ADLINK Technology, one of the leading global providers of cloud-based services, intelligent gateways, and embedded building blocks for devices that enable the Internet of Things (IoT), announced that all its up and coming embedded boards and systems will include a unified board management controller (BMC) and the latest SEMA (Smart Embedded Management Agent) technology, enabling them for data exchange with the cloud.
ADLINK Technology, one of the leading global providers of cloud-based services, intelligent gateways, and embedded building blocks for devices that enable the Internet of Things (IoT), announced that all its up and coming embedded boards and systems will include a unified board management controller (BMC) and the latest SEMA (Smart Embedded Management Agent) technology, enabling them for data exchange with the cloud. ADLINK's SEMA Cloud allows users to securely monitor system status, diagnose problems, and handle system management tasks from anywhere at any time over the Internet.
The Internet of Things (IoT) approach takes today's intelligent middleware a step further than previous generations of remote management technology. By employing cloud server architecture and an M2M (machine-to-machine) stack as part of the SEMA Cloud solution, embedded devices can be connected to the cloud without additional design requirements.
SEMA Cloud provides the entire infrastructure, including the client application that gathers local data on the device and pushes it securely to the cloud. SEMA Cloud also includes the cloud server which is set up to store and process this data, as well as the application to remotely monitor, control and configure the devices.
With SEMA Cloud, users can remotely monitor power supply voltage, CPU temperature, fan rotation speed and other significant data to determine whether the system is operating within normal parameters and if preventive measures should be taken to avoid disruption of service.
SEMA's alarm and event creation feature allows users to define alarm thresholds for several types of data, such as system voltage, CPU temperature or fan rotation speed. The threshold configurations are stored locally on the client to guarantee reactions very close to real-time. If any user-defined limits are reached, an alarm will be issued via SMS text message or email, and SEMA can even be setup to take direct action to prevent failure of the system. This is one way SEMA Cloud goes beyond existing remote management technology to provide proactive maintenance capability. In many cases, system malfunctions can be resolved by simply restarting or reconfiguring the device.
SEMA Cloud also provides remote diagnosis and troubleshooting functionality for system users or operators located at a distance, allowing them to rescue or repair systems without making a physical visit to field devices. If the system or any module is powered down in a failure, the BMC circuitry will still remain active and produce a forensic report on the cause of the failure.
These compelling features help to prevent or eliminate system downtime and reduce the workload of field service technicians and related personnel resource demands, therefore enhancing the reliability of the entire system and reducing maintenance and repair costs. The TCO (total cost of ownership) benefits are especially significant in large scale systems, such as those for traffic management and monitoring or urban security surveillance, when a great number of controllers and related peripheral devices are deployed in the field over wide area.
In mission-critical application scenarios such as transportation, aviation, power plants, electrical grids and other utilities, or high-tech manufacturing facilities, an unexpected system shutdown could result in great economic damage or even human loss. ADLINK's SEMA Cloud device-to-cloud solution can help to detect and solve problems in connected devices before they get out of hand, is ideally suited to serve a wide range of embedded solution customers across many different vertical markets, and makes our customers' solutions more secure, reliable and intelligent.
ADLINK IPCs or embedded systems built in with SEMA Cloud can serve as an ideal gateway or platform for the Internet of Things applications. It enables the connectivity of legacy industrial devices and other systems to the IoT, extracts raw data from these devices, determines which data to save and which to send to the could for further analyses, and the results of data analyses can provide valuable information for policy decision making and generate innovative business opportunities.
The newest SEMA Cloud 2.3 version is available now, with support of the latest-generation embedded processing architectures from Intel®, AMD and ARM, including Intel's next-generation 14 nm platform and 2nd Generation AMD Embedded R-Series APU (formerly codenamed "Bald Eagle”). In addition, SEMA Cloud 2.3 supports multiple operating systems, including VxWorks and Windows Compact.