EdgeX Foundry is an open source, vendor neutral, edge/IoT middleware platform, under the LF Edge umbrella. It collects data from sensors/devices (i.e. “things”) and makes that data available to enterprise, cloud, and on-prem systems/applications enabling autonomous operations and intelligence at the edge. This results in decisions that can be made locally and quickly.
At a high level, the layers and services of EdgeX provide a dual transformation engine. First, translating information coming from sensors and devices via many protocols and formats into EdgeX. And secondly, delivering/receiving data to edge applications, cloud applications, and enterprise systems over network-based protocols in formats and structures to meet the needs of customers.
EdgeX Foundry is the preferred platform to collect, translate and share data from devices and applications at the edge because:
Its micro-service architecture makes it highly flexible, customizable, distributable and allows for redundancy, future scalability, and new feature integration.
The built-in EdgeX SDKs allow you to connect your “things” or your backend applications, cloud systems, etc. more easily.
Most of the software is written in Go and C, so is small and fast and can go to the farthest reaches of edge compute, while able to scale for massive edge deployments.
Reduces latency and cost associated with sending all edge data to the cloud by enabling trade-off between data needed locally and/or in the cloud.
It is secure and provides data privacy.
Ensures core operations at the edge to function even if connectivity is disrupted or intermittent.
Can be used for deployments in any industry/vertical, including: Manufacturing, Retail, Banking, Transportation, Hospitality, Healthcare, and more.
The project is in its 6th release and since its first release had more than 6 million total Docker container downloads as May ’20.
Earlier this year, the EdgeX Foundry community including Dell Technologies, HP, Intel, IOTech, and Wipro collaborated with the Topcoder team to launch the first of a series of virtual challenges. These challenges are intended to highlight the wide range of use cases to which EdgeX can be applied and allow participants to learn how easy it is to design/architect and deploy solutions integrating EdgeX Foundry.
The first challenge (March 21-April 15) was an ideation competition requiring participants to describe how they will solve a problem using EdgeX when various sensors/devices and data protocols are needed. See top 5 submissions below:
Fuel Inventory Control for Oil & Gas Downstream Industry - cunhavictor
Clinic Occupancy Monitoring System - wiebket
Machinery and Power Consumption Management - vivkv
Factory Smart Bin for Automated Waste Disposal - Gungz
Parking Space Management - kavukcutolga
Check this blog for additional details about these submissions and be ready for upcoming EdgeX Foundry challenges.
Our community is very excited to create new opportunities for developers to learn and use EdgeX and we are looking forward to seeing the results from the future challenges.
For more information: