Nokia drops new industry 4.0 apps

Kit vendor Nokia has launched four third-party apps on Nokia MX Industrial Edge, designed to offer all sorts of handy things in smart industry settings.

‘Asset-heavy industries’ – which presumably means something along the lines of lots of physical machinery or equipment – can ‘accelerate their digital transformation’ and benefit most from Nokia’s OT edge ecosystem-neutral approach, we’re told. The new apps also leverage the GPU capability on Nokia MXIE, an on-premises OT edge offering.

In terms of what the four new apps do, Atos Computer Vision – Quality Inspector uses machine learning to detect defects, foreign objects, anomalies, or incorrect setups with real time video analytics, while Crosser is an industry focussed low code streaming analytics and integration platform which provides a selection of pre-built modules and connectors to build analysis tools.

Litmus Edge is designed to make it easier to set up asset monitoring, anomaly detection, energy consumption, forecasting, and predictive maintenance, while Palo Alto Networks Next-Gen Firewall uses AI and ML to counter advanced cyber threats.

They’re being introduced as part of a tie up with IT infrastructure services provider Kyndryl. Earlier this year the two firms signed a new three-year agreement to collaborate on LTE and 5G private wireless services, Industry 4.0 offerings, and a new partner innovation lab.

“These new applications unlock operational technology data from their silos while maintaining data security and privacy, which asset-heavy, mission-critical environments require for digital transformation,” said Stephan Litjens, Vice President of Enterprise Solutions at Nokia. “As we continue to expand the Nokia Industrial Application Catalog and work with leading software vendors and cloud providers, our ecosystem-neutral approach for MXIE means enterprises can choose best-of-breed applications to support a range of industrial use cases. This ultimately improves efficiency, worker safety and sustainability in our customers’ operations.”

Chris McReynolds, Vice President, Offering Management, Network and Edge Practice at Kyndryl, added: “We are pleased to expand our partnership with Nokia by integrating some of our customers’ mission-critical applications – Litmus Edge and Palo Alto Next Gen Firewall – on the Nokia MX Industrial Edge. Advanced IIoT edge platforms that facilitate a holistic view of enterprise-wide data, along with advanced security, are fundamental to enterprises who are seeking to accelerate their digital transformation to meet Industry 4.0 standards and create maximum business value.”

Elsewhere, Altice Portugal has signed Nokia as equipment provider for its 5G core mobile network and transition to a cloud-based network, citing ‘greater levels of security’ as the clincher, reports Reuters, which also notes this signals the end of Huawei’s efforts to enter the market though there has been no ban in Portugal.

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