The Linux Foundation has started a new umbrella organisation, LF Edge, to establish an open, interoperable framework for edge computing that is independent of hardware, silicon, cloud, or operating system.
The launch “changes the IoT and edge computing landscape,” it said in a press note. For the fragmented IoT market to succeed, the edge market needs to “work together to protect against security vulnerabilities and advance a constructive vision for the future,” it said.
The new group’s 60 founding members include: Arm, AT&T, Baidu, Dell EMC, Ericsson, HPE, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Juniper Networks, Nokia, NTT, OSIsoft, Qualcomm, Red Hat, Samsung, and Tencent, among others.
Under the auspices of the Linux Foundation, these companies will collaborate on an edge software stack that aims to bring greater harmonisation, lower latency, higher speeds, enhanced security, and easier scalability.
As the IoT space trades legacy embedded devices for cloud native devices with greater compute power, edge and IoT developers require vendor-neutral platforms and a common language for deploying devices, it said.
Every sector will be impacted by edge computing, but the discipline is complex, it said, as it covers different systems, domains, hardware and software. LF Edge will define a common vision for edge projects. Standardisation will drive better, more secure development at the edge, said The Linux Foundation.
LF Edge comprises five projects at the outset. These support edge applications for non-traditional video and devices that require lower latency, faster processing and mobility.
Among these, it combines three existing projects from The Linux Foundation: Akraino Edge Stack, EdgeX Foundry, and Open Glossary of Edge Computing.
Besides, the initiative includes two new project contributed by members: a Home Edge Project, which aims to create a hub for real-time data collected through smart home devices; and Project Eve, from Zededa, which will contribute a new agnostic standard edge architecture.
Brief explanations of each project, together with links to them, can be found at the bottom of the page.
The Linux Foundation already runs a number of umbrella organisations, including Cloud Native Computing Foundation, LF Networking, and LF Deep Learning.
Arpit Joshipura, general manager at The Linux Foundation, commented: “The market opportunity for LF Edge spans industrial, enterprise and consumer use cases in complex environments that cut across multiple edges and domains.”
He said of the founding members: “This massive endorsement, combined with existing code and project contributions like Akraino from AT&T and EdgeX Foundry from Dell EMC, means LF Edge is well-positioned to transform edge and IoT application development.”
Roman Shaposhnik, vice president of product and strategy at Zededa, said: “This initiative provides critical leadership — not just a piece of the edge puzzle — with the ultimate output being working code.”
Seunghwan Cho, executive vice president of Samsung Research, said: “Edge computing is one of the key driving forces for a new computing paradigm within the IT industry.”
Oliver Spatscheck, former chair of the board at Akraino and assistant vice president at AT&T Labs, said the launch of LF Edge will “accelerate edge innovation and drive real business value” by bringing edge players together.
Jason Shepherd, former governing board chair of EdgeX Foundry, and chief technology officer for IoT and edge computing at Dell, said the new industry grouping will create a “coordinated set of foundational open source tools” to help edge developers accelerate ‘time to value’.
Five LF Edge projects
Akraino Edge Stack – creates an open source software stack that supports high-availability cloud services optimised for edge computing systems and applications.
EdgeX Foundry – focuses on building a common open framework for IoT edge computing.
Home Edge Project – drives a robust, reliable, and intelligent home edge computing framework, platform and ecosystem running on a variety of devices.
Open Glossary of Edge Computing – provides a concise collection of terms related to the field of edge computing.
Project EVE (Edge Virtualization Engine) – creates an open, agnostic standard edge architecture that accommodates complex and diverse on- and off-prem hardware, network and application selections.
