by Gary Mintchell | May 1, 2026 | Cloud, Generative AI, Manufacturing IT, Software
Yes, I know that a couple of weeks have passed since I returned from Miami and the Aras Community Event. I got a quick podcast (also YouTube) recap posted, then went on vacation. This week had more appointments than my usual month. I’ve done a bunch of research (thanks Claude) and have much to digest. That’ll be tomorrow’s work (in between helping replace my daughter’s front door hardware and catching an English Premier League game). Tonight, a concert at Chicago Symphony Center celebrating Chicago’s contributions to jazz.
I also have two things in queue regarding frontline workers–one from ACE and another a report from PwC where I finally was able to connect with the report’s author.
Finally in queue, are thoughts from the Siemens press conference from Hannover Fair. A bit of compare and contrast with the ACE experience with AI, LLMs, and agents.
Have a good weekend. Back Monday.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 12, 2025 | Cloud, Data Management, Edge, Operations Management
Industrial IT developers increasingly incorporate standard IT infrastructure. Rather than send platitudes about the mythical “IT/OT Convergence,” some actually just do it. Integration with Kubernetes exemplifies one such technology.
This news comes from edge orchestration developer ZEDEDA. The short list of benefits from edge orchestration solutions with Kubernetes.
- Simplifies edge operations by delivering consistent app management across distributed locations, minimizing expensive manual intervention at each site
- Automates large-scale edge infrastructure and application deployment—enforcing desired state for thousands of edge clusters, even with unreliable network connectivity
- Optimized AI processing close to operational data sources reduces expensive data backhaul to the cloud
ZEDEDA announced the first full-stack edge Kubernetes-as-a-Service solution that extends a cloud-native deployment experience to distributed edge environments. This new solution, ZEDEDA Edge Kubernetes App Flows, automates the edge application lifecycle—from packaging and configuration to delivery and observability—eliminating the need to manage cluster and application orchestration infrastructure. Edge Kubernetes App Flows supports the bare-metal and GPU compute required for edge AI applications, such as automated detection of manufacturing flaws and predictive maintenance.
Built on ZEDEDA’s proven edge platform, the new integrated Kubernetes solution extends the platform’s zero-trust architecture and offline resilience—keeping tens of thousands of devices and Kubernetes instances running continuously, even in demanding field environments with physical vulnerabilities and intermittent connectivity.
ZEDEDA Edge Kubernetes App Flows combines GitOps-based delivery with ZEDEDA’s zero-trust edge platform—letting organizations focus on applications, not infrastructure.
Key capabilities include:
- Application Definition and Marketplace: Deploys customizable application definitions consistently across distributed edge locations.
- Application Packaging and Distribution: Builds and distributes manifests tailored for edge requirements.
- GitOps-Based Continuous Delivery: Automates deployments through approved Git workflows for full auditability.
- Adaptive Observability: Monitors deployment and performance, even with intermittent connectivity and limited bandwidth.
ZEDEDA Edge Kubernetes App Flows is built on and integrates with all the leading security and scalability capabilities of ZEDEDA’s proven edge platform, including:
- Zero-Trust Security: Continuous validation of edge devices, applications, and communications.
- Offline Resilience: Graceful handling of intermittent connectivity and disconnected operations.
- Edge Scale: Support for tens of thousands of clusters and unattended edge devices.
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by Gary Mintchell | Oct 13, 2025 | Cloud, Manufacturing IT, Software
Another example of a long-term partnership between a large software company and a smaller, innovative software company. This one links AVEVA (think former Wonderware and Schneider Electric) and TwinThread. I cannot believe I haven’t written more about TwinThread before. I know I’ve talked with the founder/CEO Erik Udstuen, whom I knew at Mountain Systems and GE. They were early into the race for a specifically industrial cloud platform.
This news concerns something called an Advanced Analytics solution. This solution targets improving operational efficiency, product quality, and energy usage. They say this underscores the value of AI-powered analytics in driving smart, sustainable industry.
AVEVA Advanced Analytics is a no-code, cloud-native Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution designed to transform raw industrial data into actionable insights. When integrated with CONNECT —AVEVA’s industrial intelligence platform—and our hybrid offerings AVEVA PI Data Infrastructure or AVEVA Operations Control, the complete solution empowers industrial teams with real-time, predictive analytics to make informed, proactive decisions.
Key Benefits Realized by Customers:
- Improved Product Quality: Manufacturers have achieved up to 100% first-pass yield, significantly reducing scrap and rework.
- Increased Uptime: Deployment has led to a 12% rise in equipment uptime, improving overall production efficiency.
- Energy Optimization: Clients report an average 4% reduction in energy consumption, supporting both cost reduction and sustainability goals.
- Accelerated ROI: Several organizations experienced a tenfold return on investment within their first year of adoption.
Making a bow toward competition featuring innovative pricing opportunities for customers, the note: AVEVA Advanced Analytics is available through the flexible and scalable AVEVA Flex subscription program, making it easy for businesses of all sizes to adopt cutting-edge analytics, and scale up to build upon successes.
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by Gary Mintchell | Mar 28, 2025 | Cloud, Edge, Generative AI
The third of Siemens pre-Hannover news releases concerns Xcelerator Edge with Microsoft Azure IoT Operations.
- Siemens Industrial Edge works seamlessly with Microsoft Azure IoT Operations, making OT and IT data planes fully interoperable for manufacturing
- Edge and cloud data integration enables adaptive production through AI- and digital-twin-powered solutions
- Industrial customers benefit from improved machine performance, product quality and reduced machine maintenance
Siemens announces an extended collaboration with Microsoft in the context of Siemens Xcelerator, Siemens’ open digital business platform, to simplify the integration of information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) for enterprise customers. By combining Siemens Industrial Edge with Microsoft Azure IoT Operations, customers will benefit from complementary solutions that enable a seamless flow of data from production lines to the edge and to the cloud. This edge-to-cloud data integration enables AI- and digital-twin-powered solutions to improve machine performance, product quality, and reduce machine maintenance.
A core component of the Azure adaptive cloud approach, Azure IoT Operations is designed to seamlessly integrate on-premises industrial edge solutions, like Siemens Industrial Edge, with the cloud, ensuring a continuous flow of data for smarter operations.
In this way, the powerful OT data plane provided by Siemens Industrial Edge works easily with Azure IoT Operations, to create an interoperable OT and IT data plane for manufacturing. The data layer from Siemens Industrial Edge effectively addresses mission-critical production applications such as virtualized control, low-latency closed-loop AI, executable digital twins, or production line-level analytics. It allows manufacturers to deploy responsive, reliable, flexible and secure applications to optimize their operations, reduce costs, and increase uptime and quality. By coupling with Azure IoT Operations, industrial producers can easily leverage this OT data in cloud-based, data-driven use cases to optimize production across sites and gain insights from advanced analytics.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 28, 2025 | Cloud, Enterprise IT
I wrote about a company new to me from The Netherlands thanks to a media relations person I’ve known for quite some time. Leaseweb Global provides cloud services and Infrastructure as a Service. They are back with an announcement regarding adding NVIDIA L4, L40S and H100 NVL GPUs to its infrastructure portfolio.
Through this offering, Leaseweb notes it is meeting the compute needs of a wide variety of sectors – including the Artificial Intelligence (AI), Media & Entertainment and Gaming industries – at a price point that enables significant cost savings when compared to the wider marketplace.
Available across Leaseweb’s entire global network, spanning the European, North American and Asia Pacific regions, the expanded GPU offering supports customers with a scalable, efficient deployment framework optimized for high-performance computing (HPC), ranging from AI model training and video analytics to graphics processing and video rendering functionality. Leaseweb’s new NVIDIA GPU solution aims to help customers improve their operations, reduce costs, and enhance computational speed for demanding workloads. The announcement also underlines Leaseweb’s commitment to meeting the demand for powerful infrastructure solutions with industry benchmark performance chips that can be deployed within hours to ensure high availability service provision.
This marks the next step in Leaseweb’s journey to providing a complete AI offering for its customers, which will include integration into Leaseweb’s public cloud and broader set of infrastructure solutions. By providing a comprehensive, scalable solution for a wide variety of workloads, Leaseweb is reinforcing its position as a trusted partner for organizations focused on balancing price with performance and availability. With further plans to integrate this offering into its broader solutions suite, the company is strongly positioned to become a leading provider of GPU infrastructure, supporting customers as they invest in these transformational technologies.
“This announcement represents an important step for customers where GPU availability is increasingly important and will give organizations around the world the price/performance flexibility they need, as soon as they need it,” commented Liat Mendelson Honderdors, Principal Product Manager, AI and GPU at Leaseweb.
“Our customers value Leaseweb’s extensive industry expertise as they plan and deploy infrastructure for their most processor-intensive workloads. With considerations ranging from price and performance to data sovereignty and compliance, Leaseweb’s solutions and state-of-the-art global network means we are ideally suited to helping our customers grow their business and expand into new markets, even at hours’ notice. By incorporating best-in-class NVIDIA technology into our infrastructure portfolio, we’re laying the foundation for a broader solution set that will continue to evolve with customer needs,” Mendelson Honderdors concluded.
by Gary Mintchell | Jan 15, 2025 | Cloud, Enterprise IT, Operations Management, Technology
Technology advancements and innovations plus applications solving bigger problems have led my work, research, and writing from virtual PLCs to virtual servers. That’s why I have loved technology ever since I was 14 and soldering resistors, capacitors, and coils into circuits.
Here is a Dutch company (the product is available globally, of course) that has launched a “highly efficient” Virtual Private Server (VPS) solution.
Some of the year-end prognoses sent my way (many sort of self serving) predicted les reliance on cloud and a return to more on prem solutions. Perhaps this company provides help both ways.
Their blurb touts, “Powered by High Performance CPUs, Local NVMe Storage and Lightning-fast 10 Gbps Uplink Speed, Packages Start at Just €3.99/month.”
Leaseweb Global, a cloud services and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider, January 14 announced the launch of a new highly efficient Virtual Private Server (VPS) solution. Designed for businesses that need a combination of exceptional price-performance, fast local storage and easy deployment, Leaseweb VPS packages start at just €3.99/month to deliver affordable solutions that don’t compromise on quality.
Leaseweb’s new VPS solution provides customers with the flexibility to expand their infrastructure as their business needs grow. Delivered via a low-touch, self-service portal, it requires limited technical expertise for setup or management, enabling users to configure their server, monitor resources and manage snapshots with ease. This makes it ideal for businesses seeking a straightforward, scalable and efficient hosting service, as well as those looking for an entry-level solution to Leaseweb Public Cloud.
Technical specifications keep advancing.
With lightning-fast 10Gbps uplink speed, and powered by high performance processors and local NVMe storage, the Leaseweb VPS solution provides ample compute, RAM and generous traffic across all packages. In addition, built-in security and reliability features, including firewalls, DDoS protection and ISO-certified data centers, offer peace of mind and comprehensive protection for all customers. For those customers wanting to include backup, this is available as an add-on service.
“Our new VPS solution has been designed from the ground up to offer the ideal balance of performance, usability and cost,” said Mathijs Heikamp, Director Product Management at Leaseweb Global. “By combining the latest hardware, advanced automation and an intuitive self-service portal, we’re delivering a cloud infrastructure solution that can effortlessly adapt to customer requirements.”
Here is information about Leaseweb since this company is new to me—and perhaps to you.
Leaseweb is a leading Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provider serving a worldwide portfolio of 20,000 customers ranging from SMBs to Enterprises. Services include Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Dedicated Servers , Colocation, Content Delivery Network , and Cyber Security Services supported by exceptional customer service and technical support. With more than 80,000 servers, Leaseweb has provided infrastructure for mission-critical websites, Internet applications, email servers, security, and storage services since 1997. The company operates 28 data centers in locations across Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America, all of which are backed by a superior worldwide network with a total capacity of more than 10 Tbps.
Leaseweb offers services through its various Leaseweb Sales Entities which are Leaseweb Netherlands B.V., Leaseweb USA, Inc., Leaseweb Singapore PTE. LTD, Leaseweb Deutschland GmbH, Leaseweb Australia Ltd., Leaseweb UK Ltd, Leaseweb Japan KK, Leaseweb Hong Kong LTD, and Leaseweb Canada Inc.
