ZEDEDA and OnLogic Partner to Build Integrated Edge Computing Solution for Industrial Environments

OnLogic Powered by ZEDEDA integrates cloud-native edge management capabilities into industrial-grade hardware solutions to accelerate edge deployments and ROI.

The edge appears to be the place where innovation is focused. Here is yet another partnership in that market space.

ZEDEDA, the leader in edge management and orchestration, and OnLogic, a global leader in industrial computing hardware and solutions, announced a strategic partnership to launch OnLogic Powered by ZEDEDA. This offering combines OnLogic’s rugged, industrial-grade hardware with ZEDEDA’s cloud-native edge orchestration software, providing enterprises with a comprehensive platform to easily and securely deploy, manage and scale edge computing workloads. The companies are committing product and engineering teams to co-design a solution that will streamline edge computing deployments and accelerate time to value.

The OnLogic and ZEDEDA partnership addresses the growing demand for robust edge computing solutions in industrial environments. It enables customers to easily manage, monitor and update edge devices and application workloads, significantly reducing the time and cost associated with deploying and maintaining distributed edge infrastructure. The zero-trust security model begins in the factory and guarantees that devices haven’t been tampered with in transit.

The solution will initially be available on four OnLogic systems, catering to various industrial edge computing needs. Key user advantages include:

  • A validated solution from industry leaders in edge computing.
  • Engineered for industrial environments with multi-year solution lifecycles.
  • An application-agnostic design to power unique customer solutions that evolve with the market.
  • World-class device and software security to protect enterprise IP.
  • Unified engineering and product roadmap shaped by collective customer feedback.
  • Delivered as an appliance with SaaS management for rapid time-to-value and faster return on investment.

OnLogic Powered by ZEDEDA will help accelerate this growth by offering a turnkey solution combining hardware reliability and software flexibility.

Nokia Launches Industrial Applications Targeting Safety and Efficiency

  • Expands the number of Nokia-owned and best-in-class industry applications integrated on the MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) to drive efficiency, productivity and OT security.
  • New applications help to improve worker safety and enable responsive video for machine remote control, leading to higher operational efficiency and strengthening OT environment security.

I may not use a Nokia handset any longer, but the company still releases many products for industrial applications.

Nokia announced six new applications deployed on the Nokia MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) to help enterprises improve worker safety, site security, enhance operational efficiency and secure OT environments in manufacturing, mining, ports, and chemical industries.

In line with industry developments, Nokia MXIE on-premises edge solution, part of Nokia’s private wireless offering, supports ecosystem neutrality enabling the deployment of applications to help support growing diverse Industry 4.0 use case needs.

Offered as-a-service, these new applications are Ascom Ofelia, Fogsphere, innovaphone PBX & myApps, Nokia Real-time eXtended Reality Multimedia (RXRM), OneLayer, and Redinent and join our existing portfolio of Nokia, and third-party digitalization applications.

Improving situational awareness to enhance worker safety and site security

Worker safety remains a high priority in industrial settings. The new applications enable digitalization to increase situational awareness, better deal with incidents, and increase the use of real-time data and knowledge which are key to improving worker safety and site security. The new applications include the following:

Ascom Ofelia – Ascom Ofelia helps enterprises shift from separate alarm systems to one unified alarm solution, improving incident management, increasing situational awareness, and ensuring a safer workplace.

Fogsphere – A comprehensive, multi-modal AI platform to enhance workplace safety, security, and operational intelligence, with real-time solutions for PPE compliance, behavioral analysis, emergency management, access control, intrusion detection and vehicle monitoring.

Connecting workers to achieve higher efficiency

Connected worker applications are essential to overcome workforce challenges such as worker shortages, retention issues, and difficulty attracting new talent, which are key to achieving the efficiency and productivity needed to outperform the competition. Applications can give workers real-time information to make their jobs easier and machine tele-operation more efficient. New items include the following:

innovaphone PBX & myApps – Secure, scalable IP telephone system with built-in features like conferencing, voicemail and waiting queues for advanced business communication and smart business applications. Its on-premise MXIE solution ensures full data control and meets ISO27001 standards.

Real-time eXtended Reality Multimedia (RXRM) – Software solution with low latency 360° video and 3D OZO audio capture that helps to improve productivity, employee safety, teleoperations, situational awareness & remote technical support.

Securing OT assets to strengthen the overall security

Asset visibility, zero trust principles and effective vulnerability management in OT environments will be enabled by the new applications including:

OneLayer – Discovers, manages, secures, and classifies all IIoT assets on private networks, including those behind cellular routers. Acting as a zero-trust access broker, it enforces zero-trust security principles within OT environments while delivering zero-touch asset management and operational intelligence.

Redinent – Discovers IIoT assets and helps create inventory, identifies IIoT vulnerabilities and ongoing threats. It informs the security operation center (SOC) about the findings.

ZEDEDA Joins the Linux Foundation’s Margo Project

ZEDEDA works at the Edge—they call it Edge Orchestration–and is joining a standards body. I am not sanguine about these interoperability organizations. Perhaps those of you who use these tools in manufacturing or production could send a note about if (or how) you use these industry standards. I know that the IT industry makes great use of them. I am not so sure about the OT side.

At any rate, there is a new initiative underway that appears to duplicate the work of EdgeX Foundry that was begun several years ago. This one sponsored by the Linux Foundation is called Margo.

This news from ZEDEDA announces that it has joined the Linux Foundation’s Margo project as a steering committee member. Margo is a new open-source project focused on creating open standards for interoperability at the edge for industrial automation environments.

ZEDEDA joins founding members ABB, Capgemini, Microsoft, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric and Siemens in the Margo project. Darren Kimura, ZEDEDA’s president and COO, will be the company’s representative on the steering committee, which also includes a representative from Intel. ZEDEDA co-founder and CTO Erik Nordmark will be part of the technical working group, while senior director of marketing communications and partner marketing Sarah Beaudoin will be part of the marketing working group.

The Margo project represents a significant industry collaboration to define mechanisms for interoperable orchestration of edge applications, workloads and devices. It will deliver the promise of interoperability through an open standard, reference implementation, and comprehensive compliance testing toolkit.

AVEVA Launches New Hybrid Cloud Solution

I heard from Hannover Messe that AVEVA was launching a hybrid/cloud MES solution. Being curious, I was able to talk with Rob McGreevy, Chief Product Officer, AVEVA about this.

Why hybrid cloud MES? Today’s manufacturing is high speed/high volume, need to get closer to the edge, closer to the critical control, the machines, yet we need to move data from edge to cloud. 

I get why edge, but why cloud? The reason for cloud is analytics, being able to use AI for process centerlining comparatives. We can get to predictive prescriptive quality based on hundreds of variables. Predictive usage of sustainable resources. All this becomes more feasible by connecting realtime data from the edge to the cloud.

This further information about the product comes from the press release. Software solution providers keep pushing the ball a bit further at a time.

AVEVA launches hybrid cloud

To mitigate barriers to industrial innovation, AVEVA is launching at Hannover Messe in April its new hybrid cloud Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solution that addresses the supply chain challenges by enabling manufacturing companies to fully visualize and optimize multi-site operations in the cloud.

AVEVA has expanded CONNECT, its industrial intelligence platform with data and visualization services for hybrid Manufacturing Execution System (MES) solutions.

AVEVA’s new hybrid MES solution enables manufacturing companies to manage production data in the cloud, to improve supply chain agility with enterprise-wide visibility into distributed plant operations. This enables companies to optimize their operational performance and sustainability with new insights and guidance provided by advanced analytics, artificial intelligence (AI) and data visualization.

AVEVA’s hybrid MES solution combines advanced model-driven MES capabilities at the edge with cloud-based data, analytics and visualization services available on the CONNECT industrial intelligence platform. The ability to collect and securely store data from AVEVA Manufacturing Execution System and process data sources, such as AVEVA PI System and AVEVA’s Operations Control, in a single, secure location in the cloud, makes it easier to aggregate, contextualize and securely share operational data, eliminate organizational data silos, and foster greater collaboration. This unlocks new value from the combined data sets for optimal centerlining of production equipment, soft sensors and predictions that improve quality, throughput and energy use, as well as anomaly detection that gives early insight into production losses before they occur.

PICMG InterEdge and OPAF Partnership to Advance Open Process Control Technology

I wrote a couple of times when some press releases noted support for a new PICMG InterEdge interface for open process automation applications. They’ve announced a formal agreement with OPAF to provide an “official” OPAF edge controller connectivity.

Highlights:

  • Partnership seeks to reduce technology integration, maintenance, and upgrade costs in the process automation industry.
  • Work supports the Open Process Automation Standard (O-PAS), a standard of The Open Group, that defines resilient and scalable process automation system architectures.
  • Collaboration establishes a multi-vendor ecosystem for interoperable, interchangeable edge hardware via specifications like InterEdge.

An explanation from the press release explains, “The partnership fills a gap in edge controller hardware that exists in the O-PAS Standard—an open architectural framework for developing industrial process automation systems, currently being defined by OPAF initiatives.”

To complete and standardize work on an edge controller performed by OPAF member Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), The Open Group Forum evaluated several hardware standards development organizations. The OPAF Members selected PICMG to develop a new open edge hardware technology specification that defines electromechanical interoperability, interchangeability, hot plug capabilities, and compatibility with existing standards such as IEC 61499 and IEC 61131.

The result was the recently ratified InterEdge specification.

I should mention that I saw a similar PICMG computer put forward as a solution for a previous open controller standard. Unfortunately, the vendor selected made a few tweaks in its use of the standard such that its “open” controller actually would not accept cards from competitors. I am certain that OPAF and PICMG will vet suppliers more carefully.

The InterEdge specification introduces a modular open architecture that delivers state-of-the-art I/O abstraction and flexibility and in a common physical form factor. It supports the OPAF and O-PAS goals of reducing integration, maintenance, and upgrade costs in the highly fragmented and largely proprietary process control technology market.

The OPAF and PICMG relationship is ongoing, with work on new versions of the InterEdge specification already underway. Meanwhile, the Open Process Automation Forum has introduced InterEdge to its physical platform subcommittee, who plan to include the specification in an upcoming revision of the O-PAS Standard and devise a set of tests that evaluate conformance to the InterEdge specification.

The InterEdge specification is available now and can be purchased from the PICMG website for $750. 

Secure Edge Management to Disconnected Environments

In brief:

  • Companies can now monitor and manage fleets of edge nodes locally, ensuring continuous secure operations even when cloud connectivity is disrupted.
  • ZEDEDA Edge Sync is the first edge solution that enables customers to manage deployments locally and from the cloud, providing the flexibility to move to the cloud from air-gapped environments.
  • ZEDEDA Edge Sync is the latest addition to ZEDEDA’s Edge Application Services suite. It simplifies the security and management of edge infrastructure and applications at scale.

ZEDEDA continues to update its edge orchestration solution. This update expands its utility.

ZEDEDA, the leader in edge management and orchestration, today announced ZEDEDA Edge Sync, a secure and convenient solution tailored for air-gapped environments and edge deployments lacking consistent cloud connectivity.

Despite advancements in connectivity at the edge, many deployments still face network challenges due to their distributed nature, ultra-secure systems or unreliable connections. ZEDEDA Edge Sync solves these problems by enabling local node management while seamlessly integrating with ZEDEDA’s platform.

Due to their distributed nature, modern edge deployments confront numerous network connectivity challenges. Edge deployments often lack consistent cloud connectivity due to high-security air-gapped environments, unreliable network connectivity, or frequent planned outages. ZEDEDA Edge Sync solves these problems by running on a local network regardless of the network connectivity method and connecting to the ZEDEDA cloud controller when connectivity is restored.

For example, it may be common for a location’s network connection to get interrupted for some time, either planned or unplanned. To avoid any service interruption during the outage, the site operator can ensure that edge nodes are functioning properly and that configuration changes are possible while the outage persists.

This applies even to completely air-gapped deployments where the device can never connect to the outside world once it is deployed. ZEDEDA Edge Sync allows monitoring and changes at a fleet level as long as the local edge nodes have access to the network the ZEDEDA Edge Sync service is on. It eliminates the need for expensive hardware components by running on standard systems and supports varying levels of disconnectedness without compromising functionality.

ZEDEDA Edge Sync provides a management and monitoring API that enables customers to build their own custom integrations, applications, and HMI interfaces on top of it, leveraging ZEDEDA’s API-based approach.

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