May 2017

In June 2016, VMware announced Liota (Little IoT Agent), a lightweight, vendor-neutral open source software development kit (SDK) for building IoT applications [1]. In April 2017, the Linux Foundation launched EdgeXFoundry, an open source edge platform architecture to enable interoperability in a plug-and-play IoT ecosystem [2]. Dell contributed the initial code to seed the vendor-neutral EdgeX effort, which is governed by a consortium of industry peers. VMware is a founding member of EdgeX and will contribute to its success, while maintaining a neutral stance in relation to IoT hardware OEMs that participate in the project.

Read more at VMware Blogs.

Is there a need for IoT interoperability? I guess it depends on your perspective, but in most cases, the answer would be yes. If you’re a little guy, it’s obvious why it’s a good thing—your parts are compatible with lots of other systems. If you’re a big guy, it’s less obvious because you generally have the wherewithal to push through a de-facto standard. That was one of my concerns when I heard about the EdgeX Foundry, launched by the Linux Foundation.

Read more at Embedded Computing Design.

The network edge remains a flashpoint of Internet of Things (IoT) activity given its important role in interfacing end devices to the cloud and overall delivery of the IoT value proposition. Open, standards-based connectivity between the data and services resident on edge devices and cloud-based applications is paramount, which in turns drives the need for edge computing architectures that can fulfill these emerging requirements while enabling fast time-to-market for services developers.

EdgeX, a new open source project within the Linux Foundation, was recently formed to address the need for an open ecosystem at the network edge that enables interoperability among plug-and-play components.

Read more at ARC Advisory Group.

The fact that IoT was the headliner in Las Vegas at Day 2 of Dell EMC World 2017 was somewhat anticipated since company founder Michael Dell opened this week’s event homing in on IoT as a top strategic initiative for the company and the 13,500 conference attendees. No sooner did the lights dim and the show begin when Karen Quintos, Dell EMC’s chief customer officer, announced the IoT Transformation Realized Award winners.

Read more at Channel Partners.

What is the core concept of edge computing? It’s to establish data connectivity and filtering between the devices at the network edge that generate big data, and the systems in the cloud that need to consume that data for machine learning, predictive analytics, and so on.

In several previous posts we discussed the EdgeX project from The Linux Foundation. We saw how its microservices are designed to collect data from industrial devices and systems and then move that data from the local network to the cloud.

Read more at the Opto22 blog.

New products and partnerships announced by Dell EMC could help businesses more easily leverage the power of the internet of things (IoT) in their industries. At the 2017 Dell EMC World in Las Vegas, the company launched products, services, and frameworks that aim to remove the complexity of IoT deployments.

For secure management of an organization’s connected devices and things, the firm announced an infrastructure management solution called VMware Pulse IoT Center. According to a press release, the ability to quickly scale IoT projects will lead to a faster time to ROI on those deployments.

Read more at TechRepublic.

Solution providers delivering Internet of Things solutions at the edge face a time-consuming process because of the plethora of device standards. But a new open-source consortium has emerged that aims to align market leaders around a common Internet of Things framework.

The Linux Foundation in April lifted the curtain on EdgeX Foundry to accelerate interoperability in IoT edge computing. Dell has contributed its Project FUSE source code under Apache 2.0 for the initiative.

Read more at CRN.

After years of fitful progress, Industrial Internet of Things technology is gaining adoption on the factory floor, in the electrical power grid, and other areas that could do with greater amounts of data analysis and insights from a connected ecosystem.

Read more at Semiconductor Engineering.

The Linux Foundation has launched the EdgeX Foundry, a new project aimed at building an open framework for IoT computing and an ecosystem of interoperable components.

The EdgeX Foundry aims to foster the model of edge computing, where enabled devices will not send their data back to the cloud for processing, but rely on local gateway devices for computing and analytics. The main advantages of this approach are reduced latency and network traffic, and improved security. This is considered of special value for industrial applications, such as power generation, smart traffic lights, etc where a cloud component is not strictly required; or, for more general applications where data from a number of devices is collected locally before sending it to the cloud.

Read more at InfoQ.