Germany's Hannover Messe is the world's foremost trade fair for industrial technology and it is taking place right now through April 29. Only here will you find the leading keytechnologies and core areas of industry all under one roof. This includes everything from industrial automation and supply, IT, production technologies and services; to energy and mobility technologies. The opening keynote was delivered by President Obama, alongside German Chancellor Merkel.

I am excited to be attending such an incredible event and honored to have been invited to participate in a panel discussion on IoT. The session was titled, "IoT as the Driver for Industrial Transformation." My portion of the discussion focused on IoT and the opportunity for transformation of digital industries. And, as you might imagine, the opportunity for digital manufacturing is huge. Here are just a few recent examples from Cisco's private sector use cases:

• savings of as much as$7 million per plant, per year, are possible;
• configuration can be up to 20x faster;
• inventory can be reduced by 50%; and
• OEE can be up to 10% higher.

The transformation to fully digitized manufacturing is substantially easier for customers now that Cisco's network architecture supports the PROFINET standard. Read more about this exciting announcement here. This is a big step on our journey towards the Industry 4.0 Initiative and in helping customers achieve the business benefits of fully digitized manufacturing.

In addition, through its acquisition of Jasper, Cisco is reducing complexity and accelerating IoT success for customers. Jasper is the industry's leading IoT service platform in terms of number of enterprises and service providers. With Jasper, companies can connect any device - from cars to jet engines to implanted pacemakers - over the cellular networks of the top global service providers and then manage connectivity through its Software as a Service (SaaS) platform. Building on this newly acquired technology, Cisco will streamline IoT services and application delivery through connected devices.

But that's not all the exciting news coming out of Hannover Messe...

• Rockwell Automationissued a press release announcing its collaboration with Cisco to jointly develop deep-packet-inspection (DPI) technology that enhances industrial IoT security.

• Cumulocity, a leading mobile application enablement platform, announced its collaboration with Cisco in integrating the functionality of the Cisco Jasper IoT service platform. This will make it easier for joint customers to manage the delivery of IoT services and applications on the Cisco Jasper platform. Cumulocity is a spin-off from Nokia that focuses on Industrial IoT M2M solutions.

• It was also announced that Berlin will be the host city to the fourth annual IoT World Forum this fall. This year's event promises to be even more spectacular than before and will include the third annual Cisco Innovation Grand Challenge. The Grand Challenge recognizesstartups, entrepreneurs, and developers around the world showcasing the most breakthrough digital technologies, products, or business models. Finalists will be invited to Berlin to present to a panel of industry experts. Grand Challenge winners receive more than$250,000 in prize money, as well as mentorship and support from Cisco. The submission process opens May 25, and you can see more detailed information here.

So, as you can see, this is quite an exciting week for Cisco and the Internet of Things. The company continues to create innovative solutions that drive the industrial IoT market forward. And as the world migrates towards IoT, we will remain at the forefront of that migratory path.

Be sure to give me your feedback in the comments section. What do you think of Cisco's part in driving the digital industrial transformation?