The Challenge
Nordia Marble, a prominent Greek company specialising in the wholesale trading, cutting, and processing of marble, granite, and artificial materials, required an efficient and reliable method to manage data from numerous sensors installed in their quarries. These sensors, essential for monitoring various environmental parameters, collected data at specific intervals. The primary business objectives included:
- Enhancing Operational Efficiency: To ensure continuous and smooth operations in their quarries.
- Improving Safety Standards: By monitoring and identifying any environmental hazards or anomalies in near real-time.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Enabling better resource management and strategic planning through comprehensive data analysis.
- Regulatory Compliance: Meeting industry standards and regulations by maintaining accurate and timely environmental data records.
To achieve these objectives, Nordia needed a robust solution for processing and analysing the collected data in near real-time, with capabilities for anomaly detection and data visualisation.
The technical objectives were:
- Real-Time Data Processing: The solution needed to process data from sensors almost immediately after it was collected to ensure timely insights and actions.
- Automated Anomaly Detection: Implementing an automated system to identify and alert anomalies in the data to prevent potential issues proactively.
- Scalable Data Storage: Utilising scalable storage solutions to handle the vast amounts of data generated by the sensors.
- Comprehensive Data Visualisation: Creating intuitive and customisable dashboards to display historical and real-time data for easy interpretation and decision-making.
The Solution
Set Point Technologies, known for providing advanced geotechnical monitoring and structural health monitoring systems, was tasked with installing the sensors in Nordia Marble’s quarries. Recognizing the need for an efficient data processing and management system, Set Point partnered with PCG to develop a comprehensive cloud solution using AWS services.
PCG implemented a solution that involved several key steps:
- Data Transmission: Sensors collected data at configurable intervals and sent it to AWS via SFTP.
- Data Processing: Upon receiving the data, an AWS Lambda function was triggered to process (recalibrate) the data and transform it into the required format. The processed data was then stored in an S3 bucket.
- Anomaly Detection: Any anomalies detected in the data triggered email alerts to Nordia's owners, ensuring timely intervention.
- Data Visualization: AWS QuickSight was used to display historical data, with the data source being an Athena table that read from the S3 bucket.
Architecture diagram
Results and Benefits
The solution provided by PCG effectively addressed Nordia Marble's requirements, offering several key benefits:
- Near Real-Time Processing: The AWS Lambda function ensures that data from the sensors is processed almost immediately after being received, enabling timely decision-making. This rapid processing supports Nordia's objective of enhancing operational efficiency.
- Anomaly Detection and Alerts: Automatic email alerts for data anomalies ensures that potential issues are quickly identified and addressed, minimizing the impact on operations. This is crucial for improving safety standards and maintaining regulatory compliance.
- Custom-Tailored Dashboards: QuickSight provides comprehensive and customizable dashboards, allowing Nordia to visualize historical data and gain insights into their operations. This capability enables better resource management and strategic planning, supporting data-driven decision-making.
- Cost Efficiency: By leveraging AWS's scalable services, Nordia can now manage their data processing needs without investing heavily in physical infrastructure, leading to significant cost savings.
- Scalability: The cloud-based solution ensured that Nordia can now easily scale their operations as the number of sensors or the amount of data increased, supporting future growth and expansion plans.
This robust solution not only met Nordia's needs but also significantly enhanced their operational efficiency, safety, and strategic capabilities, reinforcing their position as a leader in the marble and granite industry.
About PCG
Public Cloud Group (PCG) supports companies in their digital transformation through the use of public cloud solutions.
With a product portfolio designed to accompany organisations of all sizes in their cloud journey and competence that is a synonym for highly qualified staff that clients and partners like to work with, PCG is positioned as a reliable and trustworthy partner for the hyperscalers, relevant and with repeatedly validated competence and credibility.
We have the highest partnership status with the three relevant hyperscalers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, and Microsoft. As experienced providers, we advise our customers independently with cloud implementation, application development, and managed services.