Swiss engineering conglomerate ABB has partnered with US IT software provider Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) and German IT hardware maker Rittal to launch a new micro-modular data centre to handle data processing at the network edge in smart factory environments.
The new ‘secure edge data centre’ (SEDC), designed for industrial settings, will allow customers to run enterprise IT in close proximity to their operational technology (OT) environments and factory equipment. It avoids the latency, security and reliability issues associated with data analytics via remote IT systems.
“ABB is very conscious that when our customers start their journey for new digital services and enter initiatives like IoT and Industry 4.0, they need a secure and stable infrastructure close to the operations,” said Ciarán Flanagan, head of ABB’s global data centre segment.
The new SEDC solution allows IoT factory applications on HPE infrastructure in the SEDC or a data centre, as well as in the Microsoft Azure public cloud.
“More companies realise they have to equip their machines and plants with intelligence to capture the value of their industrial data. This requires running enterprise-grade IT systems at close range to the operational technology equipment, creating actionable insights and automatic action in real time,” said Volkhard Bregulla, vice president of global sales, manufacturing, automotive and IoT at HPE.
The turnkey SEDC, with pre-configured HPE software-defined infrastructure, can be deployed within 12 weeks, and beefed up in 5kW, 10 kW and 20kW expansions. It features a IP55-rated enclosure, protecting from humidity, dust and dirt, with integrated cooling and fire suppression from Rittal and redundant power supply from ABB with backup power.
Rittal reckons the SEDC provides a resilient, scalable and secure solution for industrial IoT settings. “This gives us a broader reach to help enterprises quickly with high end complete data centre solutions according to their needs,” commented Andreas Keiger, executive vice president of the company’s the company’s global sales unit.
ABB quoted Gartner statistics in its release, claiming 10 per cent of enterprise-generated data is created and processed outside a traditional data centre or cloud environment, rising to 50 per cent by 2022. It also quoted a report from 451 Research that the market for edge data centres has grown at 50 per cent per year for three years on the spin, and will jump again with the rise of 5G and developing OT-IT convergence.
ABB, HPE and Rittal are showcasing their SEDC solution at Hannover Messe nest week (April 23-27).
ABB said this month it will splash €100 million on a new innovation and training campus at the home of Austria-based automation systems manufacturer B&R. It is the largest internal investment ABB has ever made in industrial automation. The new campus will develop technologies for the ‘factory of the future’, ABB said, and create 1,000 engineering jobs.
Meanwhile, ABB has been selected to provide electric vehicle chargers across the US, as part of the biggest electric vehicle infrastructure project to date in the country. ABB’s Terra HP charging stations can electric batteries in under 15 minutes. Electrify America will place hundreds of charging stations around 17 metropolitan areas and along multiple nationwide highway corridors.
Greg Scheu, president of ABB’s Americas region, said: “We are proud to be chosen for this historic project. Our Terra HP systems will ensure that sustainable e-mobility is supported with industry leading, high power charging technology, and will remain so into the future.”
