The Linux Foundation and its LF Edge project continues to gain momentum. Here are two new open source announcements.
In short:
- “Baetyl” and “Fledge” join LF Edge ranks as newest projects, expands LF Edge’s reach across geographies and industries
- IOTA Foundation, SAIC Foundation (TESRA), Thunder Software, and Zenlayercommit to innovating at the open source edge by joining as members
- LF Edge helps open source move to commercialization with Akraino RI, EdgeX Foundry Edinburgh release and Open Glossary of Edge Computing v2.0
LF Edge, an umbrella organization within the Linux Foundation that aims to establish an open, interoperable framework for edge computing independent of hardware, silicon, cloud, or operating system, announced addition of two new projects and four new members.
Baetyl, an existing project contributed by Baidu and previously known as “OpenEdge,” extends cloud computing, data and services seamlessly to edge devices. Fledge, an existing project contributed by Dianomic and previously known as “Fog Lamp,” is an open source framework and community for the industrial edge focused on critical operations. Baetyl and Fledge join the organization’s founding projects: Akraino Edge Stack, EdgeX Foundry, Home Edge, Open Glossary of Edge Computing, and Project EVE. Concurrently, IOTA Foundation, SAIC Foundation (TESRA), Thunder Software, and Zenlayer join as General members.
“It’s incredible to witness such strong industry support for collaborative innovation to create an open source framework at the edge,” said Arpit Joshipura, general manager, Networking, Automation, Edge & IoT, the Linux Foundation. “In just nine months, LF Edge has seen tremendous growth across the board. We couldn’t be more pleased to welcome our newest members and projects. Added expertise in industrial edge, manufacturing, energy, and more brings the community and ecosystem closer to a more comprehensive edge stack, delivering shared innovation across technology sectors at the edge.”
Launched in January of this year, LF Edge’s seven projects support emerging edge applications across areas such as non-traditional video and connected things that require lower latency, and faster processing and mobility. By forming a software stack that brings the best of cloud, enterprise and telecom, LF Edge helps to unify a fragmented edge market around a common, open vision for the future of the industry.
About the Newest Projects
Previously known as “OpenEdge” and initiated by Baidu, Baetyl is China’s first open source edge computing platform and is now part of the LF Edge umbrella of projects. It seamlessly extends cloud computing, data and services to edge devices, enabling developers to build light, secure and scalable edge applications. The result is stronger processing power delivered to edge devices like smart home appliances, wearables and other IoT devices. Baetyl joins LF Edge as a Stage 1 project.
“In the era of 5G and IoT, edge computing will have tremendous opportunities to play a role in all fields and industries,” said Watson Yin, Vice President of Baidu and the General Manager of the Intelligent Cloud business group. “As a founding member of LF Edge, Baidu Intelligent Cloud decided to donate Baetyl, the intelligent edge computing framework, to the community, hoping to reciprocate the open-source community while continuously contributing cutting-edge technologies to the global technology ecosystem. The leading edge-computing technology and framework will further accelerate the implementation of cloud + AI in a wider range of industries with a bigger scale and lead the global AI industry into a new chapter of industrialized production.”
Fledge is an open source framework and community for the industrial edge focused on critical operations, predictive maintenance, situational awareness and safety. Contributed by Dianomic and formerly known as “FogLAMP,” Fledge is architected to integrate IIoT, sensors and modern machines all sharing a common set of administration and application APIs with industrial “brown field” systems and the cloud. Fledge developers build smarter, better, cheaper industrial manufacturing solutions to accelerate Industrial 4.0 adoption. Fledge joins as a Stage 1 project.
Fledge works closely with both Project EVE and Akraino. Project EVE provides system and orchestration services and a container runtime for Fledge applications and services. Fledge’s verticals (manufacturing, energy, etc.) are starting to roll out 5G and private LTE networks; using Akraino blueprints, Fledge applications and services can be consistently managed as they utilize 5G and private LTE networks.
“The LF Edge’s efforts for an open, interoperable framework for the edge is especially needed for the industrial factory, plant and mine where most every brown field system, piece of equipment or sensor uses its own proprietary protocols and data definitions,” said Tom Arthur, CEO and co-founder of Dianomic Systems. “Fledge was architected and built with the help of suppliers and operators in energy, oil and gas, manufacturing, mining, food processing and pharmaceutical industries. Being designed specifically for the industrial edge, Fledge is the ideal LF Edge framework for industrial operators, system integrators and equipment providers to embed, deploy, contribute and build a thriving industrial open source community.”
“OSIsoft has been building software to break down the silos in industrial systems but with IoT these silos are multiplying to smart equipment, new sensors, and many other sources of data. We have supported the construction of Fledge by Dianomic Systems. Fledge is an open source tool that presents these data to the outside world and look forward to vastly increasing the scope of data that we can all ‘see.’ This is integral to the fields of automation, energy conservation, safety and health,” said Pat Kennedy, Founder and CEO OSIsoft.