Siemens introduces more edge devices and services

Siemens is announcing that it is expanding its range of products and services for the Industrial Edge.

Industrial companies are increasingly relying on edge computing in their production. It allows them to capture and process data where it’s generated: at the field level in the plant.

Siemens says its Industrial Edge Management (IEM) is a software portal for managing IoT solutions consisting of hardware and software in the factory. It allows all devices, applications and users integrated into Siemens Industrial Edge to be centrally managed. Siemens now also offers this system as a cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS): IEM Cloud is available as a fully managed service and includes both the infrastructure and the set-up of the system, keeping the operational system requirements and configuration costs for users to a minimum. Industrial Edge devices can be integrated directly in the management system, and IEM Cloud can be used to manage automation software as well as hardware from Siemens and third-party providers.

“With IEM Cloud, we’re making Industrial Edge computing as easy as possible for our customers: they can use IEM Cloud without having to maintain the IT resources necessary for edge computing themselves,” said Rainer Brehm, CEO Factory Automation at Siemens.

In addition to the software, Siemens is also expanding its Industrial Edge ecosystem with more hardware: more Simatic industrial PCs (x86 processor-based) and Industrial Edge devices from the Scalance and Simatic IoT device range based on ARM processors are now available. Weidmüller is also the first third-party manufacturer in the Siemens ecosystem to offer the u-control M4000, an edge device based on this processor architecture.

The ARM processor-based devices are primarily designed for less data-intensive use cases: for example, remote access and connectivity solutions like gateways. And users can now use Siemens’ new Industrial Edge Own Device software to convert their existing third-party x86 processor-based IPCs into fully functional Industrial Edge devices, centrally manage them and thereby integrate existing hardware into their IoT environment.

“With our expanded range of devices, we’re making the Industrial Edge ecosystem even more open and user-friendly,” Brehm said.

Mendix’s low-code development environment allows users to develop field-level apps in production with no coding knowledge. Automation engineers can use the new Industrial Edge plugin to develop industry-specific apps in their Mendix Studio Pro development environment and seamlessly install them on appropriate devices at the field level.

“With Mendix on Edge, app development for edge computing in industry is easier. Prototyping is now up to 10 times faster and consumes up to 70% fewer programming resources than with conventional methods,” Brehm.