Hyperconnectivity Meets The Boeing 787

Nice to talk about Hyperconnectivity in the consumer space, but let’s turn back to business.

In his blog, Michael Krigsman highlights the fact that the preliminary design of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had the passenger in-flight internet access network connected to the plane’s control, navigation and communication systems.

This is a good example of Boeing engineers ignoring the fact that ‘just because you can do something, should you’. Sure you can use various techniques to provide logical separation between any two environments (e.g. using firewalls, VLANs, VPNs etc), but I, for one, would be more comfortable flying, knowing that there is total physical separation between passenger and flight control networks. Boeing seems to agree and says the problem will be solved before the first commercial flight. Phew;)

Hyperconnectivity creates immense opportunities, but whatever way you choose to leverage these opportunities has to achieve the right balance between risk and benefit.