, and see new photos of loved ones. But beyond that, smart phones and tablets have become a part of the standard toolbox for any working professional. In the Oil and Gas sector, mobile access has become a requirement for an increasingly connected workforce. As of 2016, 80% of O&G CEOs we surveyed plan to invest the same or more into digital technologies over the next 3-5 years.

The cost of unplanned maintenance activities such as replacing or repairing failed equipment is high; lost production, expensive labor (call outs, overtime) and damaged equipment adds up.

Unplanned maintenance will always be a part of your maintenance strategy but to rely on it solely has a number of disadvantages that can greatly impact your oil and gas production, safety and sustainability.

Zedi Vital is a web based Field Data Capture Application, which is the gathering and analyzing of manually entered, imported or, electronically updated production data for different well and facility types. With this system you are able to set up many different users, with different levels of access being Admin, Operator, JV or Reporting.

There has been much discussion through the years in many sectors of the economy around what the “Internet of Things” (IoT) can do to transform the way we work and live.  In brief, the IoT is about networking “things” like devices and even life-forms so that information may be collected from these things over time and form the basis for analysis and decisions.

IoT inevitably involves sensors, wireless technology of some description, a cloud to aggregate data, and analytics to create insights from this data.  Many people have encountered this business paradigm in their personal lives, whether it is through wearable fitness trackers (maybe you are counting steps, and then uploading that information to an App on your smart-phone or into the cloud), your internet-connected Emerson thermostat, household security system, or your smart TV.  These are consumer examples of the IoT phenomenon, and collectively are described as the wearables or Smart Home sub-segments.

In World Oil's article, "What's New in Artificial Lift?", I outlined key features and benefits of the TCB Manufacturing SilverJack system. The SilverJack artificial lift system is a unique combination of a surface hydraulic lift solution with a powerful integrated controller combined with Emerson's Zedi web-based, cloud-native IIoT platform data collection, management, and control system that provides the capability to remotely detect and resolve many common problems encountered with conventional downhole rod pumping equipment.

These days, it is not hard to find blogs, social media sites, and web articles talking about "the Cloud". In fact, if you are reading this blog or use social media, you are probably already familiar with the value of cloud computing.