The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) and the OpenFog Consortium (OpenFog), the largest international consortia in the industrial internet-of-things (IoT) and edge computing markets, have agreed to combine as one organisation.
They said the timing is apt, as their areas of technology are complementary, crossing-over, and increasingly mainstream.
“Their memberships will continue to drive the momentum of the industrial internet, including the development of industry guidance and best practices for fog and edge computing, they said. They expect to finalise the arrangement in early 2019.
Bill Hoffman, president of the IIC, said: “The IIC, now incorporating OpenFog, will be the single largest organisation focused on IIoT, AI, fog and edge computing in the world.
“Between both of our organisations we have a remarkable global presence with members in more than 30 countries. This agreement will help accelerate the adoption of the IIoT, fog and edge computing.”
Matt Vasey, chairman and president of OpenFog, and director of AI and IoT business development at Microsoft, commented: “We’re excited by the growth and advancement of fog technologies–from a technology, standards and general awareness standpoint—since our launch nearly three years ago.
“During that time, it has increasingly become apparent that we share so much synergy with the efforts of the IIC that it just made sense to bring the two consortia together. The resulting combination of memberships, resources and shared knowledge will only further the growth of the technologies, including fog, which will support IIoT ecosystems.”
For a look at the differences between multi-access edge computing, edge computing and fog computing, check out this informative piece from Mike Krell, Head of IoT Strategy, James Brehm & Associates, on our sister site, RCR Wireless.
