Cloudera, Inc., the modern platform for machine learning and analytics optimized for the cloud, announced the launch of an end-to-end, open source Internet of Things (IoT) architecture in collaboration with Red Hat and Eurotech. Enterprises now have a modern IoT architecture that is scalable, secure, and technologically advanced without vendor lock-in. 

Organizations that bought into proprietary IoT platforms are finding themselves tied to limited functionality, locked into a particular vendor, and unable to scale. Enterprises have had to piece together multiple vendors' solutions, manage all of the complexities of integration, and deal with security risks of the patchwork, only to end up with incompatible connectivity, a rigid architecture from black box solutions, and minimal interoperability. These setbacks cause businesses to miss out on technological advances such as machine learning, real-time decision-making, and cloud/hybrid flexibility.

Cloudera with Red Hat, the world's leading provider of open source software solutions, and Eurotech, a long-time leading provider of industrial embedded hardware, have collaborated to develop an end-to-end architecture that is based on open standards and is integrated, flexible and runs on multi- or hybrid-cloud environments. This architecture is designed to provide the foundational components that organizations need to quickly and securely roll out IoT use cases.

This modular architecture also features end-to-end data management and analytics capabilities, including the ability to push machine learning and intelligence back out to the ‘edge' for real-time decision making. From onboarding and managing connected devices or ‘things,' to enabling protocol translation and performing analytics at the edge; from delivering real-time analytics and machine learning on IoT data to accelerating application development cycles, and enabling integration with enterprise applications, the architecture enables enterprises to accelerate their IoT deployments while ensuring end-to-end data security and compliance.

"Early adopters that locked themselves into siloed, proprietary IoT platforms are now finding themselves with rigid, limited functionality that no longer meets their needs. They are beginning to realize the value that can be achieved from a more open and modular architecture that allows them to integrate the capabilities they need to adapt as they scale and innovate," said Dave Shuman, Industry Leader for IoT at Cloudera. "Some of the world's largest enterprises have already turned to Cloudera to support the cutting edge of IoT innovation, the scalability of machine learning, and the freedom of a hybrid-cloud environment."

The modular IoT architecture also offers enterprises the freedom to run in the cloud and/or on premises, enabling portability of data and applications and eliminating dependence on a single proprietary cloud vendor. Its built-in security features enable analytics from the edge to the cloud.  

"Open standards and interoperability, already important to helping solve IoT connectivity and data integration issues, are even more important as enterprises face the challenge of more efficiently delivering more secure and scalable IoT solutions in hybrid and multi-cloud environments," said Jered Floyd, Technology Strategist, Office of the CTO at Red Hat. "With the launch of this end-to-end architecture with Cloudera and Eurotech, we are helping IoT customers address that challenge while enabling cloud-provider choice."

This combination of technology from three open source leaders brings together operations technology (OT), information technology (IT), data analytics, and application integration and is built on key open source projects and innovations from the Eclipse Foundation and the Apache Software Foundation.

The end-to-end integrated architecture consists of:

• Intelligent IoT edge stack with Eurotech Everyware Software Framework (ESF) and Red Hat middleware to support device connectivity, data ingestion and control, intelligent routing, and enable analytics at the edge
• IoT integration hub with Eurotech Everyware Cloud (EC) and Red Hat middleware running on OpenShift Container Platform, to effectively onboard and manage connected disparate devices, enable access control and authentication, control the operational flow of data downstream, and operate distributed container-based IoT applications
• Data management and analytics platform, based on Cloudera Enterprise, for IoT data processing, persistent storage, analytics, and machine learning to enable deeper business insights and actionable intelligence
• Application development and delivery environment for development, deployment, and integration of cloud-native applications enabled by Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform
  

This end-to-end architecture has applicability across a number of industry verticals and enables customers to easily and effectively deploy a wide variety of IoT use cases including industrial IoT, real-time asset monitoring, predictive maintenance, connected vehicles, smart cities etc.

"The need for an IoT solution is increasingly complex. No single vendor can provide all the operations technology, information technology, data analytics, and application integration that meets the needs of today's platforms," said Giuseppe Surace, Chief Product and Marketing Officer at Eurotech. "Eurotech is partnering with Cloudera and Red Hat to provide an architecture that enables simpler and faster use of data from IoT devices."