Equipment needs to be flexible to handle a growing variety of products and enable rapid changeovers as demand patterns change.

The first steps toward a more flexible, fully event-driven industrial-control environment have already been taken by harnessing cloud computing to support applications such as preventive maintenance and supply-chain management. However, the cloud can only achieve so much. A successful transition calls for the implementation of edge computing in which increasingly sophisticated systems are deployed on the shop floor that can communicate with each other in real-time and with remote cloud-based systems.

This white paper discusses the strategies that industrial-control integrators and operators can employ to enable a seamless transition from existing architectures to one that leverages the full benefits of Industry 4.0.

Here are some key areas of our whitepaper

• What is edge computing?
• The different forms of edge computing
• Transitioning to an edge-compatible control infrastructure
• Defence in depth for security