What is the core concept of edge computing? It's to establish data connectivity and filtering between the devices at the network edge that generate big data, and the systems in the cloud that need to consume that data for machine learning, predictive analytics, and so on.

In several previous posts we discussed the EdgeX project from The Linux Foundation. We saw how its microservices are designed to collect data from industrial devices and systems and then move that data from the local network to the cloud.

In this post we’ll focus on how that final step of transferring real-world data from our industrial assets to the cloud actually happens—through the Export Services layer of EdgeX.

In our last post we covered how Core Services in the new EdgeX project from the Linux Foundation help engineers quickly build edge computing and IIoT applications. Core Services are the microservices EdgeX provides to convert physical electrical signals from industrial devices into digital information.

In this post, we’ll focus on how EdgeX makes digital data from industrial assets available to higher-level computing systems like predictive analytics and machine learning.

But before the data is made available to those systems, EdgeX uses what it calls Supporting Microservices to do some pretty high-tech stuff to package the data and make it easily accessible.

In a previous post we covered EdgeX and its important role in building a standard platform for connecting edge computing systems, like Opto 22 SNAP PAC automation controllers, to the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).

EdgeX connects OT and IT assets together, bridging between the physical world and the digital world through a loosely coupled microservice platform architecture. These microservices provide OT and IT devices, software, and services with a platform that provides connectivity and communications methods.

One of the biggest questions companies face when surveying IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) technology is where to invest. The IIoT can be a pretty foggy and technologically diverse topic for anyone to understand. And there are so many competing standards out there today that it’s tough to identify which path to take.

But a new platform built upon an open source, extensible framework for IIoT technology called EdgeX was recently announced, and it may be just what the industry needs to part the clouds of confusion and shine some clarity on the IIoT.