Posted On: Jul 29, 2021
Today, AWS announces the general availability of AWS IoT SiteWise Edge, a feature of AWS IoT SiteWise that makes it easy for industrial customers to collect, organize, process, and monitor equipment data on-premises (i.e. at the edge). SiteWise Edge software enables factory operators to get visibility into their equipment data and make decisions that help improve equipment uptime, product quality, and process efficiency.
SiteWise Edge can be installed on local hardware such as third-party industrial gateways and computers, or on AWS Outposts and AWS Snow Family compute devices. SiteWise Edge supports common industrial protocols and standards such as OPC-UA, Modbus, and EtherNet/IP to securely connect and read sensor data from historian databases or directly from equipment. Once data is collected, customers can filter, transform, and aggregate the data locally using asset models defined in the cloud, or run AWS Lambda functions locally on the gateway to customize how the data is processed. With SiteWise Edge, customers can now organize and process their equipment data on-premises using the same asset models they have defined in AWS IoT SiteWise, and they can read equipment data locally from the gateway using the same application programming interfaces (APIs) that are used with AWS IoT SiteWise in the cloud.
This means metrics such as Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) can be computed at the edge and retained locally for use in a production line monitoring dashboard on the factory floor. A local alarm application that relies on data collected by SiteWise Edge can continue to detect and respond to changes in equipment status during intermittent cloud connectivity. Sensitive data can be retained on-premises to help comply with data residency requirements, and you can selectively filter and forward processed data to AWS IoT SiteWise, Amazon S3 or Amazon Timestream services in the cloud, for further analysis and longer term storage. By extending AWS IoT SiteWise to the edge, customers can reduce latency for local applications, optimize bandwidth, and ensure business continuity even if Internet connectivity is disrupted.
Data visualization is key to improving operations. Using AWS IoT SiteWise in the cloud, customers can create SiteWise Monitor web applications without writing any code, and then deploy them locally with SiteWise Edge so operators and process engineers can visualize equipment data in near real time on the factory floor, even during intermittent cloud connectivity. SiteWise Edge also includes the OpsHub application allowing customers to view metrics to monitor the health and operation of the edge gateway, as well as metrics to troubleshoot the flow of data from its source to the cloud. Customers can access SiteWise Monitor dashboards and the OpsHub application using local Linux credentials or their corporate credentials with Active Directory integration using Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP). This new release of SiteWise Edge also features over 15 new enhancements based on customer feedback received during the preview phase, which includes an enhanced edge gateway setup experience, additional edge data processing options, extended data retention on the edge gateway, and data processing performance improvements.
SiteWise Edge is available in all regions where AWS IoT SiteWise is available. For a full list of AWS Regions where AWS IoT SiteWise is available visit the AWS region table. To learn more, please visit the AWS IoT SiteWise website or the user guide.