IoT software specialist Foundries.io has partnered Arduino to deliver secure, embedded Linux IoT and edge products for enterprises with the Arduino Pro Portenta X8.

Arduino is an open-source electronics company that manufactures open hardware development boards used by millions of developers around the world. It will use FoundriesFactory in its enterprise product to help users ease development and deployment, reduce costs and accelerate revenue associated with industrial IoT and edge devices.

“A few years ago, Arduino invented a new category of products by combining microcontrollers and microprocessors on a single hardware platform,” said Fabio Violante, CEO at Arduino. “Now, we are taking this experience to the next level by providing enterprises the same flexibility, with performance on steroids thanks to the Portenta X8 (4x Cortex-A53, Cortex-M7 and 2x M4). Today, the world is different: You cannot think about a Linux-based device without anticipating the challenges of securing and maintaining it over time. This requires expertise, commitment and attention to every detail related to security and maintenance. For this reason, we decided to partner with Foundries.io to simplify this approach by providing a ready-to-use solution that can help our customers build systems with confidence. By embedding a FoundriesFactory in the Arduino platform, customers can be sure to choose the best on the market.”

The IoT market is predicted to more than double in the next five years, and the market for edge devices to nearly triple with accelerated growth expected in industrial IoT, electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and robotics. Among the challenges to realising this growth and innovation for businesses are the security of these devices and the expense associated with building and maintaining Linux to support them.

FoundriesFactory addresses these problems with a cloud-based devops service to build, test, deploy and maintain these devices. It includes a fit-for-purpose, customisable Linux micro-platform OS built for security and incremental over-the-air (OTA) updates. Developers can build with freedom and ease, while businesses lower costs and reduce time to revenue.

“Foundries.io is in a unique position to advance Arduino’s vision for enabling enterprises to more easily deploy and maintain Linux-based products for IoT and edge applications,” said George Grey, CEO at UK-based Foundries.io. “The combination of the Portenta X8 and the FoundriesFactory cloud will accelerate customer time to market, increase product security and enable rapid deployment and lifetime OTA management of customer devices and fleets, while giving freedom of choice for connectivity to public or private cloud services. From off-the-shelf to fully customised options, Arduino and FoundriesFactory are providing an industry leading solution for Linux-based IoT and edge products.”

Jeff Steinheider, vice president at NXP Semiconductors, added: “This is a powerful alignment that will result in tangible advances for embedded developers and enterprises across a variety of vertical industries. Built using the NXP i.MX 8M Mini applications processor as the first Arm Cortex-A core in the Arduino Pro ecosystem, this is the kind of strategic partnership that signals a new way of doing things is upon us, and we couldn’t be more excited to be a part of it.”

Users will be able to access a FoundriesFactory for the Portenta X8 hardware platform. This will enable users to connect immediately Arduino Portenta X8-based products to the cloud and start developing container-based applications, leveraging the device management and devops capabilities available with FoundriesFactory.

Foundries.io helps organisations bring IoT and edge devices to market faster. The FoundriesFactory subscription service reinvents IoT by delivering a secure, customisable, Linux platform with fleet management services for connected devices. Product teams gain enhanced data security while reducing the cost of developing, testing, deploying and maintaining devices across their installed lifetime. Its open-source Linux micro-platform interfaces to any cloud and supports microprocessors, SBCs and SoMs, enabling developers to focus on their applications, and not have to worry about the firmware platform and operating system.