Industrial IoT edge AI specialist FogHorn is collaborating with IBM to develop a hybrid cloud platform with edge-powered AI and closed-loop system control capabilities. The two companies are hoping to address the 50% of enterprise compute that Gartner predicts will take place away from data centre and cloud platforms by 2022.

“With computing done in so many places—on public and private clouds and the edge–the challenge that businesses face is to connect all these different elements into a cohesive, end-to-end platform,” said Chris Penrose, Chief Operating Officer at FogHorn. 

“Through our upcoming collaboration, FogHorn will leverage IBM Edge Application Manager to deliver edge-to-cloud FogHorn solutions for our customers that can help them make more informed decisions with their data, in real-time. Combining FogHorn’s vertical expertise with IBM’s cloud know-how, we will create the opportunity to address a wide range of edge use cases which have the potential to deliver operational savings, improved up-time, reduced waste and lower energy consumption,” said Penrose.

FogHorn’s Lightning Edge AI will be combined with IBM Edge Application Manager, which runs on Red Hat OpenShift, to automate the deployment of edge AI applications to available edge systems. Lightning Edge AI is designed to provide low latency for onsite data processing and real-time AI, analytics and machine learning capabilities.

The solution is being engineered to run and manage workloads on virtually any edge endpoint, including devices, clusters and servers, gateways and machines supporting RHEL and other Linux operating systems, with Red Hat OpenShift, and Podman and other Docker runtimes. 

The aim is to give organisations the ability to extend their operations from any public or private cloud to any edge server or asset. It will provide a single system of record in the enterprise that can be acted on with intelligent automation. 

FogHorn’s offerings can also be integrated with IBM Maximo Application Suite to optimise the performance of physical assets and accelerate transformation of maintenance, monitoring and reliability options.

“We look forward to collaborating with FogHorn as part of the IBM edge ecosystem, to help clients realise the full value of an open hybrid cloud approach by bringing together the edge with IT data centers, private clouds and public clouds from multiple providers,” said Evaristus Mainsah, GM, IBM Hybrid Cloud and Edge Ecosystem “The power of IBM Edge Application Manager, combined with FogHorn’s experience in manufacturing, oil and gas, industrial IoT and building energy management, offers an end-to-end FogHorn solution that will enable organisations across industries to act on insights closer to where the data is being created, at the edge.