NETFOUNDRY IS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE EDGEX FOUNDRY

A LINUX FOUNDATION INITIATIVE

EdgeX Foundry

NetFoundry is a founding member of the EdgeX Foundry, a Linux Foundation IoT initiative. NetFoundry is contributing to this open source project to build an open framework for Internet of Things (IoT) edge computing, and an ecosystem to accelerate enterprise and Industrial IoT.

EdgeX Foundry is designed to run on any hardware, OS and application environment combination, delivering interoperability between connected devices and services across a wide range of use cases. Interoperability between community-developed software will be maintained through a certification program.

IoT Networking as a Software Service

NetFoundry operates as a microservice within the EdgeX Foundry platform, installing as a Docker Container or virtual machine, and enabling secure, reliable connectivity from the IoT edge to the world. This enables IoT deployments to use any Internet access they choose to provide a more agile, secure and economical alternative to private networks and VPNs.

Unlike traditional networks, NetFoundry can be integrated directly into services such that the service owner gains direct control of the network, gaining reliability, agility and visibility. For example, read Integron’s announcement here. Integron is a managed IoT services company serving healthcare and pharmaceuticals with over a million endpoints under management globally.

 

NetFoundry supports the EdgeX Foundry community

EdgeX Foundry developers, ISVs, SIs and businesses leverage NetFoundry’s programmable, on-demand networking to securely and reliably connect from edge to fog to core to clouds, using their choice of Internet access provider at the edges, and combining multiple edge wired and wireless providers into hybrid WANs.  NetFoundry supports the EdgeX Foundry community, delivering:

  • • On-demand, private IIoT software defined networks
  • • Industrial-grade network security, resiliency and reliability
  • • Agile orchestration and management, using off-the-shelf developer and devops tools

NetFoundry partners use NetFoundry software, including NetFoundry’s optimized public and private cloud networking, to instantly replace private networks or VPNs, deploying global networks in hours.  Or, partners can integrate with NetFoundry APIs to offer full stack solutions to end customers, with global network integrated into the solution stack.  NetFoundry’s service endpoints are deployed as Docker Containers and VMs across operating systems, instantly and securely connecting IoT devices or gateways to fog, core and cloud computing.

The NetFoundry solution

The specific needs of each IIoT service control the NetFoundry IoT application driven networks, rather than each service trying to fit into a pre-built, one-size-fits-all network, resulting in an app-made, on-demand software defined network (SDN) for each session.

NetFoundry SDNs are more secure and resilient than VPNs, using software-defined perimeter architectures (SDP) and patented technology to make customer networks “dark” to the outside world, and thwart attacks such as botnets, DDoS and man-in-the-middle.  NetFoundry SDNs are more performant than VPNs, intelligently routing data across multiple tier one backbones, selecting the best paths in real-time according to the performance needs of the specific session.

Democratizing IoT

The EdgeX Foundry democratizes the IoT edge in a similar manner as NetFoundry democratizes IoT networking.  Together, NetFoundry and the Linux Foundation help unleash the collective innovation of IoT developers, simplifying their path to deploying valuable business applications.  NetFoundry’s platform and APIs enable partners to embed on-demand, software-defined, cloud-connected networks inside of their IT IIoT services, working with EdgeX Foundry ecosystem partners to provide full-stack IIoT solutions which work together to provide end-to-end identity, policy, reliability and security.

The world is changing rapidly. The way digital experiences inspire and enable customer engagement are evolving at break-neck speeds. Responding to meet these changes requires more than just a mobile app and a website, it requires a business service architecture focused on modular-ization, enabling agility across the entire company ecosystem. As a result, applications and services are moving to highly distributed, multi-cloud, inter-dependent microservices and APIs, while network edges are no longer defned by physical locations, but by application endpoints.