Nokia has bolstered its MX Industrial Edge (MXIE) hardware portfolio with a top-end server blade from Dell for hard-working Industry 4.0 installations on its Digital Automation Cloud (DAC) private 5G platform. The new Dell server, in the form of the PowerEdge XR11, goes alongside middle-level and lower-level options from Nokia itself (AirFrame series) and HPE, respectively. Nokia has also announced it is now offering edge hardware on subscription, with the rest of its MXIE-branded Industry 4.0 range of edge services for enterprises.
The Finnish firm is set to confirm enhancements to its DAC product as well ahead of MWC next week. The addition of the Dell product to the MXIE line brings support for more demanding Industry 4.0 use cases. It introduces GPU support for more advanced video analytics applications and business-critical machine learning OT use cases, it said. Further server options are to be added, the firm suggested, from both Dell and HPE.
A statement said: “As enterprises implement a growing number of Industry 4.0 use cases, such as autonomous robots in a factory or warehouse leveraging real-time situational awareness for safety, or zero-fault manufacturing using advanced real-time video analytics for efficiency, demand is growing for high-capacity, on-premise edge processing… The Dell PowerEdge XR11 server… further increase(s) the processing power of the MXIE to handle the most demanding and complex workloads.
The PowerEdge XR11 features a third-generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processor, which introduces support for a physical graphics processing unit (GPU). ItsNVIDIA A2 Tensor Core GPU enables versatile AI inference acceleration, says a press statement. Nokia highlighted its application for a couple of MXIE platform services: Nokia’s Scene Analytics software and Atos Computer Vision Platform, which use AI for quality assurance and video analytics.
Meanwhile, the company’s move to also bundle server hardware into its MXIE service subscription, to reduce CAPEX requirements, will enable “many more enterprises to realize the value of OT data”, it said. It stated: “This will reduce up-front capital investment, and allow them to benefit from MXIE capabilities on a subscription basis.” Nokia said it has 560 enterprise customers on its books for Industry 4.0 connectivity.
Stephan Litjens, vice president of enterprise campus edge solutions at Nokia, said: “We are boosting the processing power and capabilities of the Nokia MXIE to meet our customers’ growing demands for advanced Industry 4.0 implementations.The new MXIE GPU capabilities will support use cases that leverage AI and machine learning, such as real-time video and OT data analytics. By introducing MXIE in a hardware-as-a-service model, we are further lowering the upfront cost of our industrial edge for businesses, to accelerate their digitalization journey.”
Kyle Dufresne, global senior vice president and general manager for OEM Solutions at Dell Technologies, said: “The Dell PowerEdge server family includes high-performance and ruggedized systems designed for deployment in the most extreme environments. The PowerEdge XR11 server with NVIDIA Tensor Core GPU support offers a robust platform for Nokia MXIE and can support Nokia enterprise customers wanting to implement use cases such as widespread automation at remote ports and mines, as well as in factories and warehouses.”
