Cisco and SAS Institute develop IoT 'on-the-edge' platform
Cisco and the SAS Institute are integrating the former’s unified computing system with the latter’s analytics to create an edge-to-enterprise internet of things analytics platform. The new software will offer analytics for networks based on volume, latency and velocity requirements. The platform will offer data processing remotely from data centres to enable analytics can be carried out using systems on the edge. SAS CTO Oliver Schabenberger said: “We cannot afford to wait and activate data in IoT in the [data centre]. Analytics needs to be ambient. If there is data at the edge, there needs to be analytics on the edge.”
ORLANDO – SAS Institute Inc. and Cisco Systems, Inc. are combining Cisco’s Unified Computing System and SAS’ Analytics to create an Edge-to-Enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) Analytics platform. It will help organizations with the application of analytic software at different layers of a network based on its volume, velocity, and latency requirements.

This new partnership centers around the idea that IoT data will not always be processed at the data centre, but through devices with computing power on the edge. Not every organization is able to make use of the data gathered on the edge – this platform will help those organizations piece together those results in order to gather analysis from IoT data that otherwise may have gone unattended.

“It’s impractical to send all the data to a data centre for processing. It will have to happen on the edge.” said SAS CTO Oliver Schabenberger at the company’s Global Forum event. “We cannot afford to wait and activate data in IoT in the [data centre]. Analytics needs to be ambient. If there is data at the edge, there needs to be analytics on the edge.”

The platform pushes the analytics to the edge, analyzing the data collected on the spot. To do so, it uses the Cisco 829 Industrial Integrated Services Router (ISR), which has its own computing power, allowing analytics to be pushed directly to the place where the data is being collected, eliminating the need for that data to be sent to the data centre for processing. This allows for more immediate results.

Ultimately it allows for options. Relevant data sets picked up on the edge can be sent to the data centre or cloud to be added to already collected enterprise data. There it will update current analytic models with fresh ones based off of said data collected at the edge. From there it can be “deployed in the cloud or back to the edge.”

“By working together, Cisco and SAS enhance the value of streaming data for all kinds of applications including customer experience, asset performance, and fraud scenarios. The combination gives our customers control and helps them remain agile,” said Raghunath Nambiar, CTO of Cisco’s unified computing systems group.

So far the industries highlighted by SAS who have been the most interested so far are the mining and energy sectors – two industries with similar infrastructure. Companies in both sectors have deployed a significant amount of equipment with IoT sensors, and are looking to push some of these capabilities.

And this is just the beginning for SAS. While not offering too much information, the company did say that it has something very similar cooking up with Intel.

The Cisco SAS Edge-to-Enterprise IoT Analytics platform is available as of Apr. 1.