IOTech partners with Google Cloud to provide integrated edge-cloud solutions at scale

Edge software provider IOTech has announced the expansion of its partnership with Google Cloud to offer smart and integrated edge-cloud solutions for enterprise companies.
 
With this partnership, industrial users, including manufacturing, building automation, and smart energy, can now deploy smart, no-code and integrated edge-cloud solutions at scale.
 
According to IOTech, this expanded partnership will impact industrial IoT deployments with particular challenges, including OT/IT integration.
 
The northbound communication protocol to Google Cloud is typically MQTT or REST, while the southbound communication protocols include Modbus, BACnet, Ethernet/IP, S7, OPC-UA and many more.
 
Other challenges industrial users face include the ability to extract data from old and legacy IoT devices and the ability to control what data is specifically sent to Google Cloud, mainly for security, latency, or cost reasons.
 
Edge computing capabilities and features, therefore, play an increasingly important role in industrial IoT.
 
The partnership allows the industrial user to deploy a smart, no-code and integrated edge-cloud solution at scale. IOTech's Edge Xpert typically resides on the edge gateway or server level, while Edge XRT can reside on legacy or resource constrained hardware such as MCUs and PLCs, typically found at the far edge. Both platforms come with 20 plus OT connectors, including Modbus, BACnet, Ethernet/IP, S7, OPC-UA, and many more. The platforms also include an SDK, making it easy for customers to build new OT connectors. Seamless data integration with Google Cloud is provided as standard.
 
"IOTech is excited to be a Google Cloud Edge ISV partner," says IOTech Systems chief executive officer, Keith Steele.
 
"The integrated edge-cloud solution allows for fast deployments, significantly reducing the time to value," he says.
 
"Adding an OT device is enabled through simple configuration, and no coding skills are required."
 
IOTech builds and deploys vendor-neutral software platforms and tools to support the rapid development, deployment, and management of applications at the IoT edge, helping drive IoT innovation, global market adoption, velocity and scale.
 
The company's products address the full spectrum of secure hard and soft real-time edge computing needs, dramatically reducing time to market, development and system integration costs for its partners, who supply chains to multiple vertical IoT market domains.
 
IOTech leverages an open source ecosystem to collaboratively improve time to market, develop global channel partnerships and achieve pervasive adoption of its software products.
 
In May this year, IOTech announced the launch of Edge Builder, its end-to-end, open solution for managing edge systems at scale.
 
The company says it tries to ensure Edge Builder addresses the market opportunity and says it's been working with a number of key partners and potential customers during the product's development phase.
 
"There are many 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," Steele said at the time of launch.
 
"We're also talking to large retailers looking to consolidate the applications they use in each store on to centralised infrastructure, where Edge Builder manages both the applications and the infrastructure," he says.
 
"For both use cases, this has a massive workforce saving."