Dustin Seetoo, Director of Product Marketing for Premio Inc joins Daniel Litwin from Marketscale to chat about the need for rugged edge computing and the hardware relationship it has with how mission-critical data is processed at the edge.
Key Podcast Takeaways:
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Convergence Of The Most Transformative Technologies In Compute, Storage, Wireless Connectivity, With Proven Ruggedization
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Rugged Edge Computing Drive Actionable Insights For Machine Intelligence For Real-Time Results.
- Unknown Territory: New Intelligent Edge Workloads Are Forcing Engineers To Design Solutions Outside Standard Comfort Zones.
Defining the Need for Rugged Edge Computing Hardware Packaged with Today's Transformative Technologies in Compute, Storage, and Connectivity
Achieving real-time decision making and predictive analytics is an increasingly strategic goal among industrial operations – an imperative fueled by rapid digital transformation and a growing appetite for automation upgrades across the broad spectrum of commercial and manufacturing applications. Rugged edge computing plays a critical role in this landscape, accelerating data processing based on a variety of sensor input data and enabling access and analytics close to the data source. For example, the primary goal of many new IoT applications is the delivery of a level of intelligence refined beyond human capabilities or pace. In these applications, machine learning is required but must be supported by dedicated hardware to process and run algorithms effectively.
At the same time, engineers are often forced to design compute solutions for scenarios where they lack experience to meet these growing IoT demands. Rugged edge computers address such challenges and are specifically developed to withstand the rigors of harsh usage conditions with built-in durability and ruggedized features throughout. Premio’s heritage in rugged edge computing solutions fills the void. It uniquely positions industrial leaders to effectively balance the performance, reliability, footprint, and longevity requirements of new and more sophisticated industrial IoT deployments.
5 Most Informative Q&A Takeaways from the Podcast
Question #1: What has been the benefit for companies that have transitioned to more IoT-at-the-edge integration & data-centric approaches to their business?
Answer #1: “The shift is no longer in the digitization of data, but really in the digitization of automation and intelligence,” Seetoo adamantly said. “It’s taking the data and moving it into a workload where you are providing actionable intelligence, actionable results that can either prevent or make a decision in applications that will eventually become smarter from data.”
IoT at the edge integration and data-centric approaches to business is being driven by data, but really the value it provides through real-time analytics. In today’s digital business landscape, enterprise businesses are investing major resources into scalable models based on an incredible amount of data from IoT sensors. The main goal for these businesses by integrating IoT solutions is to streamline automation in processes and enable full-control with real-time intelligence, a key benefit from edge computing identified in the podcast. Ultimately, the main benefit when you have intelligence at the edge or intelligence based on data, there is an ability to help reduce costs, be more operationally efficient, and better understand and prevent potential risks in applications ahead of time.
Question #2: How would you define edge computing in its current form today? What are its functions, and how far does it reach?
Answer #2: “Edge computing is really about the ability for real-time processing and decision-making for full autonomy,” Seetoo said. “Fanless and ruggedized industrial computers engineered for mission-critical reliability and stability are designed specifically to maximize compute performance, storage availability and IoT connectivity in harshest edge conditions… A great example of this and an actual deployment from our partners is in the development of robotics on factory floors and its requirement for reliable computing hardware,” Seetoo also said.
Rugged Edge Computing is very similar to the design principles behind decades of embedded computing architecture in the need for mission critical reliability in a decentralized scenario. With the industry trends now shifting away from traditional cloud resources, powerful processing abilities are moving closer to where data is being generated, providing the inferencing abilities needed for real-time machine intelligence.
Question #3: What sort of hardware is needed to support a level of rugged edge computing?
Answer #3: “Embedded computing gets a sexy makeover with rugged edge computing,” Seetoo discussed. Embedded designers, architects, engineers have always been focused on computing solutions for areas that require for power stability, low power efficiency, and ruggedness in order to perform reliability 24/7."
There is symbiotic relationship between hardware and software working together in parallel to deliver real-time intelligence at the edge. Premio Inc and its rugged edge computers recognizes the need to support software advancements with hardware strategies, providing the rugged, high-performance systems that enable reliable deployment in the most severe physical settings. From external enclosures to internal components, every element of a rugged edge computer is purpose-built through a combination of mechanical and thermal engineering to address environmental issues such as strong vibration, severe temperatures, and the presence of moisture or dirt. These industrial-grade computers are also validated to execute functions with extreme processing power and storage capacity, built to eliminate downtime and ensure stable 24/7 operation. Premio’s leadership in rugged edge system design and manufacture opens a new realm of IoT integration and automation capabilities and powers a real transformation in how industrial businesses operate and compete.
Question #4: Why does edge computing at the rugged edge matter, and what key pillars does Premio focus on to deliver an adaptable and efficient rugged edge solution?
Answer #4: “Once you decentralize local processing in harsh, mobile and more remote environments for real-time processing and connectivity to drive intelligent results, you need hardware platforms that have been proven and tested to ensure reliability.” Seetoo identified in the podcast.
Since edge computing covers so many areas and is so broad, Premio dedicates its system designs on the following key pillars and core design architectures to provide reliable computing solutions in the harshest edge environments. Here are some key pillars from Premio’s industrial fanless computing solutions:
- Compute: Low power efficiency CPU but powerful multicore x86 cores to address powerful processing at the edge. By partnering with leading semiconductor technologies from Intel and Nvidia, Premio is able to provide scalable rugged edge computing solutions
- Connectivity: Faster network and more bandwidth with ultra-low latency wireless technologies in 4G/LTE, 10GbE, 5G, and WiFi6
- Storage: High-performance storage NVMe for high-speed data capacity and access
- Hardware Security: On-board TPM 2.0 module as a standard to help with data encryptions and protection
- Passively Cooled and Fanless Design Architecture for Industrial grade Ruggedness: By leveraging our in-house testing equipment to ensure reliability with edge type applications: wide temperature, wide voltage, extreme shock and vibration, Ingress protection ratings. Decades of electrical, mechanical, thermal engineering experience for volume enterprise business deployments
Question #5 What are some applications in key industries where rugged edge computing infrastructures and platforms are shaping digital transformation?
Answer #5:
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Robotics, Industrial Automation, Metrology and defect detection - Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning: enabling capabilities, accuracy and speed beyond human performance
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Autonomous Vehicle Commercial fleet telematics - enabling autonomous driving and smarter fleet management
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Surface and underground mining equipment - -cyber-physical underground systems get smarter and more viable with operational intelligence and provide safety precautions in dangerous mines.
- Intelligent Surveillance - With more and more IoT devices extracting and analyzing so much valuable data, rugged NVR computers will play a pivotal role in real-time mobile and remote surveillance at the edge
