Whether you need to synchronise an extensive library of technical documentation, distribute software updates and training materials or collect large video files, Dualog® Drive makes file-sharing simple and efficient for all departments involved. And with our latest Amazon® S3 integration, big data analytics is coming to shipping.

In this article, we’ll look at five typical use cases where the power of a data transfer solution purpose-built for shipping makes a difference.

A modern ship generates more data than ever before. Access to data and document libraries is vital for several stakeholders, both onshore and on the vessel side.

To achieve the best fleet and shipping company coordination, various departments and users rely on seamless and reliable data transportation between ship and shore. 

A data transfer solution custom-made for shipping 

Typical land-based file-sharing solutions such as Dropbox, Box and OneDrive pose several problems for shipping IT departments. They are often complicated to configure and monitor. Most of the available solutions, even specialised solutions like Resilio, are not designed for maritime use, where connectivity can be unreliable and expensive. 

There is no easy way to search for completed or failed transfers, resulting in unnecessary time spent looking for missing files and reporting to stakeholders. Other workarounds, e.g., remoting in with Teamviewer, splitting large files and sending by email, or even transporting USB sticks by courier, do not cut it in today's competitive environment.

This is why Dualog has designed Dualog Drive, offering a comprehensive data automation service far beyond its alternatives.

Data transfer use cases in shipping IT environments 

With Dualog® Drive, not only will vessel IT benefit from a simpler file-sharing solution, but other departments, like the Technical and Crewing departments, will also experience the benefits. 

Below we’ll outline five use case scenarios where Dualog Drive has proved valuable.

1) Distributing documents, technical circulars and certificates across the fleet

Dualog Drive allows you to synchronise files or folders from any shore location or even Sharepoint® to an entire fleet or group of vessels. Examples include safety documentation (SMS), certificates, circulars, IT documentation, or any documentation that shore departments must share with their fleet.

For example, your safety department can distribute large document libraries across a fleet of hundreds of ships with a single task configuration. Powerful grouping, intelligent folder automation and ShipCodes allow for flexible task setups to correspond with even the most demanding organisations with multiple businesses, trading areas and ship types. 

1 Dualog Drive makes managing data transfers in a shipping environment straightforward by flexible task setup and powerful automations.

2 The Dualog Drive User Interface makes task creation intuitive and easy. Vessel IT can easily get an overview of ongoing and completed transfers.

2) Collecting images, video files and large-volume VDR data from ship to shore

Transmitting large files from ship to shore has been a real struggle for shipping IT. The process has involved manual operations resulting in unreliable data delivery and overhead man-hours. Dualog Drive makes it easy for officers to share large pictures and videos with the technical department during maintenance or survey by adding them to the correct folder. Task automation will handle the rest.

We also see on-demand VDR data transfer. These large files can be over 1 GB in and have previously been transferred through an agent once the ship is in port. Dualog Drive’s smart data compression methods make it possible to transfer these over most satellite connections. It cuts both delivery time and costs.

3) Transfer of business-critical PMS data 

We see a surge in the transfer of critical data, such as Planned Maintenance System (PMS) data. Typically, this has been handled by sending updates via email. However, this is not a reliable method and invokes many manual steps that leave the system at risk of not being up to date.

PMS data is critical for the ships' operations, and Dualog Drive automates the transmission of data between ships and shore to help keep the database in immaculate condition.

4) Software updates and patches

The use of outdated software poses both productivity challenges and security concerns.

Several Vessel IT Managers have started to appreciate maintaining a common IT-dedicated repository from the comfort of their desks. Whenever a new software version is available, Vessel IT can upload it to the designated folder. Dualog Drive will then send the update or patch to the vessel, group of vessels or the entire fleet. Status of file delivery is monitored directly from the Dualog Portal.

5) Moving IoT and sensor data to cloud storage for further analytics

Moving IoT and sensor data, other analytics data, log files or application data from the vessels directly to cloud-storage solutions has become increasingly in demand. 

Dualog Drive allows vessel IT departments to set up any Amazon S3 storage as the destination. AWS S3 brings completely new Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and analytics capabilities to forward-leaning shipping companies looking to create competitive advantages by harvesting insights from their operational data.

Conclusion

Addressing both operational pains, security pains and business pains, Dualog® Drive is purpose-built to speed up and simplify data delivery between ship and shore. Smart configuration and automation help improve work processes with minimal resources.

Whether you need to distribute files from a single source to many destinations or collect from many sources to one destination, or one large file or thousands of files in multiple sub-folders, Dualog Drive offers a data transfer solution that promises to make vessel IT’s life easier.