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Improved decision-making is a primary benefit of digitalisation and this comes from having access to qualified data.

However, businesses are still looking to solve the problem of how that data is collected and processed so that it becomes informative and useful especially when there are large volumes of it.

According to Freddie Coertze, national IoT manager for ifm Australia, this is why the moneo digital solution can act as a middleware with an edge layer.

When we say middleware, were talking about a software layer that facilitates communication and integration between different applications, devices and systems, Coertze said.

And when we talk about edge computing in the context of collecting data and Internet of Things (IoT), were talking about processing large amounts of data near to where it is collected, which means its not clogging up networks or interfering with latency. Our digital solution, moneo, offers this it can serve as a middleware with a soft edge.

We have a large mining client who use our sensors to collect raw data, but they dont want to push that raw data directly into their higher level maintenance platform, as it would use up a lot of space and take them a lot of time to qualify that information.

With moneo, which has an in-built data science tool, it has the ability to filter the data, and with applied analytics on the edge, translates this data into readable and actionable information. Then it is sent to that upper platform. So in that context, moneo is acting as a middleware on the edge.

Its just more efficient, Coertze said. Edge computing helps businesses optimise operations by processing data near to the source rather than continuously sending it to a platform in the cloud.

It also adds a security layer which is important when we consider that most factory operations and automation systems havent been exposed to external threats before the event of digitalisation.

ifms moneo edgeConnect communication interface software can turn any PC into an edge device.

Basically this is a software component that will load onto a PC so it empowers you to make any PC an edge device. You could put these in several points around your facility or plant, Coertze said. It can qualify data near the source and send the results to the top platform.

In fact, moneo edgeConnect is designed to facilitate interoperability by building a bridge between production and automation systems (OT) with internal information systems and cloud platforms (IT).

This is a big deal for businesses, because it gives visibility across the whole operation from the shop floor to the top floor, Coertze said.

Importantly, moneo enables outgoing data transfer to the cloud platforms Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure as well as third-part systems via an MQTT or OPC-UA server.

To learn more about the moneo platform pleaseclick here.Or to access a free trial, you canregister here.

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A digitalisation platform with an edge - Australian Mining