Plat'Home Co., Ltd. announced the launch of global version of OpenBlocks® IoT VX2, an intelligent gateway compatible with Microsoft Azure IoT Edge. OpenBlocks® IoT VX2 is a gateway product with the high functionality and reliability required for the actual operation of the IoT system. This product is the latest model of OpenBlocks® Family for IoT purposes. OpenBlocks® has so far exceeded 100,000 units in cumulative shipments, and has been widely adopted for social infrastructures, and has earned the high reputation and trust by the customers including telecommunications carriers. OpenBlocks® IoT VX2 is equipped with Plat'Home’s powerful IoT Gateway Software called "FW3.1", which can respond flexibly to the need of intelligent IoT together with Microsoft Azure. The need is expected to expand significantly in various countries around the world. OpenBlocks® IoT VX2 Features: Plat'Home IoT Gateway Software FW3.1 - FW3.1 is equipped with Plat'Home Data Handling Module System (PDHMS) which is a message handling system supporting flexible and high-speed communication between the device and the cloud. PDHMS is a system designed to realize inter-process communication flexibly and at high speed between application modules inside the IoT Gateway. It enables implementation of application modules of various functions on the edge side, realizing flexible and high performance IoT edge computing. PDHMS supports multi-devices and multi-clouds and is capable of responding flexibly to a variety of the customer’s IoT system need. Docker support: FW3.1 supports the Docker Container as a standard. It can build and operate a scalable and seamless IoT system throughout the operational environment by supporting Docker, which can develop, release and execute cross-platform applications regardless of edge or cloud. Microsoft Azure IoT Edge support: FW3.1 supports Azure IoT Edge which is an intelligent edge offering of Microsoft Azure. Azure IoT Edge manages and deploys applications from the cloud to run them locally on the FW3.1. By using Azure IoT Edge, the customer can use various intelligent services such as Azure Machine Learning (AML), Azure Artificial Intelligence (AI), Azure Stream Analytics (ASA), Azure Functions etc. which are provided by Microsoft Azure. Also, Azure IoT Edge can be also preinstalled to meet requirements from customers under appropriate license from Microsoft. Gateway Management UI: FW3.1 has a Management UI which will be visually manageable. With this Management UI, the customer can connect sensors and devices, access various cloud services, deploy and allocate Docker containers resources, install and monitor Microsoft Azure IoT Edge, and update IoT Edge Runtime Module. Security functions: OpenBlocks® IoT VX2 realizes the security functions and the attack immunity in both software and hardware so that it can withstand the deployment and security operation in the actual environment. By default, Secure Boot is supported, and the hardware is also equipped with TPM 2.0 as a hardware security module (HSM). This realizes secure operation that can cope with the situation where the gate is deployed massively in the actual environment. Service Subscription: To support long-term operation of this product, Plat’Home will provide annual subscription services. The customers who subscribe to the service can receive support for the product over the long term, together with the notice at the time of version upgrade. In the future, additional supplementary services such as SaaS type service for integrated remote management of the IoT gateway will be added. The product comes fully equipped with hardware performance and interfaces required for IoT edge computing, including a high-performance 64-bit CPU (1.33 GHz dual core), high capacity built-in storage (32 GB) and high capacity RAM (2 GB), in addition to two Ethernet ports. OpenBlocks® IoT VX2 comes with pre-integrated Plat'Home IoT Gateway Software "FW3.1." offering that fully supports intelligent IoT edge computing including sensor, device and various cloud service connectivity settings, Docker container deployment and allocation resource setting as well as Microsoft Azure IoT Edge Monitoring and Runtime updates via visually operable Management UI. Additionally, it facilitates direct data communication between Plat’Home Gateway Data Handling Module System (PDHMS) and Azure IoT Edge enabling data collection from the IoT device and bidirectional communication with the cloud. It also adds near-real-time data analysis capability closer to IoT leaf devices to enrich big data analytics performed in the cloud. The system architecture is designed to enable flexible and high-speed inter-process communication of application modules inside an IoT Gateway. Application modules with various functions can be installed on the edge side, thereby ensuring flexible edge computing. In order to support the long-term operation of OpenBlocks® IoT VX2, a subscription service on an annual basis is available. This subscription service offers long-term software update notifications and support for product usage in order to constantly maintain systems that use OpenBlocks® IoT VX2.