Cloud, Fog or Edge computing?

Egde Computing is one of the main topics of industrial automation, as a component of IoT infrastructures that is becoming increasingly important, especially in cases where a timely and autonomous response of the devices is required, based on the inputs received.

Maurizio Cacciamani

This is particularly evident in sectors where IoT devices play a decisive role for the safety of people, or where the ability of machines to act autonomously according to circumstances is among the main aspects of Industry 4.0.

In order to meet users’ information needs on this topic, ANIE Automazione has dedicated an in-depth study to it in the Observatory of the Italian Automation Industry: recently published, it includes sector data for 2019 and forecasts for 2020.

Entitled “Edge Computing and the benefits for the industry”, the chapter deals in a clear and simple way, in a popular language, with the following topics: definition and functioning of Edge Computing (features, Cloud Computing vs Edge Computing, Fog Computing vs Edge Computing), available types of Edge Computing, strengths and weaknesses, Edge Computing for industrial IoT.

A paragraph is then dedicated to some case histories in the Smart Factory.

Industrial automation market: a summary.

After a positive 2018, although slowing down in the second half of the year, the Manufacturing and Process Automation sector recorded an aggregate turnover of 5.1 billion euros in 2019, down 1.2% at replacement cost.

This interrupted the continuous growth that had characterized the sector in the previous six years.

Since the end of 2018, the sector has in fact been affected by the lower propensity to invest on the part of operators, who interrupted the renewal of the plant fleet undertaken in the previous three years, favored by Industry 4.0 incentives.

In a context of substantial weakness, in 2019 the negative trends affected most of the product segments that make up the sector, where drives, encoders and industrial wireless registered the highest drops.

Only Rfid (+20%), Scada (+9.7%), networking (+9%), IPC (+3.6%) and PLC-I/O (+0.3%) grew against the trend.

Also 2019 confirmed that the packaging sector with a share of 8% is among the major buyers of automation, just after mechanical engineering (20%) and food (9%). A reminder that last year the Italian packaging machinery industry, according to UCIMA data, registered a slight increase in annual turnover of close to 2.0 %. In the first part of 2020, the international macroeconomic scenario expressed a high degree of uncertainty and, in addition to the slowdown in the global economic cycle, the shock linked to the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic.

The high uncertainty of the scenario is reflected in the development prospects of Italian manufacturing, where a highly critical element is the setback of investments. These dynamics outline a more critical picture for the performance of the industrial, manufacturing and process automation sector in 2020 both on the domestic and foreign fronts.