Gain Fast Insights & Low Latency with This Secure, Turnkey Edge Platform
As industrial organizations seek transformative technology solutions for the factory floor, they face unique challenges. A successful edge infrastructure must not only support fast response times and reliable communication, but also withstand the potential disruption that vibrations, temperature variations, and noise can introduce. Intel® Smart Edge commercial software offers an answer: It's a high-performing, easy-to-implement edge platform designed for on-premises enterprise deployments.
What is Intel Smart Edge?
This commercial software brings speed, intelligence, and flexibility to the edge. Put data to work in large deployments with this turnkey, software-defined edge platform. With Intel Smart Edge commercial software, businesses can shift their applications from the data center to multiple locations across their own network. This decentralized approach reduces latency, accelerates analytics, and simplifies scaling. With the ability to stand up carrier-class wireless networks such as LTE and 5G, Intel Smart Edge enables fast communication on the factory floor. See a platform overview and more information in Documentation.
The Benefits
Today nearly every industry is taking advantage of cloud computing. In many industrial settings, however, companies continue to run key edge applications inside the enterprise network to avoid round-trip delays and to keep overall latency down. You can access applications and data instantaneously and receive critical intelligence earlier.
Intel Smart Edge commercial software uses network assets to provide low-latency enterprise cloud services to edge devices. The single-box solution offers simplified application deployment. It allows IT teams to:
- Automate operations
- Manage data flow between sensors and applications
- Improve application responsiveness
- Analyze data in real time
The software also supports both wired and wireless interfaces.
To view recommended hardware and devices optimized for the Intel® Smart Edge software-defined edge platform, see Recommended Hardware.
Get Data Fast with a Private Network
Edge solutions are effective only when they're responsive, making ultra-fast networking crucial for end-user success. The structured approach that businesses have historically used for wireless networks on traditional carrier services introduces latency that disrupts the user experience and slows the pace of business. By using consumer-grade wireless technologies, which lack the consistency and control that enterprise deployments demand, companies also risk network downtime.
In contrast, carrier-class wireless technologies such as LTE and 5G are ideal for the edge. Through a comprehensive set of deployment and management tools, Intel Smart Edge enables IT to set up private LTE and 5G networks inside their factory premises. (If neither LTE nor 5G matches an organization’s networking needs, another option is Citizens Broadband Radio Service [CBRS], which has different licensing requirements.)
By limiting network access to identified devices associated with the factory, Intel Smart Edge commercial software keeps data more secure. And by hosting applications locally, the organization gains submillisecond access to compute and storage within the premises.
With a private, high-speed network and Intel Smart Edge bringing compute closer to users, organizations can build the factories of the future and move a step closer to comprehensive, facility-wide automation.
Deploy & Manage Applications
In the on-premises data center, this software centralizes provisioning and management, and delivers simplified application deployment. On the factory floor, it handles network communications, microservices, and hosted cloud-native applications, providing real-time machine control at the edge.
The core services of Intel Smart Edge include:
- Centralized orchestration of the hardware and software components of all edge computing nodes
- Select aggregation and normalization of third-party APIs for services running on the edge
- Lifecycle and configuration management of Intel Smart Edge Software node firmware and software (including the operating environment), core software features, and third-party software
- Centralized reporting and capacity planning
- Role-based access control and user provisioning with integration into existing evolved packet core modules and third-party infrastructure
Intel has spent years solving the complexities of IT and operational divides, fine-tuning and validating edge software, and working with partners to bring hundreds of market-ready packages to customers—built from tens of thousands of end-user deployments. When you implement a solution from Intel, you can be confident that a trusted, mature development ecosystem backs it. Regardless of which edge locations your business relies on—from storefronts to cell towers to factory floors—Intel Smart Edge commercial software can help you create real value. More Information
Secure Your Edge
While edge computing brings a host of benefits to industrial organizations, it can also increase the “attack surface,” potentially opening new avenues for malicious actors. To guard against breaches, effective edge solutions must double down on security measures.
Intel Smart Edge commercial software uses asymmetric cryptography and strict mutual authentication for control interfaces, allowing only permitted users to access the software. In addition, it combines policy-driven operation with centrally controlled permissions to help ensure that only legitimate traffic flows between applications and devices.
When onboarding new devices, IT can use Intel® Secure Device Onboard (Intel® SDO) to enable endpoints that communicate more securely with this commercial software without the threat of “man-in-the-middle” attacks. Intel SDO helps prevent the hijacking of devices in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks. It creates a trust relationship between the Intel Smart Edge Software and other IoT devices on the network.
Implementing Intel Smart Edge Software on servers that are based on Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors offer yet another layer of protection. Intel® Software Guard Extensions create secure enclaves with the Intel® Xeon® processor. These enclaves can also boost the security of application code and data, better protecting them from disclosure or modification. With this portfolio of Intel® technologies, industrial organizations can implement a more secure, high-performance, edge compute framework.
How Intel Smart Edge Functions at the Edge
This commercial software connects devices and applications over a private wireless network to local compute and storage resources. If an infrastructure requires cloud resources or public carrier services, the Intel Smart Edge node enables and governs access to those services. The following diagram shows what an Intel Smart Edge deployment for an industrial organization might look like.
Flexibility, Agility & Speed
Intel Smart Edge commercial software brings speed, intelligence, and flexibility to the edge. Organizations can use Intel Smart Edge to facilitate a more secure onboard. They can manage applications and network functions with cloud-like agility across any type of network—advances that could lead to more automation at industrial sites. On the factory floor, this software enables strong communication between sensor data and machine learning analytics, which could help optimize production lines and predict maintenance needs.