Global automation and technology company Emerson has announced its participation in the Linux Foundation’s Margo initiative, a new open-standard project aimed at ensuring seamless cooperation between Edge applications, devices, and orchestration software within multi-vendor industrial automation environments.
As manufacturers in both process and discrete sectors advance their digitalisation efforts, they face integration difficulties at the Edge due to the variety of devices, applications, and orchestration platforms from different vendors. The Margo initiative seeks to address these issues by developing practical reference implementations, open standards, and testing toolkits.
This collaborative approach aims to remove barriers and streamline the process of building, deploying, scaling, and operating complex multi-vendor Edge environments. This will benefit manufacturers of all sizes, whether they are modernising existing operations or developing new digital frameworks.
“The modern OT edge is the backbone of our next-generation automation architecture, enabling the availability of data and computing closest to where it is needed,” said Peter Zornio, Chief Technology Officer, Emerson. “Successful implementation will require open edge standards that will enable scalable, simplified and seamless interoperability among applications, edge devices and orchestration software – no matter the vendor technology.
“Emerson is pleased to join the Margo initiative to help create a unified and cohesive edge management ecosystem. Our collective progress will make it easier, faster and less costly for our customers to develop digital transformation programs that realise the full potential of AI, machine learning and analytics at the Edge.”
The Margo initiative aligns with Emerson’s Boundless Automation vision, which seeks to create a modern automation architecture that eliminates data silos and positions computing power where it is most effective, be that at the field, Edge, or Cloud level.
Named after the Latin word for ‘edge,’ Margo is supported by some of the world’s largest automation providers. Emerson joins as a steering member, collaborating with industry peers to establish open and secure Edge interoperability standards for industrial automation ecosystems.
The Margo project represents a significant industry-wide effort to define standards for the interoperable orchestration of Edge applications, devices, and workloads. The initiative will deliver on the promise of interoperability through open standards, reference implementations, and a comprehensive compliance testing toolkit.
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