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Bring Order to the Chaos of the Internet of Things How solutions from Intel, SAP, and Wind River simplify, secure, and enhance the Internet of Things

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Todays IT professionals need to manage more devices and data than ever. Organizations now rely on technology that extends from the data center to Bluetooth* technologyenabled smart phones that employees access in their cars. The rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) makes IT professionals jobs even more complicated. Unlike smart phones and laptops, IoT devices might be in remote locations where they cant be dropped off at a service desk for configuration or support. IoT devices can number in the hundreds, thousands, or even millions, and the amount of data generated by these devices is growing at an unprecedented rate.

When it comes to the IoT, IT professionals might feel like plate spinners, keeping multiple plates of different sizes spinning on thin poles. With their capability to gather granular data in virtually limitless environments, IoT devices have the potential to provide better insights, to lower costs, and to drive new business opportunities across industries ranging from manufacturing to oil and gas. This valuable, actionable IoT data comes at the cost of managing the complexity of IoT data, applications, hardware, and security. IT professionals need the tools to securely manage these disparate devices and data, which can reside both inside and outside of corporate networks.

Enterprises and IT professionals have a choice: spend countless hours maintaining and securing a complex network of IoT devices with shell scripts, sticky notes, and luck, or create a unified data processing and device-lifecycle-management strategy that helps the enterprise gain new insights and respond faster to changing conditions. The Intel IoT Gateway, combined with SAP Edge Services (a service enabled by SAP Leonardo Internet of Things) and Wind River Helix Device Cloud*, can help enterprises make better decisions faster while easing the burden of IoT device management.

Rise of the Machine InsightsThe IoT is an acceleration of technologies that have been used in many industries for decades. For example, manufacturers have long used electronic sensors to monitor equipment, measure output, and provide environmental data on assembly lines. These sensors, which often use proprietary hardware, have been limited in what they measure and how they communicate with monitoring or data-analysis systems. Additionally, these sensors often require manual configuration by an on-site technician when deployed, and remote troubleshooting is not easily done when problems arise.

As IoT use continues to grow, so will device management and data processing bottlenecks unless organizations adopt a consistent edge processing and device-management strategy.

Consider a food processing company that has traditionally used older sensor technologies to monitor plant equipment and the various aspects of the food that is prepared. Sensors that measure the moisture in a batch of ground beef or that measure the temperature and vibration levels of equipment are connected with physical cabling to computers running custom software. These types of sensor deployments, and the decisions made by the custom software, are viewed as advancements over human observations and intuition. Unfortunately, determining if a batch of ground meat is acceptable after the batch has been mixed means that the entire batch has to be discarded if it doesnt pass the final inspection. But measuring smaller batches of ground beef before they are mixed can be difficult because of the high cost and complexity of wider sensor deployment.

Modern IoT devices help change the sensor landscape because of their fast processors, low-cost electronics, and low-power wireless connectivity. Now organizations can deploy a significantly larger IoT system and gather far more data than with previous generations of sensors. The example food processing company can now deploy modern IoT devices across the manufacturing plant to measure real-time mixture characteristics throughout the process, in addition to measuring aspects of critical equipment, such as refrigeration-unit compressor temperatures.

As a result of technological advances, IoT devices have found their way into everything from manufacturing plants to toilet-paper supplies in washrooms. However, as the sensor infrastructure grows and the measurement frequency increases, the vast amounts of IoT data will also pose significant challenges for organizations trying to discover insights at the edge in an ocean of data. Some of these challenges include:

Limited bandwidth: The IoT opens new avenues for data gathering and analysis. For example, modern aircraft contain Internet-connected sensors that send real-time engine-health data during flight. However, the volume of data generated by these sensors can overwhelm an aircrafts Internet connection, which can make

transmitting the raw data to a central data processing center difficult. Remote locations, such as weather monitoring stations, might also have restricted or metered Internet connections.

Intermittent connectivity: IoT devices can be located in areas where Internet connectivity is intermittent, yet IoT data analysis and decision making must continue. For example, offshore oil rigs and container ships often use satellite-based Internet connections, which can be easily interrupted; likewise, fleet vehicles move in and out of cellular coverage areas.

Time sensitivity: IoT devices can be located in environments where transmitting data to a remote facility for analysis and decision making is too slow. Consider an operator controlling a construction crane that is equipped with sensors to automatically prevent collisions with people, objects, or other cranes. Transmitting the location data for everything around the crane to a remote data processing location could be inefficient when immediate decisions must be made.

Processing infrastructure: Discovering insights within an ever-changing flood of low-value raw data requires new services, algorithms, and event rules. Monitoring the data, discovering insights, developing new algorithms, and assessing the changes is a short, cyclical process that can be difficult to manage.

Lack of business context: With more sensors monitoring more equipment, processes, and output, it becomes increasingly important that a system be aware of what is being monitored. For example, different models of refrigerator compressors have different acceptable operating temperature ranges, which are typically stored in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Without the depth of knowledge that an ERP system provides, an edge system can lack context to make decisions automatically. Also, when an edge system creates a business object, such as a work order, it cannot supply the necessary business context

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required by equipment operators, which can force operators to look up details in the ERP system.

As IoT use continues to grow, so will device management and data processing bottlenecks unless organizations adopt a consistent edge processing and device-management strategy.

Enable Insights Where the Action Is with SAP Edge ServicesIT managers deploying IoT solutions are presented with the unique problem of how to handle the overwhelming amount of data that can be generated from even a small number of IoT devices. SAP Edge Services, a service of SAP Leonardo, can help ease the burden of data management at the edge.

The SAP Leonardo digital innovation system is made up of an extensive set of capabilities to help customers rapidly innovate and solve the complex problems of becoming digital. For example, SAP Leonardo services and APIs help customers and partners integrate SAP Leonardo capabilities, such as IoT, machine learning, big data analytics, and blockchain, into their own applications. These services run on SAP Cloud Platform, a key strategic platform-as-a-service infrastructure. All of these capabilities provide end-to-end, IoT-driven solutions that enable the convergence of information technology and operational technology landscapes while delivering the best experiences for users.

SAP Edge Services provides services for configurable edge streaming, automated data throttling, and business-essential functions closer to where actionable decisions are made. As IoT deployments continue to grow, the amount of data generated by IoT devices continues to increase at an accelerated pace. While a certain percentage of this data can be ingested by data-analysis systems such as the SAP HANA platform running in an off-site data center, much of the data must be processed quickly and efficiently in the same location where it is generated. Local processing of real-time data on an Intel IoT Gateway can help enterprises cut down on storage and network costs

while increasing real-time decision- making capabilities.

Consider a manufacturing plant that uses IoT sensors for quality control. The sensors monitor the close tolerances of manufactured parts as they move down the assembly line. The stream of data provided by the IoT sensors is sent to an Intel IoT Gateway in real time for analysis using SAP Edge Services. If the real-time analysis determines that a part has a defect, multiple automated actions can be taken to remove the part from production and forward a notification to a plant supervisor. The data can then be forwarded to a central processing system for further analysis to determine why the part was defective and to give data-analysis teams the information that they need to improve quality. By providing this intermediary role, the Intel IoT Gateway and SAP Edge Services ease the data-traffic burdens on WANs while providing advanced decision-making capabilities to monitor asset health, product quality, and production performance closer to where the data is generated.

SAP Edge Services provides the following services that run on a Windows* or Linux* operating systembased Intel IoT Gateway:

Persistence service: Stores IoT data on the Intel IoT Gateway. This gives IoT administrators flexibility as to what data is stored locally and for how long.

Streaming service: Analyzes IoT data streams using defined conditions to identify patterns in incoming IoT data. This analysis can be used to trigger events when pattern criteria are met.

Business-transaction service: Executes business transactions, such as automated actions based on real-time data, on the Intel IoT Gateway, even when the gateway is disconnected from the core. This functionality provides continuity for critical business functions.

Predictive-analytics service1: Uses a predictive model for analyzing IoT data. The predictive model remains on the central data-analysis system, such as the SAP HANA platform, and it is continuously refined using the systems available data. The resulting predictive

model is then sent to the Intel IoT Gateway and applied to data at the edge.

Machine learning service1: Applies the machine learning algorithms of SAP Leonardo Machine Learning to the Intel IoT Gateway specifically for image and video analysis.

Visual-analytics service1: Provides data analysts the ability to visually explore the IoT-device data stored on an Intel IoT Gateway. For example, if the streaming service determines that a pattern condition is met, it can send an alert to edge applications or up to SAP Cloud Platform. Once notified, data analysts can look at the data that prompted the alerts.

SAP Edge Services runs on SAP Cloud Platform and integrates other central processing solutions that provide a full suite of data processing and analysis capabilities. The integration between the edge and core processing helps ensure data privacy and helps protect against tampering.

Edge ApplicationsSAP Edge Services provides the software foundation for delivering IoT insights to custom edge applications. As more and more businesses deploy IoT devices across the enterprise, the need for custom monitoring and decision-making applications increases. SAP Edge Services supports the creation of edge applications through essential business-functions capabilities, providing an API that developers can use to create custom, secure solutions that run on Intel IoT Gateways deployed to remote locations. These applications can use locally generated IoT device data to return sub-second analysis results. In addition, developers can create events and workflows that automatically trigger based on the results of data analysis.

For example, hydrogen sulfide is a toxic, corrosive gas that can be encountered during oil production on offshore oil rigs. Exposure to increased levels of this gas can lead to injuries or even fatalities. In this environment, IoT sensors that continuously monitor hydrogen-sulfide levels can be deployed in critical areas

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By providing the foundation for building custom edge applications, SAP Edge Services helps organizations optimize their operations and increase worker safety.

where oil rig employees are often working. The workers can also be equipped with body-posture sensors that report whether they are standing, prone, running, or walking.

Under normal circumstances, the IoT sensors that monitor workers positions report that workers are in multiple positions throughout the day, while the hydrogen-sulfide sensors report acceptable levels of hydrogen sulfide. But if the data being monitored by SAP Edge Services detects increased levels of hydrogen sulfide in an area where workers are present, an edge application can automatically trigger an area-evacuation alarm while supervisors are shown the positions of workers on the rig. If a worker in an affected area is shown to be in a prone or unmoving position for a given period of time, a man-down event can be triggered and rescue teams can be deployed to assist the potentially injured worker. Further data analysis can occur after the event to determine the source of the gas, how quickly and efficiently an evacuation occurred, and whether rescue-team response times can be improved.

By providing the foundation for building custom edge applications, SAP Edge Services helps organizations optimize their operations and increase worker safety (see Figure 1).

Integration with SAP ERPOrganizations that use the SAP ERP application also benefit from the integration between SAP Edge Services and other SAP solutions. For example, an oil drilling company uses SAP ERP with plant maintenance, materials management, and inventory management components to manage the daily operations of oil rigs and drilling platforms. These remote locations often rely on satellite communications that have limited bandwidth and can be affected by adverse weather. Whenever the SAP ERP application system becomes unavailable due to satellite-communications interruptions, productivity at the remote locations can drop or even come to a halt. Business functions of SAP Edge Services running on an Intel IoT Gateway can help keep the remote locations employees working, even when communication to the primary SAP application system is interrupted. Employees can continue creating and closing work orders, monitoring inventory, and ordering materials using the services provided by Intel IoT Gateways deployed on the edge network. Once communication with the primary SAP application system is re-established, all changes are then synchronized.

In addition to filtering data from IoT devices, custom applications can also increase or decrease the fidelity, or volume and quantity, of data. For example, a large grocery chain has IoT

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Figure 1. Developers can use events from SAP Edge Services to build custom edge applications, such as worker safety applications, that trigger alarms and automate workflows when dangerous conditions arise

sensors deployed on produce coolers to monitor the temperatures of the coolers compressors. Temperature variations within a certain range can indicate a problem with a compressor. But a grocery store might have dozens of models of compressors, each with a unique range of acceptable temperatures.

Context for making decisions is gained by merging the operational data from the IoT sensors with the model-specific compressor data. By combining this data, SAP Edge Services can automatically determine if a compressor, regardless of model, is in need of repair. This service can then increase the amount of data it stores to provide a thorough view of the incident. It can also automatically generate work orders that contain the relevant IoT device data to help technicians troubleshoot and repair a cooler. Once the patterns within the data return to normal, the retention and processing of data can return to previous levels.

Enable Edge Processing and IoT Device Management with the Intel IoT Gateway The hardware foundation of an edge processing and IoT device-management solution is the Intel IoT Gateway. Built on an open architecture, the Intel IoT Gateway provides a ruggedized and open server-class platform that provides the

flexibility for fast deployment in industrial environments where heat, moisture, and vibration are concerns.

IoT implementations have different IoT-gateway requirements, depending on deployment size and location. The Intel IoT Gateway provides an array of Intel processor choices that enable IoT data gathering, filtering, analytics, and custom application deployment at the edge. Intel IoT Gateway product processors range from low-power Intel Atom processors to powerful Intel Core i7 processors. This variety provides a wide range of data gathering, sorting, and analysis capabilities.

Even though the Intel IoT Gateway is a server-class device, it comes in a small-footprint package that can be deployed to locations with harsh conditions that are unsuitable for typical servers, desktops, or laptops. Intel IoT Gateways do not require a keyboard and monitor, and they can be placed in locked boxes or other secure locations to reduce the risk of physical tampering.

Intel IoT Gateway Provides the Foundation of an IoT Management StrategyA basic IoT architecture might look something like Figure 2. IoT devices, such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags in a retail location or sensors monitoring an offshore oil rigs systems, collect data and send it to the Intel IoT

Gateway. Some IoT devices might use low-powered protocols, such as Bluetooth or ZigBee*, common Wi-Fi* protocols, or other low-bandwidth protocols such as LoRa* or Sigfox*. These protocols limit the range at which these devices can transmit data. An Intel IoT Gateway placed in proximity to these IoT devices can gather data using the same low-powered protocols while providing edge-analysis capabilities without having to rely on separate data processing systems. The gateway can then communicate with corporate networks using a built-in Ethernet port or Wi-Fi protocols, or it can even communicate using cellular networks.

The Intel IoT Gateway also provides IoT device-management capabilities when running the Device Cloud agent. As an integrated and validated component of the Intel IoT Gateway, the Device Cloud agent enables cloud connectivity to facilitate remote device management from deployment to decommissioning. For example, an IT professional in Houston can remotely deploy, manage, and secure IoT devices on an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico to monitor various aspects of the rigs operations. These capabilities help ease management burdens and costs by enabling remote diagnostic and maintenance capabilities, in addition to providing the means to enable a comprehensive security strategy that covers application and data security.

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Wind River Helix Device Cloud*

Device Cloudconsole

Application andpatch repository

Intel IoT Gateway

Protocoltranslation

SAP EdgeServices

Device Cloudagent

IoT sensor 1

IoT sensor 2

IoT sensor N

Actuators

Cloud or on-premises data processing

SAP Leonardo IoTFoundation, SAP

Cloud Platform, andSAP HANA platform

Storage

Figure 2. The Intel IoT Gateway running SAP Edge Services and managed by Wind River Helix Device Cloud* provides edge processing and IoT device-lifecycle capabilities

Wind River Helix Device Cloud* Simplifies IoT-Device ManagementWhile SAP Edge Services running on Intel IoT Gateways can help enterprises sift through IoT-generated data, one fact still remains: each connected IoT device is a potential security event waiting to happen. Each device must be monitored, updated, and maintained throughout its lifecycle in the same manner that servers and PCs are managed within the enterprise.

If an IoT device cannot be updated, then it is not secure. As the number of IoT devices deployed continues to grow, so does the security risk if steps are not taken to secure and update these devices. Many IoT devices lack simple management tools, which can make security patches difficult to administer, potentially opening these devices to attack.

Device Cloud provides a cloud-based platform for managing IoT devices, IoT sensors, and Intel IoT Gateways throughout their entire lifecycles. The platform lets these devices connect securely through an Intel IoT Gateway connection to a web-based console that provides device monitoring and management capabilities. By providing a unified view of device health and status, Device Cloud helps relieve the burden of managing, monitoring, and securing IoT devices and gateways.

The typical IoT device-management lifecycle consists of six stages: deploy, monitor, service, manage, update, and decommission (see Figure 3).

At each stage of their lifecycles, IoT devices and even Intel IoT Gateways must be monitored, tracked, patched, and maintained to keep them efficient and secure.

Device DeploymentIn a traditional deployment model, devices deployed to locations with on-site IT staff can be quickly provisioned with little overhead. But what about instances where IoT deviceswhether they are

sensors or Intel IoT Gatewaysmust be deployed to a difficult-to-reach remote location, such as an oil rig? When an IoT device is deployed to a remote location, the device must be provisioned with the correct software, authenticated as a trusted device, and configured for the specific duties that it will perform. With the Device Cloud console, the IT staff has access to a unified view of the devices IoT deployment, in addition to the tools the staff needs to quickly and securely deploy IoT devices once they are connected at a remote location.

The Intel IoT Gateway can also help ease deployment burdens. Each Intel IoT Gateway contains a unique ID that can be used within the Device Cloud ecosystem to automatically identify the gateway when it is powered up, essentially making the device part of a Device Cloud solution with little to no manual intervention. When the gateway is placed on a network, it will automatically connect with Device Cloud to receive predefined deployment instructions. Once configured, the Intel IoT Gateway can then be used for edge processing and IoT device-management tasks.

Device MonitoringThe health of thousands of IoT devices in critical applications, such as assembly-line quality control or equipment monitoring, can be difficult to manage without a centralized view. IoT administrators can monitor the health and status of any device from the Device Cloud console (see Figure 4). The console also provides tools to create and customize proactive and predictive device alerts that can provide warnings when specific criteria, such as outdated software patch levels or imminent hardware failures, are met.

Device ServiceIn many instances, a non-responsive IoT device requires a technician be dispatched to a remote location to diagnose the problem. When devices are contained within close proximity to a technical team, this is easy to do. But if a device is in a remote location, dispatching a technician is slow and costly.

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Deploy

Manage

Update

Decommission

Service

Monitor

Figure 3. Wind River Helix Device Cloud* helps IT professionals manage devices throughout the devices entire lifecycles

Device Cloud provides tools to remotely troubleshoot and service IoT devices. A technician can remotely access an IoT device to perform diagnostics and, if possible, repair the device (see Figure 5). For example, Device Cloud provides remote logon capabilities that give technicians access to the command-line shell where they can run commands directly on the device. If a technician is alerted to an IoT device that isnt performing optimally, the technician might need to view active processes on an IoT device to determine if one process is using too much CPU time or memory. The Device Cloud console lets the technician easily launch a command-line shell and run the commands required to view this information.

Technicians also might need to update configuration files or download log files. Device Cloud provides the ability to send and retrieve files from IoT devices, which gives technicians a better toolbox for troubleshooting issues and keeping IoT devices up to date.

Device ManagementThroughout an IoT devices lifecycle, any changes to the devices configuration, location, or other properties must be tracked and audited. Device Cloud gives IoT administrators the tools they need to keep track of any changes made to a device, such as device name or physical location.

Device Cloud also integrates mapping functionality to display the locations of managed IoT devices. If a device transmits its location using Global Positioning System (GPS) data or Wi-Fi network information, Device Cloud automatically updates the devices position on the map, and it can also use manually entered latitude and longitude coordinates to show devices locations.

Device UpdatesIoT devices and gateways require regular firmware or software updates to address new security threats or add new functionalities. Software updates might include changes to the operating systems themselves. When deploying firmware over-the-air (FOTA) or software over-the-

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Figure 5. Wind River Helix Device Cloud* gives IT administrators the ability to perform remote diagnostics and administration actions on IoT devices

Figure 4. Wind River Helix Device Cloud* consoles device view lets IT administrators review and track device-specific information

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air (SOTA) updates, IoT administrators need the capability to roll back an update if the update fails. Device Cloud helps administrators solve these issues by providing comprehensive software-update, management, and rollback capabilities. IoT administrators can create update packages that contain specific instructions and update files. They can then test the update packages to verify that they work, and the administrators can publish the packages to any number of IoT devices.

When a package is published to devices, Device Cloud provides an update status for each device. IoT administrators can monitor the progress for each device and take any action necessary, such as an update rollback, should an update fail on a particular device.

Device Cloud also launches the install of SAP Edge Services onto Intel IoT Gateways, which helps simplify the management of the SAP software.

Device Decommission and RedeploymentDevices might need to be decommissioned for several reasons: failures, hardware/device refreshes, and even as a response to a security incident. Once an IoT device or gateway is ready to be retired, Device Cloud provides the tools to remove sensitive information, such as certificates, credentials, or data generated by SAP Edge Services. IT administrators can then restore the device to its original software and operating-system configuration. This functionality is key in maintaining a remote devices security.

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Enable a More Intelligent IoT ArchitectureIoT solutions are better when combined with Intel, SAP, and Wind River. Together, they provide a complete and scalable IoT strategy that eases management and data-aggregation capabilities in both small and large IoT deployments. By providing comprehensive edge-data analysis tools running on a ruggedized hardware platform that can be remotely managed, the combined solution of SAP Edge Services, the Intel IoT Gateway, and Wind River Helix Device Cloud* lets organizations harness the promise of IoT while keeping the management of IoT sustainable.

For more information about how your organization can benefit from a comprehensive IoT solution, contact your Intel, SAP, or Wind River sales representative.

Additional Information SAP Leonardo sap.com/iot

Intel IoT Gateway intel.com/content/www/us/en/embedded/solutions/iot-gateway/overview.html

Wind River Helix Device Cloud windriver.com/products/helix/device-cloud/

1 Planned functionality, subject to change

Cost reduction scenarios described are intended as examples of how a given Intel- based product, in the specified circumstances and configurations, may affect future costs and provide cost savings. Circumstances will vary. Intel does not guarantee any costs or cost reduction.

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