On Monday, April 24th at Hannover Messe, the Linux Foundation launched the EdgeX Foundry, an open source software project designed to help companies build a common open framework for Internet of Things (IoT) edge computing. The EdgeX framework addresses the problem of fragmentation of IoT infrastructure, component complexity and the lack of a common IoT solution framework that is slowing broad market acceptance and growth in IoT, an important focus of the standards work at the Object Management Group® (OMG®) and of course the testbed initiatives of the Industrial Internet Consortium® (IIC®).
OMG is delighted to participate in the launch of this important new open-source initiative because it will drive interoperability and spur digital transformation in the IoT space. The EdgeX project aligns with our legacy of distributed computing and middleware standards and our current efforts in semantics and IoT. Businesses will be able to choose from an ecosystem of best-in-class software, hardware and services providers rather than developing their own edge computing solutions.
Dell Technologies is supporting the EdgeX initiative by contributing its FUSE source code base consisting of more than a dozen microservices and over 125,000 lines of code. Dell sits on both the OMG Board and IIC Steering Committee.
Some of the impetus and standards for the EdgeX project are the result of the work of OMG members who have developed, promulgated and deployed middleware standards for more than a quarter century. The Data-Distribution Service™ and CORBA® standards transfer bits and bytes from place to place on huge and complex networks. These standards have been deployed in literally billions of systems today, from mobile phones to banking systems, air combat sensor and firing integration systems, to operating room systems.
Understanding the meaning of data moving around industrial networks is another part of the interoperability challenge. OMG members have focused on semantic meaning for more than 20 years, publishing standards to integrate semantics—like the Ontology Definition Metamodel™ and the related Model-Driven Message Interoperability™ standards.
The IoT needs more of these semantic standards because millions of industrial devices are now connecting and sharing their extensive data on huge networks of analytics engines, sensors, and actuators. OMG looks forward to helping to unite the IoT community with solutions like the EdgeX Foundry with its wide array of standards and commercial offerings at the IoT edge, enabling faster ROI for industrial organizations.