Following a strong fourth quarter that saw it beat both revenue and profit estimates, Splunk Inc. today unveiled a new product aimed at opening up a potentially valuable source of growth: connected devices.

Called Industrial Asset Intelligence, the offering is designed to help companies in sectors such as manufacturing analyze the data generated by their equipment. What has historically made the task difficult is that much of the information needs to be processed in real time.

An alert about an impending hardware failure in a plant, for example, must quickly reach the appropriate maintenance personnel to avoid a production line disruption. But that’s easier said than done in a large factory where there may be upwards of dozens of systems all generating sensory data. Plus, it’s often necessary to correlate measurements from multiple sources to identify more subtle operational issues that may not be immediately evident.

According to Splunk, Industrial Asset Intelligence acts as a hub where companies can monitor the status of their internet-connected assets in real time. The solution, which is built atop the company’s flagship machine data analytics platform, can analyze readings from a wide range of sources. Splunk said it can plug into industrial control systems, sensors and supervisory control and data acquisition or SCADA applications.

Industrial Asset Intelligence lets companies organize the raw data into custom metrics for tracking the operational details they wish to prioritize. Users can also visualize the information in charts that show how it changes over time, which makes it easier to identify anomalies in certain situations.

In addition, the tool provides the ability organize internet-connected assets in a hierarchy based on how they interact with another. The feature is meant to help users better understand the big picture. That visibility can help them catch more complex issues affecting multiple systems.

Splunk isn’t the only tech firm that has set its sights recently on the “internet of things.” Just last week, Microsoft Corp. announced plans to invest a hefty $5 billion in this area over the next four years. Much of the capital is set to go toward building development tools and other new products for companies seeking to harness connected devices.

Image: Splunk