ZEDEDA Presents at Edge Field Day 3

Edge Management and Orchestration with ZEDEDA

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ZEDEDA provides an edge orchestration solution that allows customers to manage their edge computing infrastructure with ease. The company was founded in 2016 with the vision of addressing the growing need for edge computing and the challenges of managing data at the edge. ZEDEDA’s platform enables customers to deploy and manage applications on any hardware at scale, while connecting to any cloud or on-premises systems. The company’s solution is particularly useful in industries such as oil and gas, agriculture, and manufacturing, where edge computing is critical for real-time data analysis, AI workloads, and secure software delivery. ZEDEDA’s open-source operating system, EVE (Edge Virtualization Engine), plays a central role in this, providing a lightweight, secure, and flexible platform for running various workloads, including virtual machines and containerized applications.

ZEDEDA’s platform is designed to address the unique challenges of edge environments, such as limited network connectivity, security risks, and the need for remote management. For example, in the oil and gas industry, ZEDEDA’s solution is used to deploy AI-powered analytics at well sites to optimize oil extraction and monitor methane burnoff using computer vision. The platform also supports a wide range of hardware, from small devices like Raspberry Pi to large Intel servers with GPUs, making it adaptable to different use cases. ZEDEDA’s customers include large enterprises like Chevron and Emerson, who not only use the platform but have also invested in the company, demonstrating the strategic importance of ZEDEDA’s technology in their operations.

The platform’s architecture is built around a cloud-based controller that manages edge devices through a secure API, ensuring that all configurations and updates are centrally managed. This eliminates the need for local access to edge devices, enhancing security and reducing the risk of tampering. ZEDEDA also emphasizes the importance of zero-touch updates and measured boot processes to ensure that devices remain secure and operational without requiring physical intervention. The platform supports a wide range of applications, from legacy systems to modern Kubernetes clusters, making it a versatile solution for edge computing across various industries.

Personnel: Michael Maxey

Driving Innovation – Empowering Service Centers for Software Dependent Vehicles with ZEDEDA

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The presentation by Manny Calero from ZEDEDA at Edge Field Day 3 focused on how ZEDEDA is helping one of the world’s largest auto manufacturers modernize its dealership infrastructure to address the growing complexity of software-dependent vehicles. With the rise of electric vehicles (EVs) and increasingly stringent security regulations, such as UNECE R155, the need for secure and efficient software delivery has become paramount. The auto manufacturer, which produces around 8 million vehicles annually and services tens of millions more, faced challenges in delivering large, secure software updates to its 70,000 dealerships and service centers. ZEDEDA’s edge platform enables the manufacturer to securely manage and deliver these updates at scale, ensuring compliance with regulations and addressing bandwidth limitations.

ZEDEDA’s solution revolves around managing workloads at the edge, allowing dealerships to process software updates locally rather than transferring massive amounts of data from a central location. This approach not only reduces bandwidth usage but also ensures that each vehicle receives its unique software image securely. The platform is designed to handle large-scale deployments, managing tens of thousands of endpoints as a fleet, with a focus on security and flexibility. ZEDEDA’s platform is hardware-agnostic, supporting both x86 and ARM-based processors, which allows the manufacturer to avoid vendor lock-in and diversify its hardware supply chain, a lesson learned from the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to software updates, ZEDEDA’s platform is being used to consolidate other dealership applications, such as inventory management, onto a single edge platform. The platform’s flexibility allows it to support both legacy applications and modern cloud-native designs, such as Kubernetes. While the current focus is on dealership infrastructure, ZEDEDA is also working on other projects with the manufacturer, including in-car solutions and manufacturing use cases. The platform’s ability to manage edge devices at scale, with centralized cloud-based management, makes it a powerful tool for modernizing the infrastructure of industries like automotive, where secure and efficient software delivery is critical.

Personnel: Manny Calero

AI on Track – Revolutionizing Rail Freight and Solving the Industry’s Toughest Challenges with ZEDEDA

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New federal railway regulations have introduced the need for enhanced detection capabilities and more frequent inspections along railroad tracks. For large railway operators, this presents significant challenges, especially when managing thousands of miles of tracks in remote and harsh environments. ZEDEDA, through its unified edge platform, is helping one of the largest American railroad operators address these challenges. The operator, which manages 8,000 locomotives and transports over 500 million tons of freight annually, is required to increase the number of hotbox detectors from 4,000 to 20,000. These detectors monitor the temperature of train wheels to prevent derailments, a leading cause of accidents. The new regulations also mandate the use of advanced technologies like computer vision and AI inference at the edge to detect additional issues beyond just heat.

The scale of this deployment is a major technical challenge. Managing 20,000 edge devices in remote, often unsecured locations requires robust solutions for connectivity, security, and operational efficiency. ZEDEDA’s platform is designed to handle such scale, offering zero-touch deployment and management of edge devices. The platform ensures that devices are secure, even in physically vulnerable locations, by implementing measures like encryption, read-only file systems, and intrusion detection. Connectivity is another hurdle, as these devices must operate with various types of network connections, including 2G, 4G, satellite, and microwave. ZEDEDA’s platform simplifies this by automatically configuring devices based on available connectivity, ensuring seamless operation across diverse environments.

In addition to addressing current regulatory requirements, ZEDEDA’s platform provides flexibility for future advancements. The platform allows for the deployment of new applications and updates over time, enabling the railroad operator to adapt to evolving technologies and regulations. For example, future use cases include computer vision for wheel defect monitoring, railroad crossing safety, and advanced traffic control. By containerizing legacy systems and enabling real-time AI inference at the edge, ZEDEDA is helping the railroad industry modernize its operations, improve safety, and meet regulatory demands efficiently.

Personnel: Jason Grimm

Navigating the Tides – Overcoming Global Challenges in International Maritime Shipping with ZEDEDA

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In this presentation, ZEDEDA’s Consulting Solutions Architect, Jason Grimm, discusses how ZEDEDA’s edge platform is helping a global shipping company overcome significant challenges in monitoring and maintaining the integrity of refrigerated containers during long sea voyages. The shipping company operates over 600 vessels, transporting millions of containers, including up to a million refrigerated units carrying fresh and frozen goods. These containers must be kept at precise temperatures to avoid spoilage, which poses a $21 billion risk to the company. However, the lack of reliable connectivity on ships, which often rely on outdated radio networks, makes it difficult to monitor the containers in real-time, leading to potential spoilage and revenue loss.

ZEDEDA’s solution involves modernizing the shipping company’s communication infrastructure by upgrading from 2G to 4G and integrating Starlink satellite connectivity. This allows for real-time monitoring of IoT sensor data from the refrigerated containers, enabling the company to detect temperature fluctuations and take immediate action to prevent spoilage. ZEDEDA’s platform also ensures the security of the edge devices on the ships, preventing unauthorized access and tampering. By implementing a cloud-like operating model at the edge, ZEDEDA enables the shipping company to manage its fleet more efficiently, even without local IT staff on board, and to push updates and fixes remotely.

The presentation also highlights ZEDEDA’s broader capabilities, including the use of SD-WAN to manage communications between ships and shore, as well as the ability to orchestrate and automate various edge devices and applications. ZEDEDA’s platform not only reduces the risk of spoilage but also opens up opportunities for further improvements in operational safety and efficiency. The company plans to expand its solution to chartered vessels, offering a portable kit that can be deployed on leased ships. ZEDEDA’s edge platform is designed to be flexible and scalable, allowing customers to experiment with it using virtualized environments or inexpensive hardware like Raspberry Pi.

Personnel: Jason Grimm