Siemens is launching its new Industrial Edge Management System, an optimized license management solution as well as new devices and apps at the SPS trade fair in Nuremberg, Germany from November 8 to 10, 2022. As part of the company’s continuous development of its Industrial Edge capabilities, these solutions bring Operational technology (OT) and IT closer together in industrial production, enabling a seamless flow of data from the field level to the cloud.
The new Industrial Edge Management System (IEM V2.0), an alternative offering to the existing IEM 1.3, is available for the open-source system Kubernetes which is widely-used in IT for managing container applications. This new Siemens solution addresses the increasing number of users working in industrial production IT – especially those at large companies with existing IT infrastructures. IT professionals can now easily integrate Industrial Edge into existing Kubernetes clusters. This makes shop floor automation more IT-oriented, and ultimately more efficient and easier to handle for IT users. Since computing power can be flexibly allocated within one or more Kubernetes clusters, companies can save IT resources and thus energy and costs. This is now also possible with Industrial Edge. Further new functionalities include optimized user management or cloud availability. This offers users more flexibility as well as the basis for future “as a service” offerings, for example for customers with less IT knowledge.
The Industrial Edge Hub will help ensure better future usability in terms of license management as well as provide a clear and convenient overview of all device management licenses and apps purchased through the Industrial Edge Marketplace. Users will be able to either actively retrieve statistics via the Industrial Edge Hub or have them reported automatically. The statistics will include: the number of purchased apps, the assignment of licenses to the industrial edge management systems, as well as the remaining number of installations and licenses. In addition, users will receive warnings when quotas are exceeded as well as recommendations for action to avoid such warnings in the future.
Siemens is additionally expanding the open, technological ecosystem around its own industrial edge devices and apps as well as third-party providers. For example, it includes a new, completely virtual Industrial Edge device (Industrial Edge Virtual Device, IEVD) with all the functions of a physical edge device. And as IIoT applications expand to include more apps or traffic increases, more resources can simply be allocated to the IEVD. Additionally, customer entry barriers are now lower because the IEVD can be easily downloaded and immediately deployed. Lower costs are achieved thanks to the solution’s subscription-based pricing model. Another example of the enhancements in the ecosystem includes the new Simatic IPC Edge devices with different performance classes as well as hardware and software designed for the highest industrial requirements of performance, reliability and security. All updates in the ecosystem enable industrial companies to operate more IIoT applications with a wider variety of requirements as well as provide greater flexibility to react to changing conditions.