Edge Computing

Edge to Core and the Internet of Things: Dell EMC Edge Gateway Systems and SAP Edge Services

Edge computing brings the intelligent processing of data to the edge of the network. Depending on the use case, application requirements, geography and topology, and many other factors, IoT sensors can transmit massive quantities of data. Examples of IoT sensors that continuously generate data include optics, level, image, pressure, proximity, and seismic sensors. Seismic sensors are a good example of the diversity of IoT use cases. These sensors can be placed in remote locations to detect earthquakes or along physical perimeter boundaries to alert to possible intrusions. Network bandwidth and speed constraints or other factors that are related to cost or location might affect the amount of data that is collected from an IoT device such as a seismic sensor. The intelligence might be analysis of a data model that has been developed by the business or simple operation summary statistics. For example, a properly trained data model analyzing seismic sensor output can distinguish between the vibrations caused by animals and the early-warning vibrations of an earthquake. The speed and accuracy of edge processing can provide more time to react to natural disasters, minimizing damage. The identification of critical and actionable data is another benefit of edge computing. By pushing analysis to the edge, an organization can limit the amount of data that is transmitted to the core. Edge computing thus enables analytic applications to work within constraints such as network bandwidth and speed to limit costs.

Developers can use the following APIs to pull IoT data into ERP applications for SAP Business Suite. The following services accelerate the integration of IoT data into existing SAP applications.:

• Plant Maintenance

• Inventory Management

• Materials Management

The benefits of the edge-to-core model include:

• Greater control over security

• Protection of business processes and IP

• Quick integration of IoT data into existing on-premises SAP systems

• An experienced in-house SAP developer team that understands the company’s business models and can integrate IoT data more efficiently

• An experienced analytics team that understands schematic processes that are unique to the business and can push analytics to the edge to analyze internal IoT data efficiently

• Reuse of existing artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, and data analytics tools to optimize investments and team experience

• Ability to participate in a data virtualization strategy in which in-house IoT data is used with disparate data sources for improved analytics and reporting

• Reuse of existing storage including Isilon scale-out storage, Spark or Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) storage, and other low-cost scalable storage systems

• Avoidance of the high cost of moving big data such as IoT data from the cloud to the core

SAP Edge Services are microservices that use the computing resources of Dell EMC Edge Gateway systems. Microservices are designed to deliver business capabilities. Each service communicates with other services, and collectively they form SAP Edge Services. Three services are available through this set:

• Persistence service

• Streaming service

• Business essential functions service

Edge gateways must support a broad range of I/O capabilities to work with existing and new locations with limited connectivity. The following I/O options and ports are available in a standard Dell Gateway model:

• Dual independent Gigabit Ethernet: RJ-45, USB, USB 3

• Serial interfaces: RS-323, RS-485, RS-422/485

• Optional CANbus card: Optional modular I/O expansion interface

• 802.11n WiFi+Bluetooth low energy; WWAN (3G or LTE)

• Optional Wireless mesh models: IEEE 802.15.4 ZigBee/6LoWPAN combo module

• ISV application support for diverse modern and legacy device connection protocols

The Intel Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is a hardware security device that can identify if the start-up process of the parent device has been compromised. The TPM first checks if the start-up process has been tampered with and then passes control of the compute resources to the operating system. The TPM can also encrypt storage by using security keys and passwords, by password-protecting the BIOS, and by using the BIOS to lock down unused I/O ports.

VMware Pulse IoT Center is an edge infrastructure and IoT device management solution. Pulse IoT Center is a logical extension for customers using VMware solutions because it unifies management, security, and automation. Pulse IoT Center provides lifecycle management benefits that enable you to:

• Manage broader—Unify and streamline management and monitoring for heterogenous IoT devices

• Scale faster—Standardize and accelerate device registration and onboarding

• Extend protection—Bring the security of all connected gateways and devices under unified management for less complexity and to mitigate risk

• Improve operational efficiency—Apply existing VMware orchestration and automation to manage your IoT devices