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IOTech, an open edge computing provider, announced the general availability of Edge Connect, a new solution for acquiring large amounts of data in complex multi-protocol industrial environments. Industrial IoT applications deliver tremendous business value in manufacturing, energy, and other sectors. However, organizations 
must first connect the edge devices and collect their data before they can create business value, a complex and time-consuming process.
Edge Connect streamlines this process so organizations can rapidly deploy new use cases at the edge. Designed for high-performance edge computing use cases across a variety of vertical markets, Edge Connect simplifies integration between real-time edge applications and higher-level enterprise IT, SCADA, and cloud applications.
Edge Connect is specifically designed as a connectivity solution that can be used by third-party OT applications deployed at the industrial edge, including closed-loop control applications in the manufacturing sector, real-time monitoring for battery energy storage systems in the energy sector, and embedded applications in the automotive sector. Edge Connect can embed into a wide range of edge devices, even the smallest microcontrollers. The solution works seamlessly with all existing proprietary systems and hardware, eliminating the need to rip and replace infrastructure to deploy it.
Edge Connect’s key features and benefits include:
Easy connectivity: The product provides the ability to easily connect to many different types of equipment concurrently using a variety of industrial protocols (e.g. Modbus, BACnet, OPC UA, EtherCAT, and many more) and read/write data from these devices at high volume with very low latency, generating business value from the data that has been locked inside of these traditionally siloed systems.
Open APIs: Edge Connect’s open APIs are designed to make third-party application integration simple.
MQTT/JSON support: Users have the option of accessing normalized data via MQTT/JSON, which is particularly useful when streaming data to cloud services.
Memory and CPU efficiency: With its small memory footprint and efficient use of computing resources, Edge Connect is ideal for applications where CPU and memory resources are limited, such as microcontroller applications.
Edge Connect was developed in collaboration with some of the world’s leading industrial solution providers, including Schneider Electric, Johnson Controls, Fluence Energy, and King Steel. King Steel has been contributing to the direction of Edge Connect by working with IOTech over the last 12 months to help with its focus on Industry 4.0 connectivity. Edge Connect delivers an Industry 4.0 data connectivity solution that enables real-time data acquisition, data storage, data visualization, and analytics for King Steel’s NexCell Injection Moulding Machines, saving the company development time and helping future-proof equipment as requirements evolve.
Major industrial OEMs and ISVs across industry verticals, such as smart manufacturing, building management, and energy, already use IOTech’s OT software technologies to create a new generation of protocol-agnostic, data-driven industrial edge solutions. Edge Connect greatly simplifies the development of connected OT applications and enables faster time-to-market for new edge solutions. Because it is hardware and operating system agnostic, users have complete flexibility to deploy it as a native Linux application, containerized or even embedded as a library into a third-party software stack.
Edge Connect is available now.