New Edge Computing Consortium aims to deepen digital transformation

Nov. 30, 2016 – Today, the Edge Computing Consortium (ECC) was officially established in Beijing, China, a joint initiative from Huawei Technologies, Shenyang Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT), Intel, ARM and iSoftStone.

The ECC aims to build a cooperative platform for the edge computing industry that will give impetus to openness and collaboration in the Operational Technology (OT) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industries, nurtures industrial best practices, and stimulates the healthy and sustainable development of edge computing.

Yu Haibin, chairman of the ECC and director of Shenyang Institute of Automation, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said, “In the 13th Five Year Plan, China launched two national strategies, integration of digitization and industrialization, as well as ‘Made in China 2025.’ This requires much on ICT and OT convergence. Edge Computing is key to supporting and enabling this convergence. Meanwhile, industrial development is also facing a turning point.”

Through the digital transformation of industries, products are incorporated into intelligent interconnection. In-depth coordination and convergence of OT and ICT help improve industrial automation, meet the customized requirements of products and services, promote full-lifecycle transformation from products to service operations, and trigger the innovation of products, services, and business models. This will have a lasting impact on the value chain, supply chain, and ecosystem.

The ECC is in pursuit of the OICT concept that OT, information technology (IT), and communications technology (CT) resources should integrate and coordinate with each other, and stick to the spirit of consensus, unity, and win-win cooperation, to drive forward the ECC’s healthy development. The ECC strives to advance cooperation among industry resources from government, vendors, academics, research, and customer sectors.

“Industrial automation technology systems will evolve from layered architecture and information silos to IoT, cloud computing, and Big Data analytics architecture,” continued Haibin. “Amidst the evolution, edge computing will bolster distributed industrial automatic self-control architecture. Therefore, the ECC will keep an eye on the design of the architecture and the choice of technical roadmap, as well as promoting industrial development through standardization. In addition, building an ecosystem will also be focused.”

SOURCE Edge Computing Consortium