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Why EdgeX?

EdgeX speeds time to market for complete edge software solutions and/or edge SW/HW offerings. It provides replaceable reference services for device-data ingestion, normalization, edge intelligence (AI/ML), and sharing to support new IoT edge data services and advanced edge software applications.

Why EdgeX

The preferred open source edge platform

With millions of container downloads, supported by a growing community of developers and vendors creating an ecosystem of interoperable components

Maximize choice 

EdgeX Foundry is an open software platform that is vendor-neutral, providing more options relative to proprietary solutions. It is platform agnostic and it is independent of hardware, operating system, software, and cloud

Focus on value add 

Plug and play distributed microservices software architecture enables users/developers to focus on value creation. Ability to add your own edge data analytics and connectors.

 

Reduce cost, risk and time to market

Leverage community resources, simplify the integration of new and legacy devices/applications and avoid creating your own middleware

Support Innovation

Key enabler for community collaboration and creation of next generation secure, intelligent (AI/ML), low latency and autonomous edge software solutions for any use case

Realize edge computing benefits

Ensure security and reduce transmission costs by processing locally and by exposing selected data to the cloud. Achieve real-time results despite intermittent connectivity and simplify OT/IT integration.

 
 

Platform Architecture

EdgeX Foundry platform architecture diagram

Developers, technology providers, and end users can realize business value faster at a lower cost and risk through the skills, resource sharing, and economies of scale of the EdgeX Foundry ecosystem, either for their own implementations or by offering commercial “EdgeX-ready” offerings to others.

EdgeX Foundry is unique in its scope, broad industry support, credibility, investment and vendor-neutral Apache 2.0 open source licensing model under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation’s LF Edge organization. As such, EdgeX is a key enabler of digital transformation and AI across IIoT edge use cases and businesses in all vertical markets.

 
 

Project Scope

Project Scope Diagram | EdgeX Foundry, Open Source Edge Platform

EdgeX Foundry focus is to exploit the benefits of edge Computing by leveraging cloud-native principles (e.g. loosely-coupled microservices, platform-independence) and by enabling an architecture that meets specific needs of the IoT edge including different connectivity protocols, security and system management for widely distributed compute nodes, and scaling down to highly-constrained devices.

The project’s sweet spot is in use cases where local decisions are at/or near real-time and when automation and actuation are supported by multiple sources of edge data. Here EdgeX addresses critical interoperability challenges for edge nodes and edge data normalization where “south meets north, east, and west” in a distributed IoT edge architecture.

 

Take advantage of edge computing opportunities with EdgeX Foundry

As edge computing goes mainstream, it provides a major strategic benefit for a wide range of industries. See how using EdgeX Foundry can help users/developers to transform their businesses by adopting an open IIoT platform:

Pluggable and Extensible Software Architecture -
Modern, distributed, microservices-based edge software architecture. Support for containerization (e.g. docker or snap) enables application portability and helps simplify application deployment and orchestration. EdgeX provides a standard open framework around which an ecosystem can emerge. It facilitates interoperable plug-and-play edge software applications and value add services.
End to End Connectivity and Interoperability -
The edge is inherently heterogenous and complex. Edge data connectivity with “things” relies on many different OT communication standards. EdgeX provides reference implementations for key IoT edge protocols (e.g. MQTT, Modbus, BACnet, etc. ) along with SDKs to allow users to add new ones. All complemented with connectors from a commercial ecosystem, making OT connectivity a configuration and not a programming task. There are also multiple cloud and IT endpoints that the edge systems must integrate with. EdgeX is cloud agnostic and provides flexible connectivity to and from different enterprise and IT environments.
Interoperability between New and Legacy -
EdgeX can translate communication protocols used by legacy devices into a language that modern smart devices and cloud applications can understand, making it easier to connect legacy technologies with modern IoT platforms. As a result, businesses can get started with IoT without investing in expensive new equipment with minimal investment in new capabilities — and immediately capture advanced insights across their operations.
Ensure Security and Compliance -
Companies can use EdgeX to easily firewall and filter critical edge data and devices, processing locally on-premise, and only expose selected data and applications to the Cloud.
Low Latency Performance and Scalability at the edge -
Edge applications need access to ‘real-time’ data e.g. millisecond/microsecond response times, often with absolute real-time predictability requirements. EdgeX addresses round-trip response times measured in milliseconds and was designed to run on a gateway, a server and/or class computing equipment using standard Windows or Linux operating systems. EdgeX also enables businesses to strategically choose which data they need to send to the Cloud, and which can be processed in a cost-effective fashion at the edge.
Operate Reliably even with Intermittent Connectivity -
EdgeX can enable industry 4.0 / manufacturing equipment and other smart devices to operate without disruption even when internet connectivity is down or intermittent. This makes it ideal for businesses that count on the ability to quickly analyse and action data – e.g. to detect and respond to equipment failures in remote locations without internet access, on ships at sea, or if cloud connectivity is lost for unforeseen reasons.
Wide Market Applicability -
EdgeX provides a horizontal set of standard services that can be used to support edge software use cases across industry verticals including: industry 4.0,  manufacturing, smart retail, banking, transportation, hospitality, healthcare, and more.

See how EdgeX is being used to transform businesses across a range of industries

Intel: Intelligent Loss Prevention in Retail

Intel: Intelligent Loss Prevention in Retail

Discover this use case from Intel, based on the open retail industry, using EdgeX Foundry for loss detection in real-time for self-checkouts. Read more.

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Wipro: Surface Quality Inspection for a Manufacturing Plant

Wipro: Surface Quality Inspection for a Manufacturing Plant

Discover this use case from Wipro, based on the manufacturing industry, using EdgeX Foundry to use sensor data to automate surface quality inspection.

Read More

Technotects: Monitoring Industrial Equipment

Technotects: Monitoring Industrial Equipment

Discover this use case from Technotects, based on monitoring industrial equipment, using EdgeX Foundry to acquire and analyze data from different sensors.

Read More

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Keywords for: Why EdgeX? | EdgeX Foundry, The Open Source Edge Platform

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