Realize Digital Transformation from the Edge to the Core with SAP Leonardo and Dell

“The biggest threat to innovation is internal politics and an organizational culture, which does not accept failure and/or doesn’t accept ideas from outside, and/or cannot change.”

(Source: Gartner, Innovation Survey, July 2017)

The Internet of Things (IoT) began moving toward mainstream adoption in 2016 for many industries, according to the findings of a survey by Gartner. The number of organizations adopting IoT grown 50 percent in 2016, reaching 43 percent of organizations overall. In total, 64 percent of organizations plan to eventually implement IoT.

First SAP-certified IoT Edge Device

Together with the SAP IoT Team, and now with the new SAP Leonardo Team, Dell is bringing both worlds together to introduce the first SAP-certified Dell Leonardo IoT Gateway Edge Device at SAP Leonardo Live this week in Frankfurt, Germany.  SAP Leonardo is the newest digital innovation system by SAP offering design thinking methodology to help customers rapidly develop new capabilities and accelerate their digital transformation.

Combining the Leonardo-certified Dell IoT Gateway with SAP Solutions, our joint customers are now able to integrate IoT Edge devices in minutes, not hours or days, and allows them to quickly design and deploy new business models.

SAP Leonardo Edge Platform

Dell chose the SAP Leonardo Edge Platform because it offers a complete range of solutions to connect things with people and then process the information with real-time intelligence. The deployment of Edge Services is the Edge Platform component of the SAP Cloud Platform, a software package that extends the SAP Cloud Platform to the edge and provides services like:

  • support for a wide variety of IoT protocol adapters
  • native integration with SAP Cloud Platform and SAP backend systems like SAP S/4HANA
  • deployment and lifecycle management for edge services
  • secure communication channels and isolation

Because this edge platform software stack can be deployed on the physical gateway or in the cloud. Functionality provided by the services can be made available where it is most suitable for the customers. This Edge Platform is implemented in java and extends the standardized OSGI platform which allows for deployment on virtually any hardware and operating system.

SAP Leonardo – IoT Gateway Edge Certification

The IoT service connects devices to the SAP Cloud Platform to provide scalable incorporation of IoT data and device management. The corresponding services provide a secure connection to remote devices using a broad range of IoT protocols and manage the device lifecycle from onboarding to decommissioning.

The service collects and processes sensor data at scale already at the edge or in the cloud and stores it on the SAP Cloud Platform for use by other applications. Moreover, the service provides a multi-tenant architecture allowing role-based access to device data through easy-to-use APIs.

The IoT Gateway provides adapters for network convergence and syntactic protocol normalization. It acts as a virtual gateway that brings devices and assets online, managing the connectivity with devices according to the specific communication protocol that the devices implement. The Gateway component is responsible for collecting data from a sensor and sending commands to the network on behalf of other Internet of Things Core Service modules.

As early as 2015, Dell started investing in this market and producing its own Dell IoT Gateways.  Dell now brings 30+ years of IT knowledge and 15 years of customizing Dell technology for OT environments through OEM and over 50 partners providing OT expertise.

Certified Dell IoT Edge Devices

Dell Edge Gateways tested and validated, pre-configured and pre-installed with SAP Leonardo Edge software.

  • Dell Edge Gateway Series 3000
  • Dell Edge Gateway Series 5000
  • Dell Embedded PC 5000

Simplifying and Accelerating the Digital Transformation Journey with SAP

As one of the earliest supporters of SAP HANA in-memory computing, Dell continues to provide best-of-breed performance for SAP landscapes enabling customers to go from the Edge, through the Fog and up to the Cloud with everything pre-configured, pre-installed and certified/validated by SAP. For special requirements, Dell offers Ready Nodes, Ready Bundles and Ready Systems – everything needed and expected from customers.

To learn more about the Dell infrastructure foundation for SAP Leonardo, visit Dell at SAP Leonardo Live this week in Frankfurt.

About the Author: Gunther Manz

As a member of the Dell EMC Ready Solutions & Alliances Group, Gunther leads our technical partnership with SAP which includes identifying new product solutions as well as developing co-innovations with SAP. With more than 20 years of technology expertise, he is driving and supporting the digital transformation for our mutual customers.