We’re starting the year off strong here at FairCom with several functionality updates releasing for FairCom Edge. This build focuses on growing Edge’s solid foundation by expanding protocol support, improving integration with analytics stacks, and refining security capabilities to protect your data.
While we have larger architectural shifts coming later this year, v5 represents our ongoing commitment to providing a flexible, low-code integration hub for your IoT environments. Here’s an overview of the enhancements included in Edge v5.
Expanded IoT Connectors and Protocols
One of the biggest goals of FairCom Edge is to provide a single solution to connect all your sensors, machines, and other equipment, regardless of the industrial protocol used. Edge v5 continues this trend, adding additional IoT protocols to the line up. Now, our software lets you seamlessly connect devices using Modbus, OPC UA, Siemens S7, MQTT, MTConnect, CC-Link, REST, SQL, and MQTT.
An even bigger addition is the ability to output data via Modbus, meaning you can now talk back to any Modbus machines bidirectionally. By reading data from Modbus devices and writing back to them, Edge empowers teams to create automated responses based on real-time data analysis.
Every new connector we add to Edge’s plug-in architecture gives you more flexibility with how you build your IoT ecosystem. And whether you’re an established factory or a greenfield, we are constantly pushing Edge to provide a simple path to data-driven insights.
Enhanced Integration with Analytics Tools for BI and Machine Learning
Of course, data is only as valuable as the insights you extract from it. Edge v5 improves how our software interacts with the SQL-based tools most analysts are already using.
Our new database drivers give you more granular control over tables, indexes, and records even within third-party environments. Whether you’re a fan of Power BI for executive dashboards or believe in Excel supremacy, these drives keep your IoT data synchronized and accessible.
We also continue to provide language-specific drivers and JDBC/ODBC connectors to give you further control over interacting with factory data inside FairCom Edge, whether your devs are using the data to build custom machine learning models or powerful reporting engines. In addition, our updated documentation includes expanded tutorials and sample programs using Edge integrations.
Streamlined Real-Time Data Transformation with Server-Side JavaScript
We’ve always aimed to make Edge as low code as possible, and v5 continues that trend with our improved transforms. Convert unruly binary data to flexible JSON properties and table fields. Standardize it throughout your factory with renaming, enriching, and reshaping.
These JavaScript transforms continue to run on the integrated Google V8 engine, and they can now automate most server operations with our REST API. Here are just a few of the improved capabilities you can find in Edge Explorer:
• Manage MQTT messages
• Query data
• Configure Edge components
• Perform automatic data calculations
• Send MQTT alerts
Improved Unified Namespace Management
Data silos are the death of proper analytics. After all, data-driven decisions require looking at all the data. Creating a Unified Namespace (UNS) for your organization provides a single source of truth for your data. This is one of the key areas where Edge shines. By enriching and standardizing all data coming into Edge, you’ll be able to quickly create a UNS.
Edge’s centralized data repository empowers your applications and analytics tools with all the data you could ever need. Our embedded MQTT broker lets you subscribe apps to specific data stream “topics,” giving them better visibility into your data (while keeping the actual data safely inside FairCom Edge). This means your MES, ERP, or analytics tools can access the exact information they need decoupled from any other factory data or process.
Robust Data Security Updates
We’ve also added enhanced utilities to simplify the configuration of TLS and certificates. This gives you secure, encrypted communications using FIPS-verified encryption for data in transit and at rest.
In addition, you can now generate and manage CA, server, and client certificates from within FairCom Edge. This further protects your data from malicious actors impersonating your servers or hacking passwords.
... and more!
Of course, this doesn’t cover all that’s new with Edge v5—that’s what our documentation changelog is for. If you want to know more about v5, be sure to check out our official Edge v5 highlights guide. Or, if you would rather take a hands-on approach, access our browser-based Edge sandbox.
