by Gary Mintchell | Mar 26, 2024 | Automation, Edge, Internet of Things, Open Source, Operations Management
The 5th annual Eclipse Foundation IoT and Edge Commercial Adoption Survey actually holds few surprise but shows ongoing trends of investment. I’m not sure if it is good news or worrisome that the C-suite seems to be more involved. These people hold the purse strings, but they also usually hold unrealistic expectations (oversold by engineers?) about the eventual benefits of technology adoption.
The survey includes a comprehensive analysis derived from responses of over 1067 professionals in the IoT and edge computing domain. Conducted online from April 4 to July 5, 2023, the survey offers valuable insights into the evolving IoT and edge computing ecosystems by identifying the requirements, priorities, and challenges faced by organisations that deploy and use commercial solutions, including those based on open source technologies.
“Consistent with our previous surveys, the continuous growth and adoption of IoT and edge computing remains evident. The data reflects a notable increase in the number of managed devices and larger investments, indicative of a scale-up in deployments,” said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation. “Particularly notable is that the C-suite significantly influences decision-making for IoT and edge investments. This underscores the strategic value that businesses place on solutions based on open technologies in real-world deployments. Open source components are recognised as vital enablers of success.”
Six of the key takeaways from the survey data include:
- IoT Adoption Surged in 2023: 64% of respondents are now deploying IoT solutions, up from 53% in 2022. An additional 23% plan to deploy within 12-24 months. Less than 5% have no IoT deployment plan.
- Edge Computing Adoption Holds Steady, Acceleration Anticipated: Adoption of edge computing solutions remains at 33% (same as 2022), with an additional 30% indicating plans to deploy within the next 24 months. 27% are still evaluating edge platforms, while only 10% have no plans to deploy edge solutions.
- Rising Investments Signal Scale-Up in Production Deployments: 17% of respondents spent between $1-10M in 2023 (more than double that of 2022), growing to 23% in 2024. 5% anticipate spending over $10M. This trend indicates a transition from proof-of-concept to ROI-focused deployments.
- Growing Number of IoT & Edge Assets per Deployment: Deployments of fewer than 1K managed assets will remain steady or decline, while larger deployments are on the rise, with an impressive 10% of deployments consisting of 50K or more devices. Regarding asset implementation, the mix between greenfield and brownfield is almost equal.
- IoT is Increasingly Strategic with the C-Suite Driving Investment Decisions: 49% of organisations reveal that the C-suite predominantly drives decisions. This marks a significant increase from the 38% reported in 2022, indicating a growing influence of top-level executives in shaping investment choices within the realm of IoT and edge technologies.
- 75% of Organisations Surveyed Embrace Open Source in IoT and Edge: 75% of organisations are actively incorporating open source into their deployment plans. The widespread use of IoT and edge solutions based on open source technologies highlights how open source has become key in shaping today’s technology landscape.
The IoT and Edge Commercial Adoption Survey is sponsored by the Eclipse IoT and Sparkplug Working Groups. It serves as a valuable complement to the annual IoT Developer Survey, a vital source of strategic insights from the development front lines. The Eclipse IoT community represents one of the largest IoT-focused open source collaborations in the world, with 45 members and over 50 projects. Eclipse IoT projects have been broadly adopted by leading organisations across a variety of verticals to deliver commercial IoT and edge-based solutions and services.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 27, 2024 | Edge, Internet of Things, Operations Management
Computing at the Edge of the network remains a crucial and growing part of a plant’s architecture. Digi International positioned itself as an enabler of data transmission for a long time. This news is a new product exploiting some of the 5G cellular technology benefits.
Digi International announced market launch of Digi IX40, a 5G edge computing industrial IoT cellular router solution. Digi IX40 is purpose-built for Industry 4.0 use cases such as advanced robotics, predictive maintenance, asset monitoring, industrial automation and smart manufacturing. Fully integrated with Digi Remote Manager, this solution’s capabilities improve security and scalability while ensuring speed, reliability and efficiency.
Digi IX40 integrates Digi Remote Manager (Digi RM) for rapid configuration, automated security monitoring and simplified management. Digi RM — the cloud-based command center for IoT deployments — gives businesses critical insights into their network operations for more data-driven decisions. Likewise, Digi RM supports secure terminal access for out-of-band management of edge devices via serial ports and a command-line interface.
Key Digi IX40 features include:
- Global 5G and LTE support for public and private cellular networks
- Integrated edge computing capabilities for applications requiring edge intelligence and real-time processing
- The Digi Accelerated Linux operating system (DAL OS)
- Simplified configuration and management with Digi Remote Manager
- FIPS 140-2 validation for encryption of sensitive data
- Ethernet, SFP, serial, I/O and Modbus bridging
- Powerful failover options, including fiber and 4G LTE for ultimate redundancy
- Digi SureLink, VRRP+ and dual SIMs for resilient cellular connectivity
- GNSS receiver supporting GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou and Galileo
- License-free enterprise software: VPN, firewall, logging and authentication
- Rugged enclosure with DIN rail and shelf mounting options
- FirstNet Capable models to meet the demands of emergency response
Digi Containers, a Digi value-added service, augments the Digi IX40 solution to facilitate cost-effective applications via lightweight Linux containers, giving businesses additional flexibility and scalability for their Industry 4.0 initiatives. Digi is proud to provide not only a Digi Containers solution for customers who want to run their own custom applications or binaries on Digi IX40, but we also provide vetted access to software from leaders in the Industry 4.0, Networking 2.0, and industrial protocol services.
Digi WAN bonding, an add-on service available through Digi Remote Manager, provides ultra-fast, ultra-reliable network connectivity. Digi WAN Bonding enables users to centrally set up, deploy, and manage the bonding of multiple WAN Internet connections together on Digi IX40 for a combination of increased throughput speeds, WAN smoothing, packet redundancy, and seamless failover for always-on Internet connectivity. Digi WAN Bonding can scale to hundreds or thousands of sites to ensure you are getting the most robust connectivity for your entire fleet or network that is always ready, always online.
by Gary Mintchell | Feb 21, 2024 | Data Management, Edge, News
One of those specialty niche areas of modern compute architecture is technology to handle special needs of edge computing. ZEDEDA developed edge orchestration technology. I see that it is using some Gartner data to tie its fortunes to AI in the form of ML (machine learning). It is growing at enough pace to require additional capital funding. Emerson and Rockwell Automation are two companies in my market space that are invested in this area.
- Smith Point Capital led the highly oversubscribed Series C round with strong participation from other new and existing investors
- Funding accelerates ZEDEDA’s global expansion as demand for its product soars as enterprises accelerate adoption of orchestration and AI at the edge
- Over the past year, ZEDEDA increased annual recurring revenue by more than 250% and increased nodes under management by more than 300%, including significant key enterprise success with more than 10 Fortune Global 500 accounts
ZEDEDA announced closing of $72 million in growth capital, with the Series C round led by Smith Point Capital, founded by former Salesforce Co-CEO Keith Block.
According to Gartner, “By 2027, 20% of large enterprises will have deployed an edge management and orchestration (EMO) solution, compared with fewer than 1% in 2023.” Simultaneously, the demand for AI and machine learning is also exploding. Gartner also predicts that “by 2026, at least 50% of edge computing deployments will involve machine learning (ML), compared with 5% in 2022,” further accelerating the large-scale deployment of edge workloads and increasing adoption of edge management and orchestration.
“This latest round of investment validates our leadership position as the preferred choice of large enterprises for their edge management and orchestration needs,” said Said Ouissal, ZEDEDA’s CEO and founder. “Our unique and innovative product is powering the explosive demand of ubiquitous edge computing, underpinning our customer’s AI and real-time data analytics initiatives. With this funding, we are well-positioned to further extend the cloud operational infrastructure model everywhere, to continue to delight our customers and to realize our vision of powering the next era of computing.”
“We believe edge computing represents one of the next great waves of digital transformation given its unique ability to address the many challenges presented by an increasingly connected world, creating new category-leading companies like ZEDEDA,” said Keith Block, CEO and founder of Smith Point Capital. “Said and his team have a big vision and have already solved critical pain points around deploying workloads at scale for several enterprise verticals. As they’ve built the industry-leading solution to power the edge, we are thrilled to lead the Series C round and help accelerate their position as the market leader for edge management and orchestration.”
With this latest round of funding, ZEDEDA continues to draw significant investment interest and, despite a current tight funding market, has now raised over $127 million in total since its founding. Hillman Company, LDV Partners, Endeavor Catalyst Fund and Forward Investments (DEWA) joined Smith Point Capital as new investors in the company. In addition, ZEDEDA saw strong support from returning investors in this round, including Lux Capital, Almaz Capital, Coast Range Capital, Juniper Networks, Emerson Ventures, Chevron Technology Ventures, 5G Open Innovation Lab, Rockwell Automation and Porsche Ventures.
“Emerson customers rely on us to optimize their operations, and our DeltaV Distributed Control System is the foundation for this, providing intelligent control of all plant activities,” said Claudio Fayad, vice president of technology, process systems and solutions at Emerson. “We have standardized on ZEDEDA as a critical part of our solution, enabling us to extend DeltaV to the distributed edge and provide AI-based data analysis for real-time support for automated decision-making.”
“Our customers’ demand for real-time control, visualization, and closed-loop process and asset optimization applications at the edge remains robust,” said Arvind Rao, vice president of Industry Solutions at Rockwell Automation. “With our strategic partnership with ZEDEDA, we are able to offer industry-leading, centralized edge management solutions that deliver value across the lifecycle of our customer’s applications, significantly reducing their total cost of ownership.”
The growth capital investment emphasizes ZEDEDA’s remarkable business performance and growth over the past year. Annual recurring revenue increased more than 250% year-over-year, and the key metric of nodes under management increased by more than 300%, with 12 Global and Fortune 500 customers, capping another year of extreme growth and success. One notable example includes one of the largest global automobile manufacturers, which has standardized on ZEDEDA to modernize 70,000 dealerships, manufacturing facilities and service centers across 153 countries.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 28, 2023 | Cloud, Edge, Operations Management, Software
Containers, specifically Kubernetes, constitute a powerful tool in the modern edge-to-cloud architecture, ZEDEDA has developed a service model for the technology.
In brief:
- ZEDEDA Edge Kubernetes Service is a fully managed service including a Kubernetes runtime curated, managed and supported by ZEDEDA.
- Organizations can instantly deploy Kubernetes infrastructure at the distributed edge, securely and cost-efficiently.
- ZEDEDA’s partnerships and integrations with industry-leading orchestrators, such as Avassa, Rafay, Red Hat OpenShift, SUSE Rancher and VMware Tanzu, provide a robust solution for the modern edge landscape.
ZEDEDA has announced ZEDEDA Edge Kubernetes Service, a fully managed Kubernetes service for the distributed edge. The new service includes a Kubernetes runtime that is curated, managed and supported by ZEDEDA, as well as integrations with industry-leading orchestrators.
Deploying Kubernetes at the edge is challenging because it was built for centralized data centers and scale-out clouds and, therefore, not for inherently constrained and distributed edge environments. ZEDEDA Edge Kubernetes Service is a fully managed service that simplifies Kubernetes deployments at the edge, allowing customers to focus on their applications instead of managing and maintaining the underlying infrastructure. The new service eliminates the struggles typically associated with Kubernetes deployments at the edge, such as highly remote or distributed locations, constrained devices, unreliable security, lack of skilled IT personnel in the field and undependable network connectivity. ZEDEDA Edge Kubernetes Service enables organizations to deploy and run Kubernetes infrastructure at the distributed edge remotely, securely and cost-efficiently.
“Our customers are industry leaders who are pushing the boundaries of innovation at the distributed edge, and working with them, we realized the need for an edge service that would remove the obstacles of deploying Kubernetes in these environments,” said Said Ouissal, ZEDEDA’s CEO and founder. “ZEDEDA Edge Kubernetes Service is a first-of-its-kind fully managed edge solution that enables our customers to use any Kubernetes tools that fit their needs and provides a clear path to modernize edge infrastructure while leveraging existing IT investments.”
ZEDEDA Edge Kubernetes Service Provides Full Lifecycle-Managed Kubernetes.
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 28, 2023 | Automation, Cloud, Edge, Embedded Control
Edge compute continues to be the most talked about part of the network these days. This news concerns an application development platform for Edge and Cloud. I wish I could try out all this software like I used to many years ago. It’s all too complex and expensive today. Like everything, I don’t know if it works, but it sounds good.
Lightbend Inc., the company providing cloud native microservices frameworks for some of the world’s largest brands, has announced the release of its latest version of Akka, one of the industry’s most powerful platforms for distributed computing, which incorporates a new and unique programming model that enables developers to build an application once and have it work across both Cloud and Edge environments.
“Today, applications developed for cloud native environments are generally not well-suited to the Edge and vice versa,” said Jonas Bonér, Lightbend’s founder and CEO. “This has always struck me as counter-productive, as both architectures lean heavily on one another to be successful. As the line between Cloud and Edge environments continues to blur, Akka Edge brings industry-first capabilities to enable developers to build once for the Cloud and, when ready, deploy seamlessly to the Edge.”
“Akka has been a powerful enabling technology for us to build high-performance Cloud systems for our clients,” said Jean-Philippe Le Roux, CEO of Reflek.io, an innovative company delivering Digital Twin technologies to geo-distributed companies. “We have been able to dramatically speed our time-to-production by building a single solution for both Cloud and Edge with Akka.”
Akka provides a singular programming model that eliminates the high latency, large footprint, and complexity barriers the Edge has posed for development teams wanting to bridge the Edge and Cloud. Developers focus on business logic, not complicated, time-consuming tool integrations. As a result, businesses can harness, distribute, and fully utilize the vast amount of intelligent data to improve their operations, regardless of where that data is generated. Some specific capabilities of the latest version of Akka include:
- Adaptive Data Availability
- Projections over gRPC for the Edge – asynchronous, brokerless service-to-service communication
- Scalability and efficiency improvements to handle the large scale of many Edge services
- Programmatically defined low-footprint active entity migration
- Temporal, geographic, and use-based migration
- Run Efficiently In Resource Constrained Environments
- Support for more constrained environments such as running with GraalVM native image and lightweight Kubernetes distributions
- Support for multidimensional autoscaling and scale to near zero
- Lightweight storage, for running durable actors at the far edge
- A Single Programming Model for the Cloud-to-Edge Continuum
- Akka single programming model keeps the code, the tools, the patterns, and the communication the same, regardless if it is Cloud, Edge, or in between
- Seamless Integration – works at the Edge or in the Cluster automatically
- Empowering New Innovation
- Active/Active digital twins, and many other new use cases
- No dealing with complicated logic to handle network segregation
- Focus on business logic and flow (not on tool integrations)
by Gary Mintchell | Nov 22, 2023 | Automation, Edge, Industrial Computers
The list of trade fairs that I’m missing grows. I did not go to Nuremberg this year for the SPS show. There were many product announcements. These three are from Siemens concerning its Industrial Edge. It is all happening at the Edge.
- New hardware and software available for Siemens’ Industrial Edge ecosystem
- Industrial Edge Management System now cloud-based As-a-Service
- Low code for Industrial Edge: Simplifying edge app programming with Mendix on Edge
Edge Computing allows manufacturers to capture and process data where it’s generated: at the field level in the plant. At this year’s SPS trade show in Nuremberg, the technology company Siemens is expanding its range of products and services for Industrial Edge at all levels. This will allow users to connect their information technology (IT) even better with the operational level (OT). Industrial Edge is also part of the portfolio of the Siemens Xcelerator open and flexible business platform.
Industrial Edge Management (IEM) is a software portal for managing IoT solutions consisting of hardware and software in the factory. It allows all devices, applications, and users integrated into Siemens Industrial Edge to be centrally managed. Siemens now also offers this system as a cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): IEM Cloud is available as a fully managed service and includes both the infrastructure and the set-up of the system. The operational system requirements and configuration costs for users are kept to a minimum. Industrial Edge devices can be integrated directly in the management system. IEM Cloud can be used to manage automation software as well as hardware from Siemens and third-party providers.
Siemens is also expanding its Industrial Edge ecosystem with more hardware: more Simatic industrial PCs (x86 processor-based) and Industrial Edge devices from the Scalance and Simatic IoT device family based on ARM processors are now available. Weidmüller is also the first third-party manufacturer in the Siemens ecosystem to offer the u-control M4000, an edge device based on this processor architecture. The ARM processor-based devices are primarily designed for less data-intensive use cases: for example, remote access and connectivity solutions like gateways. And users can now use Siemens’ new Industrial Edge Own Device software to convert their existing third-party x86 processor-based IPCs into fully functional Industrial Edge devices, centrally manage them, and thereby integrate existing hardware into their IoT environment.
Mendix’s low-code development environment allows users to develop field-level apps in production with no coding knowledge. Automation engineers can use the new Industrial Edge plugin to develop industry-specific apps in their Mendix Studio Pro development environment and seamlessly install them on appropriate devices at the field level.
