Siemens To Buy Container-Based Edge Platform From Pixeom

Siemens said it plans to buy Intel-backed startup Pixeom’s edge computing platform, a move that will help the German industrial giant embrace container technology to make it easier to run edge applications in factories.

A spokesperson for Siemens told CRN that the acquisition, which was announced Thursday, includes Pixeom's assets and employees but not the business itself. Siemens declined to disclose the financial terms of the deal, which is expected to close by December.

The company said Pixeom's edge computing platform "will be at the heart" of its future Siemens Industrial Edge ecosystem, which it described as an open ecosystem that enables companies to create and manage edge applications with ease to analyze data in factory environments. Enabling an open ecosystem for applications and devices from different manufactures is a key component, according to the company.

Once the acquisition closes, Pixeom's edge computing platform will become a part of Siemens' Factory Automation business, which is part of the Siemens Digital Industries division that the company's MindSphere IoT platform is a part of.

"Cutting edge technologies such as edge computing open up new scope for Automation. With Siemens Industrial Edge, we are creating an open edge ecosystem which offers benefits for companies of any size," Ralf-Michael Franke, CEO of Siemens Factory Automation, said in a statement.

One of Pixeom's key capabilities is the ability to package, deploy and orchestrate cloud applications on commodity hardware through containerization, giving companies the ability to run these types of applications on edge and on-premises servers without the need for any specific hardware configuration.

The startup, which has offices in San Jose, Calif. and Udaipur, India, has touted this ability to extend cloud applications to the edge through containerization as a way to accelerate development, build smarter applications and make it easier to run a large-scale, geographically distributed infrastructure.