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| The industrial IoT is ready to embrace developers |
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| By Stacey Higginbotham |
Schneider Electric said this week that it would tap MicroEJ (pronounced "micro edge") to help bring containers to Schneider Electric's industrial IoT products. While this might be a boring announcement to most, as someone who has been monitoring this industry for almost 10 years, I'm thrilled. I look at it as a tangible sign that industrial companies are finally ready to embrace developers.
MicroEJ makes a software abstraction layer that sits on top of a variety of industrial hardware. Its MICROEJ VEE software lets developers build applications and data models using Java, C, or other languages as opposed to having to learn weird proprietary languages used by industrial gear. With this deal, Schneider Electric is opening up its platform to traditional IT developers. |
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| — These machines won't run Java, but now IT folks can program them anyway. |
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I've been talking to MicroEJ for quite some time, and have been impressed by its offering. Its virtual execution environment can run on a large number of popular real-time operating systems (RTOSes) and bare metal microcontrollers, including FreeRTOS, QP/C, ucOS, ThreadX, mBed OS, VxWorks, Integrity, and Linux. The software overlay lets traditional IT developers use their preferred languages to write code for the underlying device.
According to Fred Rivard, CEO of MicroEJ, what takes place in that virtual execution environment is akin to building a software-defined device. With the Schneider Electric deal, developers will now be able to build on Schneider's EcoStruxure products. Schneider's EcoStruxure is used in connected buildings and manufacturing. Products that will get software-defined devices include breaker boxes, uninterruptible power supplies, surge protectors, switchboards, and power meters.
Schneider Electric's products are in homes and businesses in the forms of outlets, switches, breaker panels, and batteries; they're also used by utilities to generate and transmit power. Indeed, the company's approach to making its underlying hardware more accessible makes sense when considering that its energy products are currently part of an emerging trend to add intelligence to the electric grid.
As demand for electrons, specifically renewable electrons, increases, the world needs software to run on electrical gear in order to manage when a device gets power and how much power it might need. To be sure, some of the use cases can get quite complex (if you'd like to learn more about them, check out my interview with Schneider Electric's Jaser Faruq in the podcast).
Letting outside programmers write some of these applications is a good idea. Historically, those working in electricity generation and transmission aren't used to programming or the potential use cases that might arise from a more connected grid. Meanwhile, those in enterprise IT or those building consumer electronics aren't used to writing software to control electrical boxes. MicroEJ containers can help bridge those gaps.
This is something we'll see in other industries as well. It's clear that after decades of saying no, or adopting technology super slowly, industrial equipment manufacturers and users of such equipment are realizing they need the speed and flexibility that arises from a more combined IT and OT environment.
And to take advantage of that speed and flexibility, they'll need more developers. To that end, MicroEJ's platform lets the OT welcome IT developers — without sacrificing some of the benefits associated with the proprietary hardware lying underneath.
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| Opscura lands $9.4 million to defend industrial devices |
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A Spanish company called Opscura said this week that it had raised $9.4 million to defend industrial IoT devices that sit deep within the operational technology network. The startup also announced a name change from Enigmedia, and laid out plans to integrate its technology within the products of other big manufacturing equipment OEMs.
David Hatchell, the relatively new CEO of Opscura, told me the company's technology is designed to work in concert with network monitoring products from Dragos, Nozomi Networks, and Claroty, among others. He joined the company last August after positions at Crowdstrike and Forcepoint. Most of his previous roles have focused on boosting the capabilities of existing cybersecurity players when it comes to industrial or IoT cybersecurity. |
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| — Opscura protects industrial assets by hiding them. |
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In announcing the funding round, Opscura didn't go into too many details about its technology, but did explain how it works. The company's software sits on gateways that communicate with OT equipment and acts to hide the types of equipment and what it might be doing. The idea is that encryption, especially encryption that is designed to not interfere with regular OT operations by adding latency or losing data, can prevent hackers from going after the hidden assets.
As it stands today, if you want to introduce malware to a device, you have to understand what exactly it is and find the right vulnerability for it. Because the industrial IoT is made up of hundreds of proprietary chips, firmware, and real-time operating systems (RTOSes), it's not as simple as releasing a vulnerability to attack iOS or Windows or Android. A hacker has to be specific.
That, however, is changing as companies streamline their RTOSes and silicon in order to make updating and managing these embedded devices easier after they connect them to the internet. But for now, the risk is real, and companies are trying to prevent hackers from accessing their industrial and operational equipment largely by trying to segregate those devices onto their own networks — which theoretically should never touch the internet — and buying tools to monitor network traffic.
So cloaking industrial assets can offer an advantage, and with its funding Opscura will work toward getting industrial giants to validate that its software will interoperate smoothly with their programmable logic controllers and other OT gear. As of now, Schneider Electric has validated that the software works smoothly on its hardware, and Hatchell told me he's hoping to get other industrial OEMs to validate Opscura's software as well.
In the meantime, the company's software already runs on equipment from Siemens, Honeywell, Rockwell Automation, and ABB. The trick will be to get validated on that equipment, which will enable easier sales to incredibly risk-averse industrial customers.
Eventually the goal will be to connect data to the cloud securely. That may be related to the product details that Hatchell declined to share with me, saying only that Opscura would be making product announcements later this year. |
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| Episode 409: ChatGPT takes on the smart home |
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| This week's show kicks off with our hopes for privacy in the wake of President Biden calling out tech firms during his State of the Union address. Biden was focused more on targeted ads and protecting children, but children's data gets swept up in smart home devices as well, so there's a chance. We then explore why Josh.ai is combining its voice assistant with ChatGPT and note that smart home forums are banning ChatGPT. Then we talk about a win for Amazon's Sidewalk Network and how insurers might use it and a new Electronic Shelf Label standard from the Bluetooth SIG. In more wireless news, we discuss a new modem from Qualcomm that will benefit both the industrial IoT and wearables, such as AR glasses. Y'all may recall that I've been pleased that the U.S. has started regulating security for IoT devices, and it looks like some of its efforts are working. In smaller news, we cover a review of the Samsung SmartThings Station, an update on Apple's HomeKit architecture change, and funding for InfluxData. |
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| — An example of an electronic shelf label. The Bluetooth SIG has created a wireless standard to connect these labels to data and power. Image courtesy of Bluetooth SIG. |
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| Our guest this week is Jaser Faruq, Senior Vice President, Innovation at Schneider Electric, who is on the show to discuss why his company is betting big on smart home technology to manage energy consumption, storage, and generation. We talk about the three reasons energy management is such an important feature for smart homes, and what it will take to get consumers to adopt it. We also talk about what role utilities will play in the development of a smarter grid and how long it will take before this becomes more mainstream. It’s an important topic, especially for those of y'all considering the purchase of an electric vehicle. Enjoy the show. |
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This week on the IoT Podcast Hotline, we answer a listener question about options for open source tools to manage home energy consumption.
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| News of the Week |
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An update on Matter from Home Assistant: The Home Assistant platform is basically the DIY smart home platform that I hoped SmartThings would become when I first covered SmartThings back in 2013. It is open, highly customizable, and has multiple integrations created by companies and users. This week, it published a blog post with an update on its Matter plans. Home Assistant has pledged to support Matter, and so far Matter works on the platform including support for Thread devices via Thread border routers from Apple and Google. However, the post notes that "the Thread border router in Home Assistant is operational but not integrated until the next release, Home Assistant 2023.3." But it also offers an explanation of how Home Assistant will handle multiple Thread networks as well as other useful tidbits. It looks like we should spend more time with Home Assistant. (Home Assistant)
It's the end of the road for Enterprise IoT Insights: Pour one out for Enterprise IoT Insights, a publication I read religiously to keep up with trade news about 5G networks, case studies about digital transformations, and the strongly telco-oriented eye it keeps on the IoT. Enterprise IoT Insights' parent has decided to shutter the weekly, saying it doesn't believe there's demand for a publication covering industry 4.0, enterprise IoT, or whatever it is we call it now. Aside from feeling personally attacked, as a reporter who has covered broadband, cloud computing, and other infrastructure tech over the past 20-odd years, I tend to agree that IoT is no longer a separate category of tech coverage, but rather one of many core underlying technologies that have faded into basic infrastructure status. I often find myself struggling with how to define IoT and instead just rely on picking stories based on whether or not I think they're interesting. But I encourage y'all to read the goodbye in which James Blackman, a freelancer who wrote consistently for the site, lays out the fatal errors that led to the end of this dedicated IoT publication, because they are relevant and mostly true. And feel free to send your enterprise IoT stories to me. (RCR Wireless)
Stop trying to make the industrial metaverse happen! I couldn't help but let out a cackle when I saw this headline from The Information about Microsoft killing off its industrial metaverse division. I am mean, I don't wish job losses on anyone. It's just that the maw of enterprise hype cycles has been spitting out silly combinations of tech jargon for quite some time, and industrial metaverse was one of my least favorite. No doubt part of Microsoft's move here was a result of the lack of federal support for its HoloLens product aimed at the U.S. Army. But it's also an indication that despite the hype there's no there there yet for an industrial metaverse. Let's get digital twins standardized first. (The Information)
Avnet creates an IoT platform with AWS: Avnet has teamed up with AWS to launch IoT Connect on AWS, a service that combines AWS computing elements necessary for building out the cloud side of an IoT device. Upon initial launch, IoT Connect will support AWS IoT Core, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), and AWS Lambda. Later releases will include support for AWS IoT Greengrass, FreeRTOS, AWS IoT Analytics, and AWS IoT SiteWise. The idea behind the service is to help device makers build connected products without having to become experts at building out cloud infrastructure. Avnet will provide the platform on a variety of hardware so device makers have flexibility. It's akin to some of the services provided by Ayla or Tuya. And this makes sense. Everyone is building connected products, but not everyone needs to become a cloud specialist. I'd look for something similar to help those who want to use Microsoft Azure next. (Avnet)
Two standards orgs in the industrial IoT will now collaborate: The Digital Twin Consortium and the OPC Foundation have announced they will work together to harmonize their respective standards and work toward interoperability. The Digital Twin Consortium wants to build interoperable schema for labeling and managing the creation and use of digital twins while the OPC handles standards for sharing data across different platforms. So with the two working together, OPC standards should also be able to create digital twins that can work for anyone using the Digital Twin Consortium standards. Since a digital twin will only become useful outside of its creating company if there are standards in place, this is a good sign, although it probably won't really move the needle widespread use of digital twins just yet. (Digital Twin Consortium)
How a water treatment authority is using AI: Usually when a public affairs official tries to hop on a trend, the results can be painful, but some enterprising communications pro at the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District decided to ask two long-standing employees about the use of AI in the wake of all of the excitement around generative AI such as ChatGPT and Dall-E. The results are great! The post describes how the sewer district is now able to remotely monitor three of its wastewater plants from a central location with crews of only two or three employees thanks to remote sensors, and how it's using ChatGPT to help with code documentation for the apps and services employees are using. Go check it out. (Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District)
Kudelski becomes the latest company to certify Matter devices: As I've written before, the Matter smart home interoperability standard has a big focus on security. One element of that security is a certificate that confirms that the device trying to join a home network has been certified as a Matter device (this is to prevent unauthorized devices that might spoof the Matter badge from joining). As part of that process, a device maker has to contract with a company to get the certificate in question. Digicert and StrongKey are already providers of this root of trust certification and now Kudelski has joined their ranks. (Kudelski Group)
NIST approves new lightweight cryptography algorithms for the IoT: When a programmer wants to encrypt data she turns to cryptography, which is just a fancy way of saying math. Most of the time the math requires quite a bit of computational power to encrypt and decrypt data. This is bad for constrained IoT devices, which don't have the computing power or the battery power to handle robust cryptography. It's also why it's nice that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released algorithms designed for the needs of constrained IoT devices. The federal agency held a public evaluation and has chosen a group of cryptographic algorithms called Ascon, which was developed by Graz University of Technology, Infineon Technologies, Lamarr Security Research, and Radboud University. The algorithms have undergone years of testing, and will be published later this year. (NIST)
InfluxData scores $81M for IoT database: Earlier this week I wrote about more money for InfluxData and how it plans to use that funding to reach profitability and keep plugging away during what is probably going to be a rough funding environment for tech startups. (Stacey on IoT)
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