OT-Edge bridges edge computing and the cloud by moving apps closer to the data they need.
Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) company IoTium has unveiled a new Kubernetes (container) based platform that pushes applications closer to where data is generated by industrial sensors.
Called OT-Edge, the platform is billed as the first edge-cloud infrastructure solution to be built on Kubernetes, the open source system for automating the deployment and management of containerised applications.
IoTium said the offering is designed for brownfield industrial and manufacturing environments that use the IIoT.
Critical data
According to the firm, the platform enables mission-critical data to reside on premise whenever data needs to be kept locally to address compliance, security, speed/latency, and other practical concerns.
It added that applications can now be deployed at scale on the edge to enable a substantial reduction in the opex costs typically associated with local management and upgrades.
The platform uses a physical device deployed onsite that can be connected to legacy equipment. This device becomes the transport layer for the IoT infrastructure.
IoTium claims that the new platform eliminates the need for additional IT resources onsite, allowing operations to be conducted remotely while software continues to run at the edge closest to where it is needed. Instead of creating a need for proprietary Software Development Kits (SDKs), agents and tools, OT-Edge uses microservices based on Dockerised applications.
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In this way, organisations are able to design each service to suit their individual needs without being forced to work within the confines of a vendor’s proprietary SDK.
Brownfield sites
IoTium Founder and CEO Ron Victor said that the platform could simplify all of the deployment complexity related to moving data securely and rapidly from brownfield industrial assets to the cloud.
“With real industrial deployments in multiple verticals, we’ve gained a unique understanding of the problems on the factory floor, and have recognised scenarios where data simply can’t be moved without significant cost or risk. This is how our IoTium OT-Edge solution was born,” he said.
The company’s CTO Sri Rajagopal added that Kubernetes has been widely adopted because it solves the problem of deploying and managing applications, but it is not remotely manageable on its own across the WAN.
“We have created the ability to manage application pods remotely for IIoT at scale,” he said. “With our OT-Edge offering, we’re taking Kubernetes to the shop floor, making it truly applicable to the unique needs of the IIoT, and helping organisations to escape the confines of vendor lock-in.”
Internet of Business says
The edge environment is critical to the success of many IoT deployments, where the latency associated with cloud-based processing may not be an option. However, the challenge has long been that systems generally need to be simple and low cost, rather than merely fast. By creating a bridge between cloud and edge systems, IoTium may have hit upon a good solution – as long as the new platform doesn’t introduce unnecessary complexity.
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