John Deere now considers VMs to be legacy tech, Ethernet and Wi-Fi on the brink
- Reference: 1716388214
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/05/22/john_deere_vms_legacy/
- Source link:
Principal architect Jason Wallin today told Nutanix’s Next conference that a four-year digital transformation project has seen it replace its previous infrastructure in order to take advantage of cloud-native technologies.
Wallin didn’t reveal what infrastructure John Deere replaced, but said when the company reforms its tech it progressively reforms its estate to reflect its latest capabilities.
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“This year we have declared VM technologies are something we see as legacy,” he said.
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Software development will be cloud-native at John Deere for the foreseeable future, he said. And that’s a big deal because the company has for almost a decade employed more software engineers than design engineers, with code therefore perhaps more important to customers than the machines in which it runs.
Wallin also plans to pension off some networking tech. Ethernet and Wi-Fi are increasingly being replaced in John Deere factories by cellular networks. Wallin didn’t mention it on stage at Nutanix’s gabfest, but it’s not hard to find [4]evidence of private 5G network adoption in the company’s factories.
[5]John Deere tractors get connectivity boost with Starlink deal
[6]John Deere urged to surrender source code under GPL
[7]Software fees to make up 10% of John Deere's revenues by 2030
[8]Oh Deere: Farm hardware jailbroken to run Doom
Those facilities now produce GPU-packing machines that use AI to target application of herbicides.
“Our products directly engage the food generation process,” Wallin told the conference, adding that John Deere tries to do that sustainably. The company’s products therefore use AI to observe plants as machines roll past and can distinguish between crops and weeds.
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The latter get sprayed, the former don’t, herbicide use drops by 75 percent as a result, we're told, meaning farmers' bills go down and John Deere gets to burnish its credentials as a sustainability warrior.
Another tech John Deere is working on is autonomous machines, which Wallin said are needed because rural populations are shrinking, but the planet’s is not.
Autonomous vehicles are also more efficient, he argued, and that’s important because he said the world needs to grow “more crops on significantly fewer arable acres.”
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John Deere is innovating in its own home paddock. Wallin said the company is trying to make its manufacturing environments “as smart as our products that we have AI built into today.” ®
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[4] https://totaltele.com/the-strategic-importance-of-private-networks-in-the-era-of-5g/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/john_deere_tractors_get_connectivity/
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Singularity from the sidelines
Tractors target herbicides with powerful GPU-run AI.
Next step is autonomous tractors.
Before you know it they'll include AI pest control turrets...
Re: Singularity from the sidelines
https://www.deere.com/en/autonomous/
What they actually mean is...
... that they'll grad every opportunity to hinder you running anything locally, because that means freedoms for end users and accountability for them. Instead they want to make everything online, so, they will have total control over everything 24/7, and will also not be subject - or just in a limited fashion - to privacy, right to repair and warranty laws, because they'll be able to pull the strings behind the curtain as they wish.
Re: What they actually mean is...
Very true. Have a pint with a farmer and ask them about their tractor. Big chance you will get a story that, yes, it is all digital and no, we can't do anything ourselves any more. If John Deere talks about the production of food, they will probably omit that they plan to introduce a subscription model for that too. Read the stories here of cars not activating certain functions if you don't pay per month? Horrified by it? Well, again, buy a farmer a pint, and see what the world looks like for them for a long time already. Don't pay? Oh dear, tractor won't start...
What do they think "the cloud" runs on?
Oh, and just because *YOU* stop using something, it doesn't make it legacy.
Nothing pulls like a Deere...
But nothing stinks like a John.
And these decisions just smack of a company high on their own supply of bullshine.