by Gary Mintchell | May 14, 2021 | Data Management, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management
The action occurs at the edge these days. At least, edge as defined by the IT groups as they reach out toward the plant or factory with networks, compute, and other technologies as IT searches for more and better data to feed their decision-making systems. This release comes from ZEDEDA, a company relatively new to me that is quickly filling a space in the system.
In brief:
- Direct integration simplifies secure deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters and hardware at the distributed edge at scale, without requiring specialized IT skills
- Collaboration with SUSE enables fully automated deployment of K3s clusters in the field, directly from ZEDEDA’s built-in app marketplace
- Open foundation and additional support for native Docker containers and VMs on edge hardware prevents lock-in and enables any brownfield or greenfield application
Following are details
ZEDEDA has announced direct integration with Kubernetes to simplify remote deployment and management of Kubernetes clusters on edge nodes at scale.
There is a clear trend for the majority of workloads to be containerized and to increasingly leverage Kubernetes for standardization, redundancy, and scale-out. However, this presents users with a challenge because the same tools developed for orchestrating and deploying Kubernetes in centralized data centers or the public cloud do not scale down to constrained edge nodes in the field. Organizations also face the challenge of transitioning to cloud-native development principles at the edge while accommodating their legacy software investments.
ZEDEDA’s cloud-based orchestration solution has a simple and intuitive UI along with comprehensive APIs that abstract all the complexities of provisioning Kubernetes clusters at the distributed edge, automating cluster bring-up on target edge nodes within minutes. With a few clicks or API calls, administrators without specialized IT skills can deploy Kubernetes clusters in the field and remotely manage the entire lifecycle of both their Kubernetes runtime and the underlying hardware at scale.
“Adding Kubernetes support on top of our already industry-leading distributed edge orchestration solution gives our customers unmatched flexibility,” said ZEDEDA founder and CEO Said Ouissal. “By collaborating with SUSE, we’ve teamed up with the leader in Kubernetes to put these types of advanced deployments within reach for anyone.”
The solution integrates with customers’ existing CI/CD workflow, features a robust and unique Zero Trust security architecture and supports any combination of virtual machines (VMs) and native Docker containers. In addition to supporting the choice of Kubernetes runtime distribution, ZEDEDA’s unique enablement of VMs on edge nodes enables deployment of any combination of legacy Windows-based applications (e.g., SCADA, HMI, Historian, VMS, POS), monolithic Linux-based images, and other popular container runtimes such as Docker/Moby, Azure IoT Edge and AWS Greengrass.
Optimized for the Unique Needs of the Distributed Edge
Orchestration solutions initially built for the data center cannot seamlessly transition to meet the unique needs of distributed edge computing in areas of available compute footprint, autonomy, security and deployment scale. ZEDEDA’s solution is purpose-built to address these needs by starting with a lowest-common-denominator foundation that scales up to create a bridge to the data center paradigm.
Distributed edge nodes under management can range from IoT gateways to managed telco and universal enterprise CPE infrastructure to small remote server clusters. The solution supports any vertical use case including IoT, edge AI, virtualized networking and security technologies in deployments spanning the factory floor, retail stores, oil rigs, wind turbines, transportation systems and beyond. The full-stack edge orchestration approach is based on an eventual consistency model to ensure that edge nodes will run autonomously in these environments, even if they periodically lose connectivity to the ZEDEDA cloud orchestrator.
ZEDEDA’s Zero Trust security architecture assumes that edge nodes distributed in the field are physically accessible, in addition to not having a defined network perimeter. Features include support for silicon-based root of trust, measured boot, remote attestation, crypto-based ID (eliminating local device login), full disk encryption, remote port blocking, distributed firewall and more. Distributed firewall capability enables secure routing of data between edge applications and both on-prem and cloud resources based on network-wide policies.
Collaboration with SUSE
Working with a leading oil and gas services company, ZEDEDA and SUSE have recently enabled an edge solution that consolidates existing SCADA software with NFV capability and other functionality on compute clusters within their trucks to optimize monitoring of oil wells through wireline analytics.
SUSE’s K3s runtime is now available in ZEDEDA’s built-in app marketplace, ready for bulk deployment on edge computing clusters with a few clicks.
“Edge is about management at scale, and our customers need a solution that provides low-level hardware management and visibility as they increasingly look to deploy Kubernetes clusters outside of centralized data centers,” said Keith Basil, vice president of Cloud Native Infrastructure at SUSE. “We think it’s great that ZEDEDA has integrated with Kubernetes and that K3s is now available in their marketplace. We are excited for their contribution to the rapidly growing Kubernetes ecosystem.”
Built on an Open Foundation to Prevent Lock-in and Facilitate Ecosystem Growth
ZEDEDA’s subscription-based cloud orchestration solution leverages the bare metal EVE-OS deployed on edge nodes. EVE-OS is an open, secure and universal operating system for distributed edge computing with vendor-neutral APIs, hosted within Project EVE in the Linux Foundation’s LF Edge organization. In addition to preventing vendor lock-in, EVE-OS provides an anchor point to unify an ecosystem of edge computing hardware and software, similar to what Android does for the mobile market.
The company’s growing open edge ecosystem provides end users, solution OEMs and system integrators with choice ofhardware, applications and services, thereby greatly reducing the complexity of dealing with the inherently diverse edge landscape. The app marketplace that is part of ZEDEDA’s cloud orchestrator features popular edge applications spanning industrial connectivity, edge application frameworks, security, networking, analytics, data management and cloud connectivity. Customers can also create private marketplaces with their own curated and in-house developed content.
ZEDEDA’s strategic integration with Kubernetes follows their recent announcement of seamless integration with Microsoft Azure IoT to simplify the deployment and scalability of solutions leveraging Azure IoT. Additional integrations that further simplify distributed edge computing deployments are in development.
by Gary Mintchell | May 13, 2021 | Automation, Security
This news release is about three weeks old. The topic is embedded security. This week’s news on a security hack is an entirely different animal. However, protecting our industrial control embedded systems from intrusion and hacking remains a priority. I do realize convincing top financial management to invest in this area is tough because you cannot prove a negative. Convince them, we must.
Red Balloon Security announced an expanded and customizable set of offerings for critical infrastructure and a range of industries –– including energy, industrial control systems (ICS), building management systems (BMS), automotive, and telecommunications.
Embedded devices and firmware have proven to be an attractive target for threat actors given the disruption and damage that can be caused and the multiple ways vulnerabilities can be exploited. In 2019, the National Vulnerability Database reported that firmware vulnerabilities increased more than 30% year-over-year – and are now becoming staples in the arsenals of nation-state APTs. By injecting malicious code into the firmware of electrical grid devices, industrial control devices or automotive ECUs, either though the supply chain or directly into deployed devices, bad actors can compromise critical systems, enabling espionage and sabotaging campaigns.
Red Balloon Security is launching a portfolio of solutions combining its world-class expertise with its advanced suite of technologies for embedded devices. The core components of its Embedded Defense suite will be available as individual offerings, including Firmware Hardening, Embedded Security Consulting, Runtime Protection, and Runtime Monitoring. This provides organizations with the option to choose the security capabilities that best fit the needs of their enterprise, delivering tailored guidance and customized protections for customers.
“Red Balloon Security has the deepest stack of technologies to secure embedded devices along with the world’s best embedded defense engineers,” said Dr. Ang Cui, founder and CEO of Red Balloon Security. “Our expanded solutions have been accessible to the U.S. government to advance the state of embedded security for the devices that matter most. As more organizations prioritize securing embedded devices, Red Balloon Security is now ensuring that this capability is easily accessible to commercial vendors to give them access to one of the only proven solutions available on the market today that can protect against exploits at the firmware level.”
Red Balloon Security’s offerings include:
- Firmware Hardening with Autotomic Binary Reduction (ABR) and Binary Structure Randomization (BSR): Removes unused features from embedded device firmware and randomizes code layout and data at a binary level to minimize attack surface.
- Runtime Protection with Symbiotes: Continuously monitors for modifications to critical conditions of the device to prevent attacks that weaponize both known vulnerabilities and zero-days.
- Runtime Monitoring with Advanced Embedded Security Ops (AESOP): Utilizes a continuous flow of telemetry data to provide detailed visibility and analysis of attempted attacks.
- Security Consulting with Embedded Security Experts: Complements existing security personnel with consulting capabilities that include experienced and bespoke security support, as well as assistance developing new security protections customized to organizational needs.
by Gary Mintchell | May 12, 2021 | Automation, Robots
One of the dirtier applications has come to the cobot world—welding. Here is a smartphone app that interfaces to a Universal Robotics Cobot with an attached Miller welding system to transform it into a welding machine.
Hirebotics’ Cobot Welder, Powered by Beacon, is a complete, user-friendly collaborative robot (cobot) welding system that enables painless automated welding deployments. “The Cobot Welder is a major leap forward in easy-to-use welding automation that combines industrial grade robot welding functionality with consumer level ease-of-use and a phenomenal price point,” says Rob Goldiez, Cofounder and CEO, Hirebotics.
Complete and ready to go right out of the box, Cobot Welder provides all the hardware and software required to get started on an automated welding deployment, including: a UR10e collaborative robot, a Miller Invision 352 MPa cobot package, a Tregaskiss robotic torch, a mobile cart with a standard 5/8” diameter on 2” center hole pattern, and Hirebotics’ Cobot Welder smartphone application.
“With Cobot Welder, Hirebotics has managed to eliminate the pain points from robot welding system deployments. At the heart of the system is our Cobot Welder smartphone app, which turns welders into robot programmers in a matter of minutes, no pendant required,” says Mitch Dupon, Director of Business Development at Hirebotics. “By reducing the time taken to teach new parts by as much 60%, Cobot Welder reduces downtime, improves welding quality and productivity and ensures painless automated welding deployments. I’m excited to talk about this and the other productivity benefits provided by Cobot Welder at the forthcoming launch.”
“The welding profession is experiencing a labor crisis. The average age for skilled welders is 55, most are likely to retire within 10 years, and younger people aren’t entering the profession in sufficient numbers to sustain industry demand,” Joe Campbell, Universal Robots’ Senior Manager of Applications Development & Strategic Marketing, North America says. “There is an urgent need for collaborative welding systems that are safe to use around human beings and can be used to support expert human welders by taking over the tedious and unergonomic aspects of the welding process,” says Campbell.
by Gary Mintchell | May 11, 2021 | Data Management, Manufacturing IT, Operations Management
ThinkIQ introduced itself to me just a couple of months ago, and I set aside some time to talk with an acquaintance from the industrial software market Niels Anderson. https://themanufacturingconnection.com/2021/02/manufacturing-saas-platform-tracks-material-flow-not-assets/ The company published a couple of news items this month. One announces an extension to the product line; the second announces a partnership with CESMII for a smart manufacturing initiative in the poultry processing industry.
VisualOps Solutions to Suite of Products
ThinkIQ announced VisualOps, which is designed to help organizations obtain easy access to data from a material view, new visibility, and a path towards Industry 4.0 Manufacturing.
ThinkIQ VisualOps was created as a second step for companies on the path to Industry 4.0 Manufacturing. The benefits include having data standardized and available in one location, empowering manufacturing leaders, plant managers, process and data engineers, and operators, by allowing them to explore their manufacturing and supply chain data within the context of their business. The new function can also start the process of creating alerts and notifications that may bring problems to immediate attention.
“The addition of VisualOps allows customers to start the journey of monetizing their manufacturing and supply chain data using an Industry 4.0 Platform that will help them achieve their digital transformation goals,” said Niels Andersen, CTO and CPO of ThinkIQ. “This product will help organizations obtain the benefits of Industry 4.0 and lead them on the path to Smart Manufacturing.”
Some of the additional benefits of ThinkIQ VisualOps include:
- Ability to move companies past raw data to being able to explore, compare, and be aware of the data — with standardized metrics and views to bring wide visibility and context to what is currently just digital bits.
- Allows organizations to harness the power of what are mostly disconnected existing data streams from IoT, IIoT, HMIs, PLCs, CRM, MES, digitized manual data, and partner data, all into one single location.
- Includes on-premise gateways & connectors to centralize the data and securely send this data to the cloud, and most clients don’t need to add any new hardware or software to their existing environment.
- Software includes sourcing existing data from Automation, IoT and IIoT, CRM, and other digital captures, and also includes an equipment profile library, equipment modeling, manufacturing process layout, trending, standardized dashboards, and basic limits & notifications.
ThinkIQ’s SaaS Manufacturing cloud-based platform simplifies the creation of web-based applications and leverages the strengths of the Internet of Things, Big Data, Data Science, Semantic Modeling and Machine Learning. The platform collects data across the operation (existing and IIoT sensors) and leverages AI, ML to provide actionable real time insights (e.g., identify correlations and root causes, traceability and yield issues, etc.). It creates a new level of capability beyond what independent disconnected operating environments can provide today.
CESMII and ThinkIQ To Transform Global Food Leader’s Poultry Processing
CESMII selected ThinkIQ for inclusion in its co-funded Smart Manufacturing Innovation Projects. This project aims to transform poultry processing operations at one of the world’s largest food companies, and recognized leader in protein. The project seeks to quantify the impact of variability in the supply chain and the processing of chicken by-products and understand the resulting impact of yield for four product streams, including: bone meal, feather meal, chicken meal, and blood meal.
ThinkIQ will utilize the CESMII Smart Manufacturing Innovation Platform and create Profiles that optimize yield and material utilization on the food company’s poultry processing line. This will enable decisions based on real-time constraints in material flows, manufacturing operations, and energy consumption in a protein-based food processing environment. This project will demonstrate increased operational efficiencies that can be extended to other food processing and energy-intensive industries.
“Delivering value through interoperability and scalability is essential,” says Doug Lawson, CEO of ThinkIQ. “We are leveraging the CESMII SM Innovation Platform to avoid implementing yet another information island on the plant floor, thereby reducing cost and complexity, and facilitating rapid return on investment.”
ThinkIQ’s ability to track material flow through the entire process from “farm to fork” will provide the company with a unique view of their entire poultry processing, allowing them to gain visibility into real-time variance in their manufacturing process. This enables them to quantify and reduce impact of variance improving yield, provide feedback in “plant time” to reduce off-spec, waste, etc. and present profit enhancement opportunities throughout the project.
by Gary Mintchell | May 10, 2021 | Productivity
Slow down
You move too fast
You gotta make
The morning last, just
Kickin’ down
The cobble stones
Looking for fun
And feeling groovy.
Paul Simon, 59th Street Bridge Song
Henry Ford imagined a new way to build cars. Productivity per person in manufacturing increased tremendously in the 20th Century and prosperity followed.
By the 1980s continuing until today, much work is done by “knowledge workers” sitting in front of computer screens. No one (or very few) are imagining new ways to do this work. Productivity lags, people are frustrated, work never ends thanks to the always-on mobile phone.
Well, one person is thinking about it. Cal Newport. I am in the midst of his latest book, A World Without Email: Reimagining Work in an Age of Communication Overload. His previous best seller changed the way many of us thought about work–Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.
You can sort of summarize the latest book with a quote from a 50s-60s comic strip by Walt Kelly, Pogo. One time, Pogo, the title character–an opossum in the Okefenokee Swamp, said, “The hurrieder I go, the behinder I get.”
In this latest book, I’ve gotten to a section where, after discussing Henry Ford and increasing productivity making Model Ts, brought up the story of a German entrepreneur Lasse Rheingans. He looked at the way people worked in his small company. He then told the employees–you will work 5-hour days. Come in about 8 and leave about 1. When you leave, you’re done. No more work. No more checking emails. No more on-call. You should be able to get all the important work for the company done with 5 5-hour days per week.
How?
No social media during those five hours. Severely restricted meetings. Severely restricted email checking. Two years down the pike, the concept is still working. This sounds a bit like the terrible approach that Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson of Basecamp just tried. But they didn’t reduce hours or work with employees (see below). Just a sharply written blog post to the people.
He did hire some outside coaches to help the employees through withdrawal. They showed that it was in their best interest to not check all those distracting apps. They also encouraged stress reduction through mindfulness and meditation. And physical health through exercise such as Yoga.
Rheingans’s goal was for everyone to slow down; to approach their work more deliberately and with less frantic action; to realize that they were’ running all the time without getting anywhere.’
Cal Newport
I bet that no matter what we’re up to, this is sound advice.
