SOME collaborative work has led to the first direct cloud-to-cloud solution for ag engineering – DataConnect is claimed to herald a new era in precision agriculture from Claas, 365FarmNet and John Deere.

Until now, farmers and contractors with a mixed machinery fleet can only record, process and document their data using the respective equipment and web portals of the individual manufacturers.

Now, these three have created for the first time a direct, manufacturer independent cloud-to-cloud solution. In a similar way to ISOBUS, customers can now exchange data via a common interface, as well as control and monitor their entire machinery fleet using their favourite system.

With DataConnect, users can choose their preferred data platform from a specific manufacturer while also being able to transmit data from other machines via this new interface. This means that the data is still available in the John Deere Operations Centre, Claas Telematics or 365FarmNet portals, but can be exchanged from one cloud to the other.

The key benefit is that all the necessary machine configurations are available in one system which enables the exchange of all important machinery data, including current and historical machine location, fuel tank level, current working status and forward speed. Transmission of agronomic data is also being planned.

With DataConnect the companies involved also wish to share their experience of cloud-to-cloud communication with ongoing Agricultural Industry Electronics Foundation (AEF) projects. This is why the architecture of this new interface is designed to support existing industry standards.

The pioneers said they are also interested to hear from other agricultural machinery manufacturers and software providers as well as associations and standardisation committees, to help develop the existing interface.

The official launch is scheduled for summer, 2020, but it will be previewed at the forthcoming Agritechnica show, in Germany, in November.