Nokia launches off-the-shelf edge solution for enterprise

Nokia announced the launch of a cloud-native industrial edge solution for accelerating digitalization initiatives at the enterprise level.  

Described as “the industry’s first off-the-shelf, mission-critical Industrial Edge” to accelerate the journey to Industry 4.0, the new Nokia MX Industrial Edge is designed to meet the needs of industries such as manufacturing, energy and transportation. It combines compute, storage, wired/wireless networking, one-click industrial applications and automated management onto a unified platform. 
  

Enterprises that adopt the Nokia MX Industrial Edge solution will benefit from an on-premise cloud architecture that unifies edge requirements in an easy-to-use, deploy everywhere, as-a-service package, according to a press release.

"Industry 4.0 is transforming asset-intensive industries by integrating and digitalizing all processes and systems across the industrial value chain,” said Stephan Litjens, head of Enterprise Solutions at Nokia, in a statement. “This will result in an explosion of data – and taking the right actions based on that data in near real-time will be critical to the success of digital transformation initiatives. Ensuring performance, along with aspects like keeping data local and secure while being resilient against internet connectivity failures, are not possible with a centralized cloud, making the on-prem edge the architecture of choice for this new breed of OT [operational technology] applications."  

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The Nokia edge solution is available for enterprises in combination with Nokia Digital Automation Cloud applications, such as High Accuracy Indoor Positioning, Plug and Play private wireless, or with Nokia's alternative private wireless solution, Nokia Modular Private Wireless.

Enterprises are increasingly focusing their digital transformation efforts on the application of software and cloud capabilities to operational technologies (OT) to reap the benefits of agility and cost-efficiency in asset-intensive industrial environments, according to Caroline Chappell, research director at Analysys Mason.

Nokia is also using the occasion to play up its relationship with Intel.

“Nokia and Intel have a long-standing partnership to provide innovative solutions from the core to the edge of the intelligent network, which Nokia is expanding to accelerate Industry 4.0 adoption,” said Intel’s Caroline Chan, VP in the Network Platforms Group and GM, Network Business Incubation Division, in a statement. “The combination of Intel’s innovations and CPUs alongside Nokia’s MX Industrial Edge Platform and 5G technology will offer enterprise customers the ability to connect, deploy and manage their environments. Across different verticals, enterprises will benefit from the scalable performance and high-speed, low-latency reliable communications.”  

Nokia said the MX Industrial Edge comes in a variety of configurations to support small, medium, and large-scale industrial deployments.