Edge-IoT Alliance will set operating system standards for smart edge devices

11/17/2021

A consortium of Phoenix Systems, Netia, Atende and Atende Industries establishes in Brussels the international association Edge-IoT Alliance. Its mission is to define an open operating system interface standard for Edge-IoT to make it easier to build and run applications directly on edge devices. The association will bring together primarily European industrial companies interested in standardising the environment of Edge-IoT devices, which are key to the further development of the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) market.

According to the report IDC FutureScape: Worldwide IT Industry 2020 Predictions, by 2023, over 50% of new enterprise IT infrastructure deployed will be at The Edge rather than corporate data centres – up from less than 10% today. By 2024, the number of apps at the edge will increase 800%.

As part of the Edge-IoT Alliance agreement, we are addressing the market changes by defining an open standard for the operating system interface for limited-resource edge devices. It is important that applications should be written on edge devices in the same way as in the world of personal computers and telephones, and that they should be easily transferred between different devices. To illustrate, the idea is that a programme written for an edge device should be able to work with a water, gas or energy meter, in a washing machine, in a drone, and in a new, autonomous car,” says Paweł Pisarczyk, originator and one of the founders of Edge-IoT Alliance, CEO of Atende Industries and Phoenix Systems of the Atende Group.

The Netia Group has extensive experience in commercialization and effective implementation of Cloud and Security solutions. In search of new development opportunities in the B2B segment, we are willing to open to cooperation with the creators of innovative solutions. In our opinion, the standardised operating system for Edge-IoT has enormous potential and a chance to mark its presence on the global IoT market. I am convinced that our joint competences in the field of designing and building cloud solutions will allow us to efficiently develop a central platform for collecting, processing, and analysing data from Edge-IoT devices, unlocking our and our partner’s full innovative potential. The solution with which we begin our joint adventure, i.e., Smart Grid and support for environmentally friendly energy, is also one of the market priorities, especially important from the point of view of effective emission reduction. It is worth mentioning that for some time now all Netia’s Data Center facilities, and with them also our cloud services from the NetiaNext line, are 100% powered by green energy,” says Andrzej Abramczuk, CEO of Netia S.A.

Edge-IoT, the “edge of the Internet of Things”, is a concept based on an industrial cloud, where sensors and devices are assumed to collect and analyse real-time data and transmit it to the cloud. Such architecture addresses the problems of delays during data transmission, as the data is processed closer to its place of origin, and further ensures greater security and a more seamless end-user service. High-capacity developing networks, such as 5G, are increasingly using the Edge-IoT standards to process large volumes of data almost immediately. Thus, new fields of application open up for existing devices which, thanks to appropriate and standardised operating systems, will be able to work as a computer and become a platform for user applications, as in the case of smartphones, for example. The newly established association aims at standardising the operational system for Edge-IoT to allow for, as in the environment of mobile devices, the creation and smooth migration of user applications between devices and to facilitate their integration with the cloud, ensuring the “Cloud-Edge-IoT Continuum”.

Together with Netia, we invite all representatives of Industry 4.0 to join the association – we encourage those who share our view that an open and standardised operating system on edge devices, even those based on smaller microcontrollers, is essential for the development of an industrial cloud and an industrial Internet of Things,” adds Paweł Pisarczyk.