Page 14 - Industrisal Technology EXTRA 3rd August 2020

EDGE COMPUTING...

Bringing the edge and cloud

together for best advantage

Chris Evans, marketing and operations group manager at Mitsubishi Electric, looks
at why the future of network infrastructure balances edge and cloud capabilities

ata is at the heart of the Industrial cloud-based locations, resulting in substantial cost
Internet of Things (IIoT) and Smart savings.
Manufacturing. By setting up suitable Edge technology can provide seamless data co-
Dplatforms to collect and analyse data, it ordination between the Operational Technology (OT)
is possible to gain in-depth, unique insights into and Information Technology (IT) layers. Edge
manufacturing processes that can lead to their technology that follows the guidelines laid down by
optimisation. The most effective setup combines the Edgecross Consortium will support multiple
edge and cloud-based platforms to get the best of network protocols enabling data to be collected
both worlds. from plant level assets regardless of which
Edge and cloud computing technologies might automation vendor equipment is used to control
on the surface be seen by some as competing them, thus removing the age old issue, somewhat
platforms, in fact they are synergistic: by harnessing eased by the adoption of open network
the strengths of both of them and by distributing the technologies, of communicating between disparate
intelligent analysis in the appropriate way, automation platforms.
businesses can maximise productivity, efficiency
and reduce costs. From the Edge to the Cloud
Machines and automated systems on the plant The key to unlocking the power of both edge and
floor generate colossal volumes of time-critical data. cloud based platforms is to decide which
This data needs to be analysed and processed in operational or business driven task is best suited to
“real time” as in the world of automated production, either environment. As previously discussed, it is
the operating time base is in seconds, milliseconds clear that time critical operational tasks and
or even microseconds. Edge technology operates in production based analytics sit better in the real time
real time and is able to perform data processing processing capability of the edge layer.
using Advanced Analytics (AA) and Artificial However, business drivers such as continuous
Intelligence (AI) and carry out predictive and improvement analysis, whole life cost measure-
preventative modelling. ment, overall asset performance analysis,
Additionally, by processing this operational data scheduling and the management of costs, whereas
at the edge, it is possible to reduce the number of still related to production, are non-time critical
data points that need to be processed in centralised, activities and sit better at the enterprise level, in

August 2020 • INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY EXTRA! • p14