OpenFog Consortium Becomes Major Force in IoT

Major IoT companies, universities, and professional groups jump into the fog.

Written By

Sue Walsh

Apr 14, 2016

A consortium that is working on a comprehensive architecture for edge and cloud analytics has rapidly grown its membership.

The OpenFog Consortium announced on April 12 that they have welcomed GE Digital, IEEE and Schneider Electric to their board of directors effective immediately. They’ve also welcomed 17 new members to the consortium and Japan as their first country team.

“Cloud to edge to device integration and interoperability, supported by the right standards, are key to the realization of the tremendous potential of Industrial IoT,” said Pascal Brosset of Schneider Electric Global Solutions in a press release. “By joining the OpenFog Consortium, Schneider Electric reinforces its commitment to the development and adoption of such standards.”

The OpenFog Consortium consists of heavy hitters in the IoT space, including Cisco, Dell, Fujitsu, Intel, Microsoft and Toshiba. The addition of Schneider Electric adds a company that excels in products for industrial automation, especially in the energy sector, and the addition of GE adds a company that has provoked a revolution in industrial-IoT-as-a-service.

To support the release of its OpenFog architecture (free download here), the group has formed new workgroups to address fog computing challenges in several key areas:

Communication
Security
Testbeds
Manageability
Software Infrastructure

Joining GE Digital and Schneider Electric in these workgroups are Sakura Internet, the first contributing member in Asia. Sakura will be supporting two key initiatives: IoT growth in Japan and the creation of new testbeds.

Other members that will participate in workgroups include Arizona State University; FogHorn Systems; Fujitsu; Georgia State University; MARSEC; National Chiao Tung University; Nebbiolo Technologies; PrismTech; Real-Time Innovations; Dr. Steven Low of California Institute of Technology; Stichting imec Nederland; Toshiba; Vanderbilt University; and Wayne University.

The next OpenFog meeting will be held at Princeton University on May 17-18 with scheduled keynotes by Dennis Strigl, former president and chief operating officer of Verizon Communications, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, and several others.