Nokia announced a cloud-based system to advance Industrial 4.0 based on an edge server that uses Intel CPUs for high-capacity processing and combining wired and wireless networking with compute, storage, automated management and the ability to reach diverse and far-flung industrial apps with a single click.
The new Nokia MX Industrial Edge platform is intended for industrial uses such as manufacturing, energy and transportation. It allows such enterprises to use an on-premise cloud architecture called the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) that unifies edge needs under a single management pane for users to oversee applications and private wireless networks.
Industrial 4.0 practices and industrial IoT are primarily focused on speeding up digitization of operational technologies inside of industrial operations where some machines have been operated in diverse networks for decades or have been completely operated outside of a broader network connection.
Nokia promised flexible consumption-based pricing models for MX based on ‘pay as you grow’ subscriptions that can minimize upfront investments, according to a statement released Wednesday.
Intel said its longtime partnership with Nokia has helped in the launch. “The combination of Intel’s innovations and CPUs alongside Nokia’s MX Industrial Edge Platform and 5G technology will offer enterprise customers the ability to connect, deploy and manage their environments” across different verticals, said Caroline Chan, vice president of the network platforms group and general manger of the network business incubation division at Intel. The Intel CPUs are being used inside Nokia’s AirFrame Open Edge server.
“Enterprises need on-premise edge clouds, like the Nokia MX Industrial Edge, to provide secure, resilient and high-performance execution environments for mission-critical operational technology applications,” said Caroline Chappell, research director at Analysys Mason in a statement. Digital transformation inside industrial operations can improve agility and cost-efficiency, she and other analysts have said. But benefits of digitization have been elusive because industrial operations move slowly.
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