IOTech launches Edge Builder to manage edge systems at scale
Edge software company IOTech has announced the launch of Edge Builder, its end-to-end, open solution for managing edge systems at scale.
IOTech says it tries to ensure Edge Builder is addressing the market opportunity, the company says it's been working with a number of key partners and potential customers during the development phase of the product.
"Intel has been supporting IOTech throughout the development of Edge Builder," says Intel's IoTG technical lead and platform architect, Bryan Rodriguez.
He says there is finally a scalable management solution addressing both device and orchestration management for far edge systems.
PMY chief technology officer, Joe Costanzo, says, "Having a flexible and scalable edge management solution is critical to supporting our Smart Operating Platform, which provides operational and crowd intelligence as a venue management solution.
"Edge Builder provides the dynamic edge management capabilities we need to deploy our platform to customers' systems quickly and at scale. It also gives us the ability to maintain and extend a deployment easily, regardless of whether the system is permanent or only in use for a short period of time," says Costanzo.
As the number of industrial IoT devices and the resulting data produced grows at a rapid rate, the problem of managing these edge infrastructures becomes important. Traditional cloud or IT-based management solutions can struggle with factors such as edge scale, intermittent connectivity, device/sensor connectivity, legacy platforms, and resource constraints at the edge.
According to IOTech, the problem is multi-dimensional in scope and includes both the provisioning and management of the edge nodes and also the application workloads deployed on the nodes.
While other key issues include dealing with aged and heterogeneous infrastructure (legacy equipment, brownfield nodes, and devices), and the fact that the OT lifecycle is often measured in decades, not years.
Edge systems are managed from a centralised Edge Builder controller that can be hosted either on-premise or in the cloud. Platform independence for both the managed nodes and the cloud environment on which the controller is deployed allows for flexibility for Edge Builder users.
"There are a number of use cases for Edge Builder, and we've already seen interest from industrial companies who want the ability to remotely monitor, update or even control engineering assets in the field from both a support and as-a-service perspective," says IOTech CEO, Keith Steele.
"We're also talking to large retailers looking to consolidate the applications they use in each store on to centralised infrastructure, where both the applications and the infrastructure are managed by Edge Builder. For both use cases, this has a massive workforce saving.
