Software company Red Hat started years back with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Now, Red Hat slings a broad portfolio of enterprise-grade open source solutions, including hybrid cloud infrastructure, middleware, cloud-native application development and more – all to make it easier for enterprises work across platforms and environments (i.e. from the core datacenter to the network edge and countless in-betweens).
Last week, Red Hat recently announced a new industrial edge platform, one designed in collaboration with Intel.
The goal?
To provide a modernized approach to building and operating industrial controls and environments.
This is about transforming the ways in which manufacturers operate at scale to really maximize on innovation potential. With smarter tech on the plant floor (coupled with real-time data insights), the Red Hat-Intel platform will enable many industrial control system (ICS) vendors and system integrators (SIs) to automate what were previously a number of manual industrial automation tasks. These, at quick glance, include system development, deployment and management, cybersecurity risk reduction, co-locating deterministic and non-deterministic workloads, reducing turnaround time, and other tasks, impacting IIoT extensively.
Additionally, having mentioned smarter tech, an Industry 4.0-related McKinsey report indicates that smart factories (i.e. software-defined factories) are amplifying the speed at which manufacturers can innovate, linking this Red Hat-Intel announcement to the bigger picture. Per McKinsey, “Smart manufacturing has the potential to create up to $3.7 trillion in value by 2025, driving growth and competitiveness across sectors.”
That certainly underpins this Red Hat-Intel collab.
Red Hat and Intel are also working to integrate Intel-based platforms and Intel Edge Controls for Industrial (Intel ECI) with both current and future versions of what this article first mentioned: Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This, per the joint announcement, “starting with collaboration in upstream Linux communities, will bring more controls and platform efficiencies to Red Hat Device Edge (early access), Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform, and Red Hat OpenShift.”
With all of this news, organizations will be able to benefit from an open edge platform that a.) isn’t hampered by the limitations of legacy industrial controls and archaic and siloed org structures, and b.) will simplify integration of smart components in an easy-to-use, reliable solution.
Per Francis Chow, Vice President and General Manager, In-Vehicle Operating System and Edge, Red Hat:
“From transforming traditional IT infrastructures to helping software-defined vehicles deliver scalable digital solutions across industrial edge, Red Hat has a proven history in driving not just modernization across industries, but innovation. Now, Red Hat has set our sights on bringing that same level of real transformation to manufacturing plants across the globe with a new edge platform with Intel. We firmly believe that by helping converge both IT and operational technologies, the next industrial revolution can arrive sooner and more quickly, and will be built on a backbone of open source software.”
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
