Industrial Automation Magazine India

Edge computing is driven by mass deployment of IoT happening globally

Published on : Friday 08-07-2022

Lin Hoe Foong, Managing Director – Asia South, Stratus Technologies; and Kaustubh Purohit, Sales Director India, Stratus Technologies.

Established in 1980 at Maynard, USA, Stratus specialises in providing uninterruptible infrastructure to industries from the enterprise server perspective and presently in the edge computing domain, to prevent downtime. Stratus is a global company with the APAC headquarter in Singapore and has been present in the Indian market since 1994, starting with the banking and finance sector, later branching into telecom and now in industries as well.  

How big is the Edge computing business in the contemporary scenario of captive data centres and clouds of different types?
Lin Hoe Foong: Based on how edge is defined, estimates of the market size vary, but it is a huge market. Gartner predicts that by 2029, more than 15 billion IoT devices will connect to the enterprise infrastructure. This would cut across various industries, smart cities and very significantly in Industry 4.0 applications in smart manufacturing space. So what is driving edge computing? It is mainly driven by mass deployment of IoT happening globally; and secondly by use of artificial intelligence in analytics. The biggest driver is the seamless integration of data and insights leading to a new edge computing led business metrics.
 
Speaking of India, according to a NASSCOM study powered by Capgemini in early 2022 on the adoption of Industry 4.0, an amount of Rs 5.5 to 6.5 bn has already been invested in the manufacturing sector as part of the digitalisation journey. This investment is expected to continue, especially in the areas of network analytics, big data analysis, and central and remote control monitoring, in the coming 18 to 24 months.
 
Coming to data centres, this is traditionally where IT systems, ERP, MRP, email systems, etc., are located, and what we are seeing is, they are increasingly moving to the cloud, which is a big trend, and a huge market – about USD 2.2 bn of cloud services market in India. This is largely driven by things like software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service. Edge computing is deployed outside the traditional data centres, and near to where the data is generated, where operations require milliseconds response time for critical applications. These are operations like the historian, supervisory control and manufacturing execution systems, and AI-ML as far as where operations data is residing.   
 
Which are the industries or applications that are best served by Edge?
Lin Hoe Foong: Many industries are served by edge computing. In the Indian context, the oil & gas industry is very well served by edge computing. The government of India is currently investing over USD 100 bn to explore its oil & gas infrastructure during 2019-2023 and this is an area where edge computing will be useful in upstream, midstream and downstream areas and environment. To draw a parallel, we have clients in the oil & gas industry who have deployed edge computing in their pipeline monitoring systems, which is mid stream. Upstream we have edge computing in critical oil rig operations; and also downstream in terminal automation solutions where end products like gas, oil, petrol are dispensed for transportation. So you name it and there are areas where edge computing can be relevant. There are also other industries using edge computing like infrastructure, metals & mining, pharmaceuticals and even in automotive plants and then, very common in the utilities sector – power and water distribution. The Government of India is driving the energy transition towards the renewable sector with some of the largest solar plants in the world where edge computing is playing an important role.
 
How does Stratus distinguish its Edge computing solutions from the competition?
Kaustubh Purohit: The first and most important advantage of Stratus edge computing systems is their plug-and-play attribute – these can be maintained by OT guys with not much IT skills required. Having said that, the system also provides continuous availability, improves productivity and reduces downtime, which ultimately helps save costs. It also supports virtualisation, which helps customers reduce the IT footprint, and protects customer’s data as well, making it secure. This makes our edge computing a very good option for Indian enterprises that are trying to digitally transform their IT/OT infrastructure. Our technology expands the ability of system integrators or end users to help them deploy their business critical software applications in edge environments. There are two kinds of redundancy when it comes to data gathering – high availability and fault tolerance – and we offer both as per requirement. In the former case there is a standby in case anything goes wrong and a time lapse, however brief, results in data loss. But in case of fault tolerance, which is an active-active system, there is a bumpless transfer which does not result in any data loss, with 99.999% redundancy. 
 
What are the different solutions on offer and the difference, e.g., between ztC Edge/Advisor and/or ftServer?

Kaustubh Purohit: We offer three edge computing platforms – two of these are hardware, viz., ztC Edge and ftServer, and one is software, the everRun. 
 
As the name suggests, the first one, ztC Edge, is a zero touch computing edge server of rugged built, compact with a small footprint, built for harsh environment, a fanless device that can handle vibrations up to 20G and is IP40 Zone2 ready, supports Windows and Linux, and open for all other platforms, with built-in virtualisation; above all, it also provides fault tolerance which is our USP. In addition, it comes with two nodes, which can be placed miles apart, purpose built for OT, but also meets cybersecurity and all IT requirements, easy to deploy for single or multiple locations. There is also a tool, the ztC Edge Advisor, a comprehensive Asset Manager that provides remote access, which enables the end user or system integrator gain remote access, and is web-based, also integrated with Stratus Service Portal, with a provision to log tickets.
 
The ftServer, on the other hand, is a fault tolerant server that by default comes with bumpless redundancy, built mainly for control room environments with a larger footprint than ztC, the size is 2U+2U, and is scalable – all specifications like RAM, hard disc are scalable. It supports Windows, Linux and all sorts of virtualisation are possible. For years this device has delivered flawless performance, hosting complex and mission critical software platforms on the edge, a pioneer product in the edge industry.
 
Coming to the third product – everRun – it is a software layer that can convert those two servers for either fault tolerance or high availability, highly suitable for customers who do not want to buy additional hardware but switch between the two redundancy configurations.
 
How would the 5G rollout impact the Edge Computing market?
Lin Hoe Foong: 5G and edge computing are two inextricably linked technologies. They are both poised to significantly improve the performance of applications. Experts say edge computing is a must for 5G and IoT to be successful, as they will enable the next generation of smart devices and applications, through the lower latency promised by 5G, which is critical for many edge computing applications. For example, video analytics for access control in open spaces where there are moving vehicles, trucks, etc., and also physical inspection in remote areas which was not earlier possible due to connectivity issues. 5G can also upgrade edge computing by improving the response time, making it easier for businesses to collect and process data. As more enterprises are moving towards Industry 4.0 and digitalisation, 5G will enable edge computing to become more sophisticated in complex applications. 
 
What are the different Partner Programs Stratus works with?
Lin Hoe Foong: We have an established framework for our Channel Partners globally who add value just by taking our ‘Vanilla’ offerings to the markets, products mentioned earlier. Among these Channel Partners there is a hierarchy with Master Distributor at the top, followed by Premium Distributor,  Distributor and then the Reseller. In addition to this we also have a framework for partners who are adding value by embedding our products into their offerings. These are global ISPs and also local ISPs – who cater to clients everywhere. There are System Integrators here who are either Certified by or Registered with us and Value Added Resellers who are either OEM Machine Builders or Solution Builders.
 
Is the partner ecosystem already in place for the Indian market? 
Kaustubh Purohit: In India we have implemented the same Partner ecosystem that we have globally and the majority of our business comes from our partners. So in the industrial automation sector, to name a few, we have partners like Sarla Advantech, SSM Infotech, and iValue InfoSolutions. Each partner has its own expertise and strength, which we leverage to offer solutions to various enterprises. Sarla Advantech, for example, is a leading supplier to the smart manufacturing domain, pharmaceuticals, F&B and automotive; SSM Infotech caters to Oil & gas, chemicals, smart cities, water, etc. So we generally choose partners based on expertise and whether or not they complement our vision. 
 
India is a price sensitive market, especially the SME segment which is traditionally lagging behind the implementation curve. What strategy does Stratus have for this segment?
Kaustubh Purohit: Edge computing may not be relevant to all the SMEs and the businesses they are engaged in, but having said that, regardless of the size of the customer’s business, we engage with them and discuss matters like return on investment, the total cost of ownership, etc., against technology they are currently using. So we generally have consultations with them to help them optimise and size their requirements. We have also seen SMEs not only talk about budget but also appreciate technology and new trends. We also see that though there is trend towards cloud, customers in India want data residing on premises, so the architecture is very hybrid, unlike how it is globally. That is where edge comes in, and we are seeing customers receiving our solutions really, really well.