A 20 page publication from Frost & Sullivan, ‘Edge Computing Drives Industrial IT/OT Convergence in Oil & Gas’ posits that ‘broad, organizational information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) convergence, in which data-centric IT systems integrate with operations equipment and technology, can provide a huge competitive advantage when executed successfully’. Working from a recent survey*, IT-OT convergence is cited as one of the most important factors for organizations to achieve their strategic goals. F&S highlights Red Hat as ‘a leading organization focused on helping industrials align IT and OT’. Apart from in the title, the F&S study barely mentions edge computing.
* A 2021 Frost & Sullivan survey of 376 industrial organizations working in the utility, automotive, manufacturing, and oil & gas markets.
A group of Italian researchers led by Antonio Salis (EII) have published an ‘Edge-cloud based reference architecture’ for the Process Industry a.k.a. the ‘CAPRI’ reference architecture. Capri is an EU Horizon 2020 project to develop CAP, a ‘Cognitive automation platform’. The CAP reference architecture, leverages open source frameworks such as Fiware along with multiple other industrial frameworks (RAMI4.0, IDSA and BDVA). A ‘Data Space Enabler’ extracts data from multiple sources including MQTT, CoAP and OPC UA.
Nvidia recently published a solution brief and edge computing showcase. For Nvidia, the edge ‘extends compute capabilities from data centers out to the edge of networks, allowing organizations to act quickly on data where it’s captured’. Reducing the distance between where data is captured and where it’s processed improves latency, bandwidth utilization and infrastructure costs. However, Edge systems ‘lack the centrality that a data center presents’. Software updates can be hard to deploy, manage, and scale across vast fleets of devices. Edge locations lack the physical security that data centers have, so an end-to-end security model that protects both the application intellectual property and the sensor data is ‘paramount for a successful deployment’. Enter the Nvidia EGX platform, a combination of high-performance GPU computing and high-speed, secure networking. EGX provides a suite of applications for edge AI including automation and quality control in manufacturing facilities, 5G multi-access edge computing and freight tracking and route optimization for efficient logistics.
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